Grandma Didn’t Sign Up For This

The cardboard sign poked out from the doorway where the family huddled. As Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shoppers and tourists streamed obliviously by, this (apparently) homeless family (I’m guessing grandma by her appearance) scrunched on the concrete, out of the way of foot traffic, tattered cup propped by grandma’s feet, kids leaning on her like a beanbag chair, all trying not to hope for a miracle to release them from this panhandling hell.

If everyone who walked by in an hour would have given a dollar, their homelessness would have been solved for a month or so, assuming that money was the answer. Maybe lack of housing is just one stumbling block. Who knows?

While waiting to meet my NYC friends Heidi and Markus and their kids for dinner a few doors down from the family, I stood close enough to watch the action around them without being seen. Very few people stopped to drop money in the cup. One guy was so flummoxed he walked a few steps past them, reached for his wallet and dropped it, and almost got trampled by the ensuing traffic as he recovered it and went back to drop in a few bucks. 

I’d venture a guess that most people didn’t even see this bedraggled, forlorn clan. The “Gold Girl” perched on a 5-gal. gold painted bucket in her gold painted dress with a song blaring in a feeble performance designed to attract donors about 30’ away. I mused about having a speaker blaring some music to attract attention to the family’s plight… “Give a Damn” or “Jesus Loves Me.”

This family posed quite a contrast in my mind and in the minds of my friends, too. They were quite concerned. Their question, why doesn’t Chicago have a “right to shelter” law like NYC? Good question. 

Family values. I suppose if we asked the grandmother what was going on in her life, she might share the same story thousand of grandparents do—something happened to their daughter/son’s situation—they were locked up for some petty crime, got hooked on drugs, or just lost their ability to cope with being a parent—and they left, asking grandma/pa to take care of the kids until they returned. About 3 million grandkids are being raised by over 2.7 million grandparents, with median incomes of less than $36,000 a year.

Of all the issues I have heard about in my 3 decades of working in homelessness, and of all the topics people have asked me to make a documentary about, grandparents raising grandkids is at the top of the list. 

My organization, HEAR US Inc., made a short video to help grandparents and guardians get their charges enrolled in the proper school. Often kids lose their housing and bounce around with others when their custodial parent gets locked up or otherwise disappears. Watch REACH, my free 11-min. video , to learn what rights kids have under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act. 

A few years ago I heard from a grandmother with custody of her homeless 8-year-old granddaughter. They had just been told that the little girl couldn’t return to her school because she wasn’t a resident. The astute grandmother knew this was wrong and researched this situation, leading her to HEAR US. 

I told her about the film REACH. Her plan was to be in the school’s principal’s office first thing Monday morning. I assured her that her granddaughter would be reenrolled immediately, but told her I’d be waiting for a call if she needed backup.

This grandmother rocked her challenge! And she called to thank me. I know thousands more could use help. Here’s more info on this law.

The heartbroken Maryland grandmother, as she tried to explain why her daughter wouldn’t hurt her three-year-old son found dead after being swung around by the obviously distraught mother at a playground last week, said, “(Romechia) would never harm my grandson in any type of way. You know, I just believe she had some type of mental illness, some type of mental break that came upon her where she wasn't able to get herself out of that situation,” (WTSP-TV news story). Evidently the family was homeless.

My mind keeps tumbling back to the family in the doorway. The grandmother didn’t sign up for the task of printing their pleading message on a piece of cardboard with hopes that someone would rescue them from homelessness. At what level of desperation do you reach for the marker and cardboard and sit your grandkids around you? At what level of humanity do we decide that families count enough to provide access to shelter, mental and physical health care, and other essentials?

When we’re willing to let grandmothers and grandkids beg on the streets, we’ve hit a new low.

Forget-Me-Not: Help Homeless Kids Blossom, the Peter Yarrow Inspired Campaign, Round Two

How to make Congress pay attention to homeless kids? With my frustration mounting, I remember driving home, listening to Garden Song, a clever little ditty sung by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary. It was 1999, a beautiful spring day. And my pending call from my friend-colleague Barbara Duffield would be our chance to devise a theme for our upcoming unprecedented lobbying of Congress by homeless kids.

