It almost feels like I can’t go a couple of days without talking about
the homeless. Fairfax County’s public schools are likely to see more than 2,500
homeless students by the end of this school year. This is an impressive number
for Fairfax County, which contains some affluent communities. T. Rees Sharpiro
wrote an article on it for the Washington Post over the weekend.
Experts claim the increase in homelessness among students from
kindergarten to high school is the after effects of the recession. Fun numbers
fact, this year’s total of 2,500 students is 10 times the number of homeless
students in Fairfax 15 years ago. Sharpiro says, “At least 400 of those
students are ‘unaccompanied youths’ who live without parents or guardians,
another record, school officials say.”
Personally, that sounds low to me, but I
supposed they get to drop any kids who drop out from the official count.
Naturally, the schools are having trouble keeping up with the challenges from
the communities.
As previously mentioned, the Washington, DC area is home to some of the
nation’s most wealthy and most impoverished communities. Montgomery County has
825 homeless students enrolled in public schools last year. DC had 2,946
homeless students in their public and charter schools last year.
Of course Fairfax County starkly demonstrates the inequity with a median
household income of more than $100,000 and more than 47,000 students eligible
for free and reduced lunches (this is being used as a measure of poverty). That
is an increase of 38% since 20008. Bananas.
According to Project HOPE Virginia, the number of homeless students in
Virginia grew by 58% between 2005 and 2011. Patricia Popp, the state
coordinator for Project HOPE Virginia says, “The numbers in Virginia have
consistently gone up, and they show no signs of slowing down. This really is a
serious, serious concern for schools and families.”
Sharpiro includes some quotes from homeless students traveling from
shelter to shelter with families. All of these are seriously depressing with a shout
out to low-wage non-union employment, holler Target.
Fairfax public schools have a homeless student liaison, Kathi Sheffel.
Her office aims to provide parents with transportation options to help get
children to school when families have moved into shelters or other temporary
homes. Sheffel says, “We recognize that for families with housing problems,
school may be the only stable thing for these kids. We’re sure that getting
homeless kids a good education will keep them from becoming homeless adults.”
That’s optimistic. The Department of Education estimates there are more
than 1 million homeless students nationwide. This is attributed to, like the
rise in homelessness across the board, to the Great Recession and the housing
crisis. Michigan was hit hard, and the homeless student population grew by 64%
between 2008 and 2011 according to the National Center for Homeless Education.
The federal government spends about $60 million on programs for homeless
students.
Fairfax County provides access to organizations like Alternative House,
which provides supplemental assistance for homeless teenagers without
guardians. Judith Dittman, the executive director of the Vienna-based
Alternative House says, “We were finding an increasing number of these kids who
couldn’t work enough hours to keep a roof over their heads, so they dropped out
of school. Nobody wants to see these kids sleeping on the street. No matter how
bad the economy is, we don’t want to see 17-year-olds sleeping in the doorways
at libraries.”
To be honest, I’m not convinced that the collective “we” doesn’t want
homeless kids sleeping in doorways. The conservative right panic last week that
programs to help the poor received increased funding during the last four years
should indicate exactly what we think about the poor. Or actually, don’t think
about the poor.
Imagine my surprise when Mittens threw out that “more women in poverty”
line about President Obama. Well, yeah. More people are in poverty now than
since the Great Depression. But these women must be the deserving poor because
they can’t be those violence encouraging single mothers. Oh, I know how you can
tell the difference, skin tone. Mittens and the conservatives are pushing the
same old garbage myths about the “welfare queen,” poor black mothers are bad
and expose their children to violence.
Essentially, when you subscribe to the religion of self-reliance the way
so many US citizens buy into it you get homeless kids. Actually, you get
homeless people. There shouldn’t be homeless children, but there shouldn’t be
homeless people either. We have the resources to help
them, but we choose not to.
