Beyond the Obvious, Reasons to Fear for Homeless Families

Most enlightened people can grasp the common concepts of why homeless families become and remain homeless so long. Realities like:

• An appalling shortage of decent affordable market-rate housing; 
• An even worse dearth of subsidized housing, with wait-lists of 5 years and more;
• Stringent, some would say impossible, credit requirements filtering out people in poverty (those with tainted credit tend to be the most impoverished);
• Harsh penalties for those who’ve done time in prison—banning them from even stepping onto public housing projects, excluding them from consideration as tenants in the private market.
• Exorbitant application fees that don’t get refunded if an applicant is denied. 
• Steep deposits, for housing and utilities, which often get kissed goodbye when the tenant moves out.

(Read Matt Desmond’s excellent expose on this topic, Evicted. Or my 1-page "Causes of Homelessness" from my book, Crossing the Line: Taking Steps to End Homelessness.)

That's tough enough, as exemplified by our nation’s record high number of families in homeless situations. 

HUD’s (U.S. Dept. of Housing and Human Development) policies  and their continuing refusal to acknowledge the horrifying level of homelessness among families and youth, will only get worse with an incoming clueless HUD Secretary.

While HUD is dancing around the Washington Monument waving banners proclaiming “Homelessness Is Ending!” the U.S. Department of Education grimly points to the doubling of homeless students identified since schools began seriously counting back in 2006. The number of students—not parents, older/younger siblings, nor those still unidentified—has doubled, from about 600,000 to more than 1.3 million in 2015. 

That's bad enough, but another barrier exists that causes, perpetuates and prevents homelessness from ending. It doesn’t get discussed much publicly. But it needs to be addressed. 

Trauma. 

That one word encompasses physical, mental, sexual abuse that creates a sense of panic, dread, and immobility, to name a few manifestations. This affliction often sabotages a person’s return to self-sufficiency. It’s the invisible demon that lingers in the background, waiting for the opportune moment to shatter any chance of progress. 

I’ve seen it time and time again. Depending on the damage the trauma has inflicted, some are rendered pathetically, frustratingly immobile when it surfaces.

We’ve heard “PTSD” referring to soldiers exposed to horrors of war. Post traumatic stress disorder. It’s not just a way of explaining away unacceptable behaviors of our troops. Or our citizens. Lady Gaga’s admission of her PTSD recently rocked her fandom. 

It’s far past time to acknowledge that those exposed to violence—mental, physical and/or sexual—are vulnerable to PTSD. Their trauma is real. As I’m witnessing now.

The mother who, after 3 long years of enduring and surviving incomprehensible abuse and hardships, including homelessness that resulted in her family being split up for survival’s sake, has an opportunity to move out of her (and her daughter’s) hell-hole of indentured servitude and homelessness into a decent, affordable place of their own. 

I suspect the demon is circling, pushing her vulnerable self-esteem against the wall, shouting the abusive chant that she’s unworthy, that she’ll fail, so why should she try. 

She texted me to ask how soon she should tell her sinister employer/housing provider that she and her daughter are moving. Reading between the lines of this short text, she wants to, understandably, tell him to “f-ck off,” a satisfying response to a hated bully. 

Her justifiable anger is ready to spew, amassed over years of abusive, demeaning, brutal experiences that have threatened her wellbeing, and worse, that of her children, just as she’s about to break out of this prison. 

Not now, I uncharacteristically advised. He can kick you to the curb, or make your lives even more miserable while we’re waiting for the languid housing authority to hand her the keys. 

She thanked me for my counsel and said this will be, next to the birth of her kids, the best Christmas ever (we agreed to postpone the celebration of Christmas by a month, figuring they’ll be in their new home). 

This can be my best Christmas, with my fingers crossed that she can hang in and make this happen. Selfishly, I could use a reason to cheer 2017’s inauspicious arrival. Demon, be gone!

A Homeless Family's Christmas Tale: From Ogre to Oh My God!

Melissa kept sobbing “Oh my God!” Probably 50 times. 

Then she said the phrase that caused me to cringe. “We don’t have to worry about The Man anymore.”

Spoken by the absolutely desperate mother of a young girl. They, by virtue of desperate poverty and homelessness, were doubled up in a hardscrabble Kansas town. This Mom and her 9-year-old daughter share a small, dark room in return for the mother’s providing in-home health services to the disabled wheelchair-bound, obese and allegedly perverted homeowner, a man whose 2 teens who also live in this menagerie.

I’ve known this mother for over 2 years. I’ve known others who’ve known her longer. So I know her story rings true. She’s allowed me to share it (4-min. video) hoping it would enlighten or embolden other women (and maybe men) in similar situations.   