The Garden Song haunted me. I could visualize row-by-row, dark soil, rakes, seeds and sprouts of new plants, the hopeful signs of new life (here's a little garden video I did using the song). Barbara and I started talking. I blurted out my garden theme which somehow morphed into Forget Me Not: Help Homeless Kids Blossom. Soon we were begging for thousands of packs of Forget Me Not seeds, generously given and specially labeled by Burpee Seeds.

Over 11,000 packets of Forget Me Not seeds spilled from constituents’ letters onto congressional desks, many bearing heart-felt messages about homeless kids needing education. While in DC, hordes of FMN kids and their chaperones streamed into offices of their congresspersons and asked them why homeless kids couldn’t have rights to go to school. And a massive and poignant assembly featured searing testimony by homeless kids in front of Members of Congress. The combination caused this nation’s million or so homeless students to finally get what every child deserved—the right to a public education.

In 2001, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education AssistanceAct became law. It resembled almost line-by-line the Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act, better known as Charlie’s Bill, named after Charles, an endearing 4-year-old whose photo (©Pat Van Doren) adorned every piece of literature given to Illinois legislators. My (now-retired) congresswoman, Judy Biggert (IL-13,R), took the lead to get this essential piece of legislation passed, a bill she also supported as a state legislator.

When Peter Yarrow shares his wisdom of word and song on May 8, we’ll be coming full circle except for one thing. It was my (naïve) hope that by now Congress would have at least put 2 + 2 together and figured that kids need not only school but also a place to live. Not the case. We’re sliding backwards.  HEAR US is dusting off the Forget Me Not concept, and we’ll ask the audience to contact their Illinois legislators to ask them to reinstate the $3 million taken from homeless kids back in 2008-09, the last time Illinois budgeted for such “frivolous” purposes.

Standing on the stage, Peter Yarrow, social justice champion and folk music icon, will summon the spirit of all civil rights trailblazers of our lifetimes. He’ll light the fire that needs to burn steadily in the hearts of each member of the audience. He’ll plant the seed of justice that will grow beyond the sprouting dreams we had back in 1994 when just getting the kids into school seemed progress.

I’m totally delighted to have my friend, mentor, and champion Peter Yarrow coming to Aurora, IL, the 2^nd largest city in Illinois, dubbed by Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless  “the Selma of the 90s,” to kick off our next campaign to demand that homeless children and youth a place to call home.

The blight of greed and injustice threatens to destroy the fruits of our nation—our young people choked by poverty and homelessness. Our collective compassion-fueled nurturing of families and youth will require that we get our hands dirty and break a sweat.

We Proved It. Now What?

"Prove it," my boss demanded before she would agree to my request for a raise. "Prove you really deserve more money." I scrambled off, determined...sometimes I won, sometimes not.

I've been around the world of homelessness since before the government hid behind the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act which passed in 1987. I say "hid behind" because it's been mostly a progression of lackluster efforts, especially from the standpoint of anyone who's been homeless.

I figured it for a smoke screen, but we all pursued the counting angels on the head of a pin nature of documenting how many homeless kids are out here with hope that the huge numbers would bring about a change of the bureaucratic stone-heart and loosen resources to help these kids.

I'm not a numbers person, but I have to say the efforts and results have been impressive. The Huffington Post article that highlighted that issue pointed out:

The government report said 1,065,794 homeless kids were enrolled in schools in the 2010-2011 school year, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year and 57 percent since the start of the recession in 2007.

Consider the daunting challenge of counting homeless children and youth: Families/youth are ashamed, therefore don't volunteer the information to schools about their plight. Parents fear the kids will be removed from their care because of homelessness. Kids don't want to be made to change schools, and despite a 10-year-old federal law that says that won't happen (McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children Act), it occasionally does (not if we can help it).

Important clarification about the 1 million number. It represents probably half the kids in school who are homeless. It doesn't include their younger siblings--Littlest Nomads--the babies and toddlers not in school, or the teens and young adults out of school and homeless. Some of us believe those numbers, plus the parents of kids in this dire situation, would add at least 3-4 million to the count.

And what do those numbers mean? Nothing.

