Rising Rents and Stagnant Wages Are Pushing Homeless Students and Their Teachers into the Same Financial Crisis
Picture this: An eighth-grade classroom is adorned with back-to-school paraphernalia. The banner above the chalkboard calls the pupils “Rising Stars.” The walls are decorated in apples and silly fall photos. The sign on the door says “Welcome.” The one by the window says, “Always Be Yourself.”
Slumped in the chair behind the desk sits Ms. Linda. The ABCs are slathered along the edges of the walls around her, but sometimes she feels like she never learned them.
Ms. Linda did everything she was supposed to do — took out the exorbitant student loans, got the degree in education, spent a few dollars of her own money on supplies some students couldn’t afford.
When times got tough, she took that summer job, teaching again, but this time at the Y, sports and swimming for $15 an hour. Her coworkers are mostly teenagers, students themselves. She’s 45 and earning what they earn.
Lately her teaching salary isn’t enough to keep pace with the ever-rising rental rates. She puts her groceries on a credit card. Her rent is three weeks late. A new report shows 71% of teachers need to take a second job. When salaries are adjusted for inflation, teachers in 2026 make about 5% less than people in the same job just ten years earlier, in an economy where rental rates have risen double digits.
To quote Randi Weingarten of Time Magazine, who is the President of the American Federation of Teachers, “people with the same level of education and experience can make far more doing almost anything other than teaching.”
So, then why does Ms. Linda even bother? She’s doing it because she loves the children.
Meet John, 15, the oldest kid in class because he failed last year, something about sick days or needing time off. His clothes are impeccable. His hair is well-groomed. You’ve never seen a cleaner pair of sneakers. He thinks to himself, “They will never know that I don’t have a stable place to call my home.”
John wanted to make up those poor grades in summer school, but he had a summer job too. Unlike Ms. Linda’s teen coworkers who spent their earnings on Uber Eats, John’s family actually relies on his summer salary. They’ve been living in a hotel room since last year when his dad died suddenly and unexpectedly, a trauma he did not have the luxury to address emotionally. He had to get to work.
While there are some restrictions on students working during the school year, he was able to work a full 40-hour week from June through Labor Day, and he did. His educational needs fell by the wayside, but everybody at the local burger joint got their fries on time.
Living in a hotel room is a kind of hidden homelessness. Some housing policy officials call it housing instability. According to educational data, homeless students like John who suffer chronic absenteeism are 87% more likely to drop out of school than their housed peers.
Ms. Linda might have noticed John was slipping through the cracks, but she was busy filling out an Uber driver application.
Class Is in Session: How Homeless Students and Cash-Strapped Teachers Struggle When the School Year Restarts
Back to school should be a fresh start, a new foot forward, so to speak. But for students and teachers quietly struggling with housing instability, it can feel more like they’ve already been left behind in the race. They’re just barely picking up the pieces.
“Students may lose food, stability and trusted adults during the summer, while some of the very teachers who spend the school year supporting those children are using the same summer months to earn extra money so they can afford their own living expenses,” concurred Jenni Wilson, who is the president of Living Hope Educational Enterprises.
Wilson started her nonprofit after losing her 16-year-old daughter to cancer 11 years ago and has been addressing the educational opportunities of vulnerable homeless children ever since.
According to Wilson, homeless students returning to school may not have access to the following things:
- School supplies
- Hygiene items
- WiFi access for homework needs
- Clean clothes
- Prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses
- Medication
- Nutritious food or food at all
- Quiet place to study
- Emotional support
As students maintain the vulnerable position of being unstably housed, Dr. Kara Stern, the Director of Education for SchoolStatus, said they might be plagued by chronic absenteeism. This phenomenon can cause them to delay or forego graduation.
“As students experiencing homelessness return to school, it’s important for the adults in the building to understand that they haven’t necessarily had the opportunity to build up readiness to return,” said Dr. Stern.
“They may not have access to clean clothes, school supplies, or the materials or support needed to complete summer assignments, and they may be unsure about how they’ll access breakfast and lunch,” she continued. “That uncertainty can take up the mental and emotional space required for learning, so teachers and staff should focus on providing needed resources alongside consistent, daily check-in and check-out support.”
The newly released SchoolStatus chronic absenteeism report examines how student homelessness translates to student absences and shows proven solutions to that dilemma. Dr. Stern said outreach and understanding are key to tackling these obstacles in education.
Beyond reducing absenteeism that is caused by student homelessness, we must also look at how student homelessness leads to an elevated risk of homelessness in adulthood.
More than 1.5 million school-aged children are homeless in the US, and fully three-fourths of them, or 74%, are living doubled up. This means they are residing in hotels, motels, shelters, and places where their homelessness is unseen, easy to miss.
How can we claim to value education in an economic climate where students and teachers are falling into homelessness and housing instability?
Educate Your Representatives on the Raging Homeless Crisis
It’s a new day in a classroom near you, but city leaders are shrugging off the US homeless crisis and failing to address the structural causes fueling it. Tell them to draft laws that make permanent, affordable housing available for all.
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