As with far too many women, she found herself and her 2 daughters bouncing from couch to motel to basement floor and around again after her marriage broke up—shattering both her jaw and self-esteem. She worked the jobs mothers can work when juggling child care, school obligations, and pernicious poverty. Instability was their constant companion. So was violence, sexual abuse, and hopelessness.

The one insurmountable barrier to returning to any kind of normal living was a $2500 debt to the local housing authority. It’s a long story, but trust me when I say this mom found herself doing something most of us would have done, and she was “sentenced”  to 5 years of hard time (homelessness), barred from the only affordable housing in Kansas—subsidized by the federal government via HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). 

I kept in contact with her for reasons I cannot explain. Maybe because she was the one mother I interviewed who had no one. I encouraged her when my normally optimistic self was cringing at the hopelessness of her situation. I suggested that she apply for a housing voucher before the new HUD administration takes over. She did, and was told that she’d be eligible (strict guidelines) as long as she was able to pay her arrearage. I personally tried to get them to waive all/part, to no avail.

Through a lot of luck, I was able to find donors to clear her debt. She meets with the housing authority person next week. They evidently have a unit ready for her and her family. 

Families (and individuals) who live in these horrible conditions for so long need time to adjust to having their own place. The trauma they’ve experienced for so long follows them like a vicious tornado cloud ready to tear their fragile lives to shreds. And too often, the earlier experience of homelessness often leads to homelessness as an adult. All is not “happily ever after” yet, and maybe ever.

Imagine yourself as a parent in this situation, what would it mean to have your own place? And try to imagine Melissa’s relief when she realizes, “We don’t have to worry about The Man anymore.”

Be assured—she’s not the only parent in this situation.

Diane's Gettysburg NO Address

(Title credit, Mary Ann Parks)

“FOUR score and seven years ago, our forefathers could not have imagined the nation they founded (conceived in liberty) would turn their collective backs on their brothers and sisters who are without shelter and comfort.” (Thanks to Deborah Cooper Harding for the adaptation)

I’m scheduled to give a keynote to a group in Gettysburg on June 9. The topic is affordable housing and homeless families. My FB friends have great faith in my ability to deliver a stem-winder. Sure hope so. Sure don't know what to say.

Having tracked and posted news on FB about homelessness of families and youth for the past 11 years as part of my HEAR US endeavors, I’ve noticed that we’re not seeming to make progress on this essential issue. In fact, the numbers of homeless students identified by public schools has continued to skyrocket, over 1.3 million, more than double since I started driving around the country chronicling this epidemic. And attitudes of a seemingly growing number of people appear, well, snarly when it comes to kids. Like it’s their fault.

A few recent stories demonstrated worthwhile journalism. The Eugene, OR Register-Guard shared a poignant and thorough look at what I’m sure I’ll see when I’m out there later this summer. Not pretty, despite best efforts of my friends out there working in the schools.

I get what Abe was saying here. Three decades of working
on homelessness issues makes me feel like
an Old Woman!

Perusing family/youth homelessness stories with today’s news cycle is damn depressing. Mainstream media seems intent to portray the worst of the nation and world--ignoring the plight of vulnerable children in the process. And as Debbie paraphrased, it seems like we’ve turned our collective backs on our brothers and sisters without shelter and comfort.

I don’t know what kind of human could read the OR story and not feel agony for these families. I’m baffled that this national plight has yet to stir any significant movement.

Another op-ed piece, quite well written, described the apathy and cruelty toward single adults, bureaucratically labeled ABAWDs (able-bodied adults without dependents) who now will be “lucky” if they get 3 months of food stamps/SNAP. Knowing ABAWDs as I do, this is going to cause a real hardship. For some it will be life/death. And remember, some of these folks live doubled up with families who will share their food...at their own peril.

Theses stories have garnered little attention. Bathroom crisis has swallowed up what’s left of the news stream after the big “stories” of politics.

With no political will, or so it seems, what am I supposed to say about affordable housing to this Gettysburg crowd? Let’s be nice and do the right thing and magically create enough affordable housing for for millions of our sisters and brothers across the land. What would Abe say?

Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, was one of the greatest and most influential statements of national purpose. In just over two minutes, Lincoln reiterated the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence[5] and proclaimed the Civil War as a struggle for the preservation of the Union sundered by the secession crisis,[6] with "a new birth of freedom"[7] that would bring true equality to all of its citizens.[8] Lincoln also redefined the Civil War as a struggle not just for the Union, but also for the principle of human equality.[5] Wikipedia 

Oh, so human equality isn’t a new concept??! Way to go, Abe, you radical Republican! Wondering how today’s bootstraps’ and every man for themselves compares to those listening to Abe? My historically-astute friends Pat LaMarche and Pat Vandoren could probably say something about this.

I know what I’ve seen in 250,000+ miles of travel through 48 states over the past 11 years. Despite herculean dedication of