The resources to help homeless students, under our favorite federal law, the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children Act, are less than what it costs to maintain 70 soldiers in Afghanistan, about $70 mil. Less than 10% of the 16k school districts nationwide get any of that money that Congress still needs to appropriate.

If you need a textbook example of how bad this gross negligence of homeless kids is, take the example of Albuquerque, NM, a decent city of about 500k. They recently reported over 4,000 homeless kids UNDER THE AGE OF 6!! Those do-nothing Littlest Nomads freeloaders....

Think how it could have been different--if all the money tossed at bean-counters, software, and meaningless reports to Congress could have been used to, um, house and help families and youth who  desperately cling to hope that we'll stop dinking around and start using what we have to actually address homelessness instead of dither.

So, as HEAR US Inc. enters our 8th (yup, that's right!) year, I'm vowing to pull out all the stops in throwing these astonishing and dismaying numbers in the faces of policymakers, no matter what or how.

Stay tuned! (Follow my travels on Facebook. Keep up with HEAR US on Facebook too.) I can promise it's gonna get, um, interesting, way more than the bean-counters expect.

Back-to-School Nightmares Rampant for Homeless Parents

You don't get it until you live it.

The reality of shelter life is...impermanence; where will we end up? Add this to the day after day awareness of their parents preoccupation with seeking employment, overcoming the despair that poverty invites or banging your head daily to live with seriously limited resources, and feeling isolated because as much as we don't want to feel ashamed of our circumstances...we suffer the judgmental slings and arrows from school personnel and all the jabs and jeers of those automated letters and voicemails. [Paula, mom in a homeless situation with her son]

Paula nails it. She and her son have been homeless for a couple years after experiencing brutal and long-lasting abuse from her ex. It's a common tale, I know. But let's not ho-hum it. What they're dealing with is anything but ho-hum.

The simple act of her 12-year-old son (a cool kid!) getting to school is causing massive distress. Trauma in abundance lingers like a storm cloud over their lives. Her ex-spouse sounds like a scary monster in a horror movie. The "protection" system--the courts/law enforcement--appear to be anything but helpful. The danger of the ex returning to wreak havoc is plausible. And the school appears to be dismissing her like a piece of junk mail.

Paula's trying to get her son on the school bus, but the shelter they're in seems to be a tad too close to the school, by .2 miles according to my calculation. Her son, according to what she's shared, gets bullied by kids along the sidewalk and on school property. He's dreading school, certainly the act of walking to/from school, which is contrary to his intelligent, enthusiastic manner that I've seen.

I've talked to a couple lawyers familiar with the rightfully-touted McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act. Although MV isn't as obvious as some of us would like, it does give schools leeway in situations like this--where barriers exist for kids' attendance and success in school. Other creative, legit ways of getting around the obvious school transportation issue also exist.

I spoke with the principal who assured me that they do everything possible for kids--all kids--at their school. I'd like to believe him. But the proof will be evident if this boy can hop a bus.

I'm waiting to speak with the district's homeless liaison. Paula indicates no one's ever connected her (or other families she's spoken to) with the liaison, who is supposed to be the point-person to avert these kind of stumbling blocks. The lack of attention to this issue is quite evident to this astute mom.

The good news is, if districts are willing to invest minimal money and precious time, we have some great tools to help districts better understand and address myriad issues facing students in homeless situations:

• HEAR US offers 2 great videos (DVDs), My Own Four Walls, and on the edge. 
• We have a free video that can be watched online, REACH, that explains how to make M-V work, even if you're behind bars.
• We also have Pat Van Doren's powerful set of children's books and  adult books on homelessness, mine (Crossing the Line: Taking Steps to End Homelessness) and my friend Pat LaMarche's missive, Left Out in America. 
• And a great new video by my friend Patricia Julianelle has school officials explaining (in user-friendly 8-min. clips) how this law, one in which I was quite involved in getting passed, works so well. The McKinney-Vento Act in Our Schools hits the nail on the head. 

I dunno...with all the information available, it seems like schools wouldn't create barriers when it comes to opening school doors and encouraging success of our nation's most promising (and growing class) of scholars--kids in homeless situations.

