Classroom Teachers and Government Leaders Clash on Which Children Are Homeless. Quantifying Student Homelessness Should Not Be Such a Difficult Subject.
There is a serious contradiction in the number of children projected to be homeless by HUD when compared to the number of children projected to be homeless, according to school records. This is because, as it turns out, each entity uses a different definition of homelessness.
In the end, the people paying the highest price for the discrepancy are the one in 30 grade-school students getting subpar education, or even no education whatsoever, due to the pressing weight of living in a state of housing instability.
Between the Lines: Hidden Homelessness is a Silent Trauma for At Least 1 in 30 Adolescents
DavidNazarNews of YouTube and SoCal Insider illustrate the heartbreaking saga of Nora Perez, an LAUSD student struggling to graduate from high school while living out of her family’s car. Like many others in her position, this is the unexpected turn her life took when her father lost his job.
“It was just too much pain at that point, and I felt like giving up,” Perez said between sobs.
According to school district records, Perez and the approximately 15,000 students living in similar circumstances in the Greater LA region are classified as homeless. This is because school districts use the McKinney Vento Act definition of homelessness to determine which students are unhoused.
Unfortunately, HUD and other government-led institutions are using an antiquated definition of homelessness, one where people enduring hidden forms of homelessness like living in their cars, sofa-surfing with friends, or temporarily sleeping in hotel rooms remain uncounted. In truth, these youths are counted out. Henceforth, even the systems built for them are effectively working against them.
Homeless Children Suffer as Clashing Definitions Lead to Undercounts and Limited Resources.
“The definition of youth homelessness used within a community has direct implications for that community’s youth homelessness counts, eligibility criteria for youth seeking services, capacity of providers to respond, and public narratives around the magnitude of the problem.”
– The Current State of Youth Homelessness Approaches, A Community Solutions Report
If you dig into school data collected over the years, you will find a harrowing detail – millions of unreported homeless children. In stark contrast, the PIT Count shows only a fraction of what school records present, which leaves advocates and educators scratching their heads.
“What it comes down to is complexities of definitions,” explained Adam Ruege of Community Solutions, the organization that published the aforementioned report. “And this is a real challenge when you look at the point in time count.”
“The PIT count, as it is loosely referred to, uses the category one homelessness definition, which means literally homeless. So those are children living in homeless shelters or directly on the streets,” Ruege continued. “School districts follow a different definition for homelessness, which includes unstably housed children. So they are reporting a much larger number of people – well into the millions. These are children who are unsafely housed under what they call the McKinney Vento Act, which school districts are required to report on.”
“Unstably housed children are not counted in the PIT count. This causes a pretty large undercount, and that’s because the government and the school systems are toggling back and forth between two different definitions,” Ruege concluded.
However, the question remains: Why is there such a vast discrepancy?
If school districts are following government regulations when reporting the number of homeless children and HUD is also following government regulations when putting forth its figures, why is our government counting child homelessness by two different definitions depending upon who’s reading the data?
Could it be that they are trying to make child homelessness appear lesser in the eyes of the public by toying with how they define it? And if so, does this have any impact on these vulnerable school children, many of whom are already living a statistically disadvantaged life?
According to the report, these two government entities operating under separate definitions of childhood homelessness are causing chaos and confusion. Some of the most glaring obstacles include:
- The inability of homeless children who aren’t classified as literally homeless to access services that were created for them.
- Conflicting prevalence in communal statistics, which confuses social workers and educators and influences the spread of misinformation.
- A delay in access to services even for children who classify as HUD category 1.
- Barriers to long-term housing solutions as the general public remains largely unaware of the millions of homeless school children in the United States.
- Higher rates of high school dropouts as sofa-surfing adolescents struggle to keep up with their stably housed peers.
- Re-traumatization of youth.
- Overlooked systemic biases and otherwise skewed statistics.
You Shouldn’t Have to Read the Fine Print to Know That Millions of Children Endure Homelessness. Demand Honesty from Your Legislators Today.
What are we really teaching if even our classroom homeless data is deceptive? Tell your local legislators that you and your community members deserve to know how many school-aged students are waking up on their best friend’s sofas or trying to get their homework done from the backseat of a parked vehicle behind the local retail store.
We can no longer turn a blind eye to the truth in the name of creating a more optimistic database of statistics. Tell your local legislators you want every child counted and a nationally agreed-upon definition everyone can refer to in the future.