Numbers of homeless students increasing

November 4, 2008 • Maddie Dunkelberg  
Filed under News

If we were to look at our students, we would not be able to point out the homeless students, but recent statistics have shown us that there are plenty.

“I went to a homeless workshop two years ago and I was stunned by the number of homeless,” said Summit guidance counselor Debbie McKeown.  

Five years have passed since this district began counting its homeless students. 

During the 2003-2004 school year, two percent of students in our district were homeless and the precentage has increased to nearly four percent of enrollment.  

 

 

 

Bend La-Pine schools total 15,837 students—at least 624 have been identified as homeless. Of those 624, 184 attend high school, and 95 are runaways or foster care recipients.  421—the majority of the students identified—share housing.  

The government recently expanded the definition of homelessness, which may account for the increase. 

 “It used to be if you were couch surfing, camping,” said Summit’s FAN representative Chrissi Wright.  Now, those living in hotels or motels, shelters, cars or any public place, living with a friend for one day or more during the school year, or families sharing housing with another family are considered homeless.  

Wright calls the shared housing aspect “touchy culturally” and “subjective”—not all of these cases are due to financial strain.

Still, the number of homeless students has simply risen.  Lately, it is all too common for families who are renting to suddenly find themselves without a home when their landlords face foreclosure.  

“I think it’s part of a bigger issue right now where everybody’s hurting,” said Wright, “Non-profits are running out of months worth of money in the first week…there’s more and more need out there, there’s less money for things like band instruments,” making it hard for homeless students to do what they love.

One of those non-profit organizations, the Family Access Network (FAN), ensures that families obtain the materials required to function in school.  When a student is identified as homeless, FAN immediately provides them with free food, clothes, safe housing if possible—the necessities.  A full quarter of our school’s population benefits from the free or reduced lunch program.  

Students often have trouble accessing the resources or feel embarrassed to request them.  For that reason, many choose to go through the counselors, with whom they feel more comfortable.  

McKeown and Wright agree that identification concerns our school specifically.  McKeown explained that here, most homeless students want their situation to be kept secret.  

“Which makes it hard to serve them, because teachers don’t know,” said Wright.  “People work hard to blend in here…they say things like, ‘everyone here is rich!’”  

McKeown said she served a girl last year who “looked 100% like everyone else.” According to McKeown, situations like these occur frequently.  

Bend high also has huge population of homeless students, but Wright said that the homeless are less camouflaged and they view it  as “more acceptable” than at we do.

Wright believes that our community’s awareness of the situation is fine, but we have an inaccurate picture of what being homeless means.  “It’s not that people aren’t compassionate,” McKeown said.  

Wright added,  “I think people picture homeless people as the panhandlers that they see on the corner,” but so many are children, so many were victims of a domestic violence situation who “literally just drove away…they don’t have any money, they don’t have any clothes,” said Wright.  She wants people to know that “the obstacles that these people face are so beyond not having ‘stuff’”.  

McKeown said that most teachers do not fully understand that they have homeless students in their classes who are lacking in resources.  “I have been really bothered that our school system does so much online…our kids that our homeless don’t have computers!” 

Wright frowns upon those who expect these students to find a way do this work when they don’t have the money or the time.  “Like everyone lives within walking distance of the public library.”  

Last year during the winter, McKeown went to deliver food to the homeless students.  “I was amazed that they ever get here sometimes,” she said; when so many live out in the woods and have to trudge through snow just to reach a bus stop.  “I came back from there and I said, everyone who is in education needs to do it.”  The homeless issue is bigger than we know, although we may hear about it.  “When you see it, it’s a whole different thing.”