I'm willing to be the tutor for this district. I'd bring in experts like Paula and scads of other parents that could educate the educators. With the unprecedented growth of homelessness, we better kick into gear how to best cope with it before we see an Occupy Schoolyard movement.

The 'Old' Days vs. the New Days of Homelessness

I'm a diane-a-saur when it comes to homelessness. I've been around this "field" for a long time--since the mid '80s. My current effort, HEAR US Inc., is a pretty unique little endeavor that's making an impact, but I digress. When I think I've seen it all, I get surprised. Like this week....

One of my favorite journalists, Kathy Millen, did a great piece on our new documentary, "on the edge," an intense look at lives of 7 women who experienced homelessness. Kathy came to one of our screenings, basing her story on what she saw. To no surprise, she did a fantastic job, and this chain of local papers ran the story in different areas.

Kathy forwarded me a message she received from a woman who, with husband and 2 young babies, is homeless. I found myself wanting to go talk with her. Then I discovered they're staying outside NYC. She picked up Kathy's story on the Web, something we didn't have back in the old days. The mom and I have been exchanging emails, and I've been able to give her info about her son's rights to register in school, ala the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act.

Facebook also factors into my different world. More than once I'm surprised at who finds me. Yesterday, a woman asked to "friend" me. Her name sounded familiar, from my days of working in Joliet where I got my feet wet in this world of homelessness. I asked, and yup, it was the same family. The girl, 20+ years later, is a mom, studying to be an addictions counselor. Cool! 

Good ol' Facebook, the intrusion into my life I often grumble about, also connected me with a mom with 5 little boys that I met out west. Mom is struggling mightily, not doing as well as she/I'd like, but still trying. Her cell phone's died from lack of money. So she gets on the computer at the library, and I heard from her. A flurry of FB messages between us makes me feel like she's going to get reconnected with the school. A good thing....

And the woman who contacted Kathy, then communicated with me via email, shared her story. I've written my weekly post on Change.org, Poverty in America about her situation. It's scheduled to run Friday. Check out my post from last Friday and share it.

I've heard from a grandmother in Houston who found the HEAR US website as she searched for a way to help her 8-year old granddaughter who had been wrongly kicked out of school. We emailed, talked, and she watched our amazing REACH video that explains the homeless education law. That empowered her to get the little girl back in school the next day. Oh yeah!!

Then we have the HEAR US Compassion Epidemic. Never would I believe that I'd be a regular website editor, changing pages as information changes. I don't do the greatest job keeping up, but you'll always find something of interest on our CE page, as well as the rest of the HEAR US website. 

Seems to me the world of homelessness services and resources needs to do a major upgrade. The same-old-same-old ain't cutting it. Just check the HEAR US "Homelessness in the News" page (that needs some updating). And I know some people are really keeping up with things changing even better than I am--my almost 90-year old Mom will surely comment on my diane-a-saur status. What's older than a dinosaur?!

How Many Ways to Say 'We've Got a Problem'?

The old love poem starts, "How do I love you? Let me count the ways." I suggest an alternative, "How bad is homelessness among families and teens? Let me count noses..." and then I'd point to myriad ways the problem has been described....

Let's see...soaring, skyrocketing, surging, exploding, astronomical, rising, record levels...well, you get the point.

In the days of Phil Mangano (pre-Obama administration homelessness czar at the mic), we heard a great deal, ad nauseam, about the need for numbers to convince the administration that we have a problem. So, with a nationwide systemic effort, school districts began tallying, a homeless kid here, a homeless kid there.

Numbers, not my forte nor my favorite way of considering a problem that seems quite obvious, started adding up as this decade unfolded. 600k, 700k, and up. And then the econo-bubble burst and now we're up to more than a MILLION school kids, not counting pre-school or pre-adult siblings or parents. And that's just the kids identified. Some of us believe the million could truly be over 3 mil.

Every article I've seen, and I try to monitor nationwide news on this issue, refers to actual COUNTS of homeless kids in specific geographic areas of varying sizes--metro, suburban, rural--from Anchorage to Key West.

But now, with numbers "soaring, skyrocketing, surging, exploding, astronomical, rising, at record levels," our nation is distracted. Failed bombing attempt, Karl Rove's divorce, Charlie Sheen's probable divorce, you know, important things. Oh yeah, and the economy, health insurance, er, care, jobs....

Hey, that's not fair! We've counted. We've got lots of kids who don't know where they're going to lay their heads, eat their meals, find their mom/dad after school, do their homework; kids wondering if they'll get reunited with their friends from their old neighborhoods, get their pets back, get to try out for band or basketball. These kids count!

We're happy the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act gets/keeps them in school. And we've got a new and improved M-V bill that may someday make its way through Congress and become law. (To help, sign this petition to your Senator.)

HEAR US, my organization, works with schools and communities to help them identify and understand homelessness by letting them hear from the kids themselves, the experts. My Own Four Walls, our collection of documentaries (DVD), lets them rip on how it feels to be a kid without a home. They're powerful.

If we keep going the way we've been headed (no doubt we will), we'll have bunches of homelessness experts. Too many to count. And we'll have squandered the opportunity to make sure these kids had what they needed to be successful adults--simple things like a modest place to live with their families or on their own, adequate nutrition, health care. And we'll have a bumper crop of homeless adults.

Seems to me that between shenanigans and squandering, our nation is quite busy. Too busy to make sure homeless kids count? While the Obama administration is doing a little, it's way too little and will be too late if we don't ramp up those efforts NOW! Consider it a test of what's really important....

Sweet Victory for a Monday Morning!

Being connected is a good thing sometimes. This weekend I received an email via the HEAR US website.

Hello I currently reside in Houston Tx and I thought I had a clear understanding of a child with no permanent address being allowed to go to school where ever obviously I was wrong. On Dec 4 2009 my granddaughter was withdrawn from school after being interrogated and left tearful.Before the school year started my daughter checked with the district and they said it was fine for her to be enrolled in school out of the area where we were staying with no permanent address bu to notify them when we did have an address

It's these kind of situations that make me glad I do what I do, and that we a strong, simple law that guides school districts on the right course of action. After playing phone tag, we finally connected late Sunday evening, after midnight in Houston. I only hesitated a moment when calling that late, knowing this grandmother was going to need help in a few short hours.

She was awake and glad I called. She explained the situation, that she, her daughter, and granddaughter live together in an apartment temporarily provided by her pastor who couldn't stand the thought of them sleeping in their car. This arrangement is coming to an end soon; the place is being sold.

But in the meantime, in snowy Houston on Friday, the granddaughter's school made plans to close at noon so no one would be snowed in. Calls and emails went to parents to pick up the kids. The grandmother usually provided transportation but was unable to be reached, and some confusion unfolded at the school with the granddaughter and school staff.

It is usually the confusion that "tips off" the school that something is askew with residency. Evidently that's what happened. Sadly, I've seen this happen; vigilante mentality takes over. It can be ugly.

The grandmother she hid this withdrawal decision from her granddaughter and got on the Internet. Somehow she found the HEAR US website, and figured that HEAR US might be able to help, thus her email to me.

Talking to her that evening, she shared some of her struggles--loss of housing due to mental illness that caused her to lose a job. Both she and her daughter, the girl's mother, work. Between them they try to pull in enough to make housing payments, but once you get behind, it's tough to catch up.

They've stayed in her car, in motels, and with friends. Now they're in this apartment, outside the district where the girl attends school. GM drives her to school. I could tell school was important--to both of them.

Based on what the GM described and according to the McKinney-Vento law, the girl appeared to be homeless. Since this school was where she attended before, she should be able to stay there if the family chooses. And, the district should provide transportation, free lunch, and supplies, among other things. I directed the GM to our REACH film, available for free viewing online, which outlines the M-V law in a mere 11-minutes. And I gave her language to request the "dispute resolution" process if things went bad.

I wished her luck and asked her to call to let me either intervene if necessary or to tell me how it went. And I crawled into bed.

Early that morning, the GM called. She was ecstatic! She succeeded in asserting her granddaughter's rights. OH YEA! She felt so good about this, and was so grateful for my help. Me, I was extremely grateful that she found me, and delighted to help.

Such a sweet experience, which makes today's release of the 2009 US Conference of Mayors annual homeless/hunger report so pathetic.

Knowing what I do about how these things go, this report, for whatever good intention might be behind it, does nothing but add more confusion to the definition of homelessness.

You see, this GM's family doesn't fall under the definition of "homeless" because they're not staying at a HUD-funded shelter or sleeping on the streets. So they don't count.

Seems to me this nation's mayors need a lesson in Homelessness 101. I know just the teacher. She's a GM from Houston, and she knows her stuff. If you're so inclined, sign our online petition (and spread the word!) to strengthen this law further. You'll be easing the way for some grandparents, parents and caretakers have tools to fight for their kids' education. Maybe the kids will run for mayor....

Incredible Efforts in the Trenches

Fire departments can be all-volunteer or funded by municipalities. Every community has some form of fire protection. Every public school district has homeless liaisons. Dedicated fire-fighters and McKinney-Vento homeless education liaisons have similarities--both do amazing work despite incredible odds. This blog offers both a tribute and opportunity for these liaisons.

One bonus of my travels is that I often get to spend quality time hanging out with McK-V liaisons.

They are often the unsung s-heroes and heroes of a school community--going to places many wouldn't even know exist; finding, assisting and keeping track of invisible kids who otherwise would not get into school; fighting ravages of poverty and homelessness threatening to swamp families/youth; butting heads with clueless educators or administrators; wrestling with budget issues and bad attitudes; providing life-sustaining assistance and moral support to their students; training district personnel in McK-V policies; and always going above and beyond to make sure kids have the best chance to succeed in school and life. (This list is by NO MEANS inclusive....)

Another perk of my HEAR US job is to get to talk to kids who have experienced homelessness. If you haven't seen "My Own Four Walls," the first documentary I filmed featuring all kids talking about their experiences of homelessness and education, it's worth getting (I guarantee it!). One thing all these spokespersons had in common--they loved their homeless liaisons!

Sadly, another common trait is that McK-V programs and staff are often grossly unappreciated and under-supported. They're the ones locating the families after the fire, eviction, or domestic violence, trying to figure out how to help the families or teens patch things together again, at least enough to preserve the educational haven for the students.

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Commonly caused by lack of knowledge or sensitivity to homeless students, I've seen McK-V disregard at the district level show up as:

• Program focus gets shifted (weakened), too often without discussion, by administrators who may be trying to do the right thing....or not.
• Personnel gets shifted to non-McK-V programs if they are perceived as "too effective" or troublesome to non-compliant administrators.
• Little or no time gets made in professional development schedules to inform district personnel about McK-V issues.
• Funding gets, um, redirected by administrators, knowing that McK-V staff can't cause a stink.
• Superintendents name themselves as liaisons, or appoint someone who either has no time or desire to perform the task.
  
• Violations of McK-V are overlooked by district or state bureaucrats, especially if the offender is a "respected" administrator.

It's hard to find a safe place to voice frustrations of McK-V work. But this blog allows anonymous comments and I'd be interested to hear what's going on out in McK-V land across the country. Good or bad. If a district or administrator has done exemplary, let's give voice to that too!

I'll start...what's with apparent blatant disregard of McK-V that seems to be overlooked, if not sanctioned, by McK-V authorities? If families broke the law like some districts do they'd be behind bars.

Seems to me that if we have a law it should be followed. What will it take to ensure the protection of educational rights of homeless kids? Maybe I'm opening a can of worms, but it's a discussion that needs to happen with hope for improvement on the local, state and federal level. Let's hear from others....

Times are Tough--Too Bad!

Even people living under a rock have figured out times are tough. Well, not everyone. It appears that the powers-that-be in West Aurora (IL) School District 129 have decided to crack down on residency scofflaws, including what I'd bet my lunch money are homeless kids.

Seems like the relatively new superintendent wants to impress voters with his fiscal responsibility. So he's ordered a review of suspicious residency claims. OK so far.

But an indication of probable trouble appeared in the Aurora Beacon News last August in a story about a mom and her 2 kids who moved in with her parents after marital trouble. (Read my blog from last August detailing this story.)

