Could homeless parents have done more for kids?

JOSHUA TREE, Calif. - It started as a child's fort - some plywood and a tin roof on a five-acre desert plot, put together by a homeless boy whose parents had long planned to build a home on the land.

There was one room at first, a place where the boy and his younger sister could play store, said their mother, Mona Kirk. Then the boy wanted a room for himself, she said. His older brother wanted one, too.

Stuffed with mattresses, toys and other furniture, the four-foot-tall fort grew to about 200 square feet. Over time, the family would sleep there occasionally, when they weren't sleeping outside or in a home in town the father cared for.

"His father checked it out to make