For students experiencing homelessness, there are challenges — and help

The number of school-aged children experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia has increased over the past scarce years according to input from the School District and the numbers likely are even higher due to workarounds such as couch surfing and temporary housing Housing insecurity and its related struggles can make school much more hard for these students explained Shani Meacham the vice president of Valley Youth House an organization in Philly committed to helping students experiencing homelessness When you can t think about where you re going to sleep tonight or if you have a roof over your head tonight it s very hard to focus on the subject matter of what s happening in the classroom right she noted Outside factors such as poverty lack of clean clothes and lack of access to food can affect students performance in school and their mental vitality Meacham added During the - school year of children were identified as experiencing homelessness with the number increasing to for the - school year and for the - school year according to the preponderance current input from the School District of Philadelphia Of these numbers a great number of students published a doubled up living arrangement i e sharing housing with another family with a few students unaccompanied or unsheltered The Pa Department of Mentoring s definition of homelessness includes the doubled up designation so that children in all of these situations will receive proper materials reported Dennis Culhane a professor of social approach at the University of Pennsylvania One of the key challenges is transportation and that s the reason that the Department of Mentoring has its own definition for homelessness which includes people who are living in an crisis doubled up situation he explained And the reason for that is that they want to make sure that kids are being made eligible for transportation advocacy to get to the school they re originally from Experiencing homelessness is one of numerous issues schoolchildren in Philadelphia face according to tuition advocacy group Children First Especially when combined with issues such as mental wellness and other financial struggles children can feel especially burdened when also facing housing insecurity The Valley Youth House aims to combat various of these challenges and provide housing for those students and young adults experiencing homelessness stated Alyssa Weinfurtner the director of crisis services for the Philly chapter of the organization We have three houses as well as close to units of what we call rapid rehousing she commented So like tenant-based rental assistance our other housing programs in this office are also housing programs with young people in scattered state apartments throughout the city Weinfurtner explains the effort is unique as it includes the perspectives of other youth who have had similar experiences So we have two peer advocates and two circumstance managers she noted Peer advocates are essentially folks with lived experience of homelessness as a young adult and situation managers may have more professional experience And then we have a supervisor We ve since with outside funding also been able to add an in-house therapist to our group as well to help kind of triage and address mental wellness requirements and provide really low-barrier therapy and mental medical services She reported the Valley Youth House s teams work within nearly schools supporting students with everything from counseling services to re-enrolling if they ve dropped out Challenges beyond housing Weinfurtner announced children experiencing homelessness will often struggle with lower standardized testing scores higher truancy rates and higher suspension rates One of the biggest obstacles children without housing will face is getting to school I think starting with attendance it s really just about getting there to school Weinfurtner declared adding that the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act is a big reservoir in these situations The act pushes for equal educational and operational tools to address the requirements of homeless children and youth This can include accounting for transportation requirements to and from school access to their school of origin or where they may have lived when they were last permanently housed and access to school programs such as after-school sports The act also works to identify homeless children so necessities can be addressed Weinfurtner explained that through the McKinney-Vento Act the Philadelphia school district is able to offer countless of these support That includes assistance with enrollment assistance with uniforms transportation to schools tutoring and other supportive services as well but really trying to remove fences to attendance for young people she commented She explains Valley Youth House and other local organizations provide wraparound services for students needing more guidance than McKinney-Vento can provide Meacham emphasized that numerous of the reasons for poverty can also compound upon difficulties children already experience while struggling with homelessness She mentioned this can negatively impact a learner s mental wellness It is also sometimes the consequence of loss of employment illness chronic illness and or death she reported And so I think that that s the point These are families that could be any of us with a lost paycheck or two And so young people experience it all in various forms So we are seeing an increase in mental fitness concerns Culhane explained families experiencing homelessness will sometimes move to shelters or homes farther from the child s original school He stated these situations and the general toll of homelessness can affect children s mental and physical medical Oftentimes kids end up acting out because they re insecure and they don t really have the kind of structure that would encouragement them as students he mentioned They miss out on peer engagement as well as school and they re often in an milieu that has not been home to them So there s a tremendous amount of instability and that has its own consequences Another issue that may affect how materials are allocated is racial disparity explained DeMarcus Jenkins an assistant professor in the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Program and Practice Of the more than million students across the country who are experiencing homelessness a crucial portion of that is Black families he commented They represent over maybe closer to of families living in homelessness I think it s major to understand that there is a large population of Black families experiencing homelessness and how that also intersects with housing segregation and school segregation and how Black families are often relegated to under-resourced or impoverished schools Jenkins noted He adds McKinney-Vento lacks discussion about race which means there may not be as a great number of targeted support