Now the district has announced on their website a "residency tip line" to weed out non-residents. I understand the theory, and as a previous taxpayer in that district before I sold my home to pursue my HEAR US mission, I feel I can speak about this.

When untrained, and sometimes even trained, observers view a family's unconventional lifestyle, e.g. moving in with a family or friends, but sometimes popping in at their previous residence, it may appear that the family is up to something, especially if school-age kids are in the picture. And they may be trying to send kids to a better district.

Or they may be homeless, often times as a result of domestic violence, or severe marital problems. Typically, one parent and kids leave the hardship situation and move in with someone because they cannot afford their own place. Or they move into a motel, or combination of motels and doubling up. I won't even go into the immigration issue which would send out vigilante posses faster than announcing free beer at a softball game.

So the district encourages anonymous reports of residency law violations. I've talked with many "professional" residency investigators who are absolutely clueless--or care less--about laws governing homeless students access to school, and who fail to make a good-faith attempt to rule out homelessness as they toss out the kids. I can't even imagine the possibility for trouble with non-professionals, neighbors with an ax to grind??

I've talked to kids who reported being yanked from class in front of their peers, humiliated as they were forced to clear out their lockers in crowded hallways, and escorted off the property. And in every case I was involved in--hundreds--we were able to vindicate the family and restore their right to attend that school because of homelessness.

Many of these cases were "investigated" and others were results of anonymous reports. School officials need to learn a lesson--about homelessness, a subject not taught in college nor typically covered in professional development. At the risk of sounding self-serving, HEAR US has several tools to raise awareness of homelessness. I do presentations to guide educators in the aspects of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act. And I offered my services to the West Aurora District, being told "we're handling it."

Seems to me that handling could be viewed as mauling, depending on what side of the desk you're on. That's a lesson that will stick with all who have to experience it.

Caumoflaged Homelessness

With all the talk about PTSD-suffering military veterans, I'd like to take the discussion a step further--to families of beleaguered soldiers. From conversations I've had with military wives, I believe another invisible tragedy is unfolding.

The parent--often, but not always the mom--ends up leaving an abusive spouse-soldier, something the military doesn't talk about much. When mom and kids move out of base housing, leaving a volatile situation, sometimes they end up moving in with friends or family because the mom doesn't have enough income to get a place on her own. Losing housing due to hardship can often be defined as "homeless," even when the family moves in with others, called doubling-up.

One woman at a presentation I did recently came up afterward and thanked me for sharing the info on McKinney-Vento Homeless Education rights. She painfully shared that she's planning to divorce her military husband and, unless she lands a job that can support the family, they too may be homeless.

Now, isn't that a sad state of affairs, as military spouses and children join the ranks of our nation's homeless population because they fear for their safety staying with their PTSD-suffering spouse?

The courageous spokesperson Julianna has shared her similar story (most recently at a domestic violence rally in AZ) about an abusive spouse in the military, relating the conundrum that military spouses find themselves in when it comes to DV. The military takes care of its own, and that can mean that the mom and kids get tossed to the street.

In Julianna's case, the final split took place after the parents left the military, but she had checked out the so-called safety net while they were on base, and it was too frightening. So she remained in a horrible situation until it hit the tipping point. Her resolve to leave was bolstered when her kids' condition--that they could stay in their same schools--was met thanks to McK-V.

I'd love to hear from people with direct knowledge about military spouses who leave a bad situation and become homeless--moving in with others, into motels, or landing in shelters or on the streets. What's the best way to get information to this population so they at least understand how to get/keep their kids in school?

Seems to me we need to stem the tide of homelessness that threatens the well-being of more and more kids and parents, and single adults. With the military, they have a strong obligation to their troops and their families. Keeping them from homelessness should be at the top of the list.

When Advocacy Works

Fifteen years ago, weekly (in-between running a very busy homeless shelter) I was trucking down to Springpatch, the much-tarnished capital of IL, to lobby for the rights of homeless kids to get into school.

Little did the small band of do-gooders realize what we would unleash. Now, the Illinois Education for Homeless Children Act is the law of the land, under the auspices of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Improvements Act which became law in 2002. It has theoretically revolutionized the way homeless students get into school. They, er, get in.

I present this history lesson to reassure nay-sayers about our chances to change HUD's definition of homelessness to include families and teens. With a strong grassroots push, anything is possible. And that grassroots push is available in our HEAR US Piggies campaign.

This weekend I'm spending time at a homeless shelter campus in McKinney, TX. Tillie and I are parked and plugged in at their transitional apartment building. Lynne S., the director of Samaritan Inn, a pretty darn impressive approach to homelessness, and the only shelter in this affluent county, told me they don't take government grants because of the strings attached. I understand.

If HUD doesn't fund the shelter, that means the 20-some families in their overnight shelter and the dozen or so in their transitional program don't count. Yup. We don't see them. The kids who are riding their bikes round and round their building, circling Tillie with great curiosity, they're not here. Families or teens bouncing from motels to friends' couches and around again, or staying in campers or abandoned buildings, they don't count either.

Oh yes they do! They count, and with the help from countless compassionate ordinary people across the land, we're going to change HUD's definition of homelessness, and this nation's approach to homelessness, to make sure homeless kids count.

Seems to me that it's time for this feeling of powerlessness to be replaced by the can-do attitude reflected in this latest presidential campaign. Sure, Obama has hit a few speedbumps along the way, and that's not surprising considering some of the same people who caused the economic demise we're seeing now are still hanging around the Capitol. But that can't stop us from making the changes so long overdo...like addressing homelessness, in its ever-growing forms, before it becomes the way we all live.

Heading Deep Into Homelessness Land--Behind Bars

I'm not a rocket scientist, not even a social worker.

But I've made some amazing (to some people) observations. And tomorrow we're going to take the first big step to shine a light on one of those observations. My observation: homelessness is often caused by incarceration--done rightly or wrongly.

Tomorrow Andrew, a grad student from Northern Illinois University, LeeAnn Trotter, a reporter from Channel 5, NBC-Chicago, and I are going to jail: Cook County Jail, one of the largest--imagine an inmate population of about 10,000 on any given day--institution of its kind in the country. We're filming a training film to help moms (and dads, eventually) secure education for their kids despite the moms' incarceration.

You see, when someone is arrested and locked up, they usually don't make arrangements for childcare, much less getting their kids to school. They probably hope they won't get arrested if they go out with the intention of doing something unlawful. But in some/many cases, they may get arrested in error--an error that turns their lives, and the lives of their families, upside down, to say the least. Regardless of their guilt/innocence, they're locked up for an unspecified period of time.

When the head of household, living in a fragile situation as many impoverished families do, gets removed unexpectedly from her (mostly her) household responsibilities--including getting her kids to school--the kids often suffer. Families get evicted when the adult isn't there to pay rent. Child welfare services may become involved. Kids don't know who's going to take care of them or when mom will be home. Ideally, family or friends will take care of the kids while the scales of justice weigh a decision as to freedom or time behind bars.

When kids lose their homes due to hardship (and who would deny the unexpected incarceration of mom as hardship?) they often become "homeless" according to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act because they lack a fixed, regular and adequate place to live. As bad as things may be, the little ray of sunshine in their otherwise bleak world is that homeless kids have strong, clear rights about their education. But the cloud--few people know this.

Boiled down to the most important points, kids who are in a homeless situation get a choice of:
1) going to the school they last attended or the school they last attended when they were permanently housed, whatever is in their best interest, or
2) going to the local school where non-homeless kids go if that is in their best interest.

Other important points are included in this federal law that applies nationwide.

Our effort will be to help women (and men) who are incarcerated know these rights. We'll create a short "how-to" film and other materials to guide inmates and staff on these important rights. Advocates stand ready to work with families to enforce the law. Imagine, after being on the "wrong" side of the law (either truly deserving punishment, or being locked up in error) and getting empowered to help enforce a law for your child.

Seems to me that hearing the heavy clank of the steel door close behind us as we enter this other world is a fair price for what is hopefully going to be a glimpse of sunshine in the often dark lives of destitution.

PHOTOS 1 and 3 by Pat Van Doren; 2 by Diane Nilan