McKinney-Vento does not directly discuss race And I think the absence of talking about race in McKinney-Vento does not allow for solutions that are specific and targeted for specific populations he noted Lasting impacts Jenkins explained children may be less inclined to tell teachers or trusted adults about their experience with homelessness out of fear He revealed this can especially affect Black students Students who experience homelessness are often hesitant to summary that to the school teachers in districts due to fear of being informed to child protective services he explained And there s a long history of Black children being ripped from their parents Meacham mentioned experience with housing insecurity can also create chronic and long-lasting trauma for schoolchildren and young adults who may have been dealing with these challenges for a long time We ve had young people who evidenced up to us when they were and we located out that they spent two years of high school living behind a dumpster because they were afraid to let anybody know she announced So it is a very traumatizing situation and time in a young person s life if they have to experience that and that s why we designed all these methods of tactics for them to get the sponsorship they need and have an entry way into stability for housing There are also disparities in the academic performance of those that experience homelessness Jenkins commented We know that close to of high school students who experience homelessness perform below grade level according to state reading assessments and below grade level in math he reported So we already know that there are these disproportionate outcomes academically We also know that students who experience homelessness are almost five times more likely to not graduate high school Students may also struggle with their mental wellbeing and be unable to participate in beneficial outside programs that can better their lives These things play a role in their ability to engage in the classroom but then also across the school district overall because you often have students who are unable to engage in extracurricular exercises or other pursuits because of the issues that they face at home with housing insecurity he commented Jenkins adds these challenges will also impact children experiencing homelessness throughout their lives So we know from the figures that experiencing homelessness has a direct impact on students long-term well-being specific of their access to high-paying jobs and also their access to social mobility and being able to move themselves and their families out of homelessness he stated The explanation While numbers are rising in current facts part of it is due to increased efforts to identify children experiencing these issues Meacham reported So the number grows she commented But it s not that it s fully a new number The number grows because we re able to fully identify what the difficulty is and when And it s only when you fully identify the issue and really what the need is that you can identify the solutions that are going to help For students still struggling Weinfurtner mentioned the remedy is multifaceted We re really just asking for continued funding to have specific consistency of the services available she disclosed Several of our contracts for this and these partnerships are ending June She explained one of the preponderance essential considerations is maintaining consistent services for these students It s also the consistency of the institution piece for young people that is so key she mentioned They ve had so a great number of disruptions in relationships in their lives and a lot of trust that s been broken so the first step for us is consistently working to rebuild that trust even if it s maybe perceived from fear or stigma She highlights the difficulty of those students who aren t identified as experiencing homelessness but are couch surfing or facing certain other kind of housing insecurity percent of those youth and children are couch surfing doubled up or overcrowded meaning for the majority of them they re not eligible for the Office of Homeless Services housing interventions unless they re entering shelter she commented So it s super crucial to have more homeless-prevention assistance that would be able to address that population She adds much of the aid is only available in dire situations This makes it more arduous for older school children struggling with housing insecurity to rent or find affordable housing Jenkins emphasizes the importance of explicitly extending tools particularly within the McKinney-Vento law as well What ends up happening is schools that are in districts that are already under-resourced or serving higher numbers of students experiencing homelessness don t often have the materials to fully endorsement these students he noted So I think there s also a need for districts to really think differently around school budgets for districts to really consider how they prioritize the requirements of students who are experiencing homelessness in terms of helping to close that gap Weinfurtner disclosed further input and research is key to better assess learner s demands It s really an funding before the situation happens before somebody is on the street or needing to enter shelter she stated We have the figures We know that those folks are there and that s the kind of primary population that we re talking about here How do we intervene It won t only save our city and the locality money It s also better for folks It reduces that danger of trauma Culhane adds addressing housing affordability is also a prime remedy as this the majority directly helps families who are struggling to find a stable living situation The key pool that the greater part very low-income families need is assistance with their housing costs he noted Greater part families who are low income are severely cost-burdened that s a phrase that the federal leadership uses to suggest that they re paying more than half of their income on rent He stated federal housing subsidies are the number one source the regime can provide to reduce homelessness and improve housing stability and affordability However he acknowledges the process of providing these can be tricky as there are often long wait times and difficulty navigating families through available guidance Meacham announced she is hopeful Although there are challenges she disclosed the coordination between the School District of Philadelphia organizations and governing body agencies is encouraging That level of coordination between the systems of understanding and needing to address this issue for the students of Philadelphia I don t think we ve seen it quite to this extent in other areas of initiatives she commented And I think that we can show that this can work if we are aware of an issue and work together to identify a approach The post For students experiencing homelessness there are challenges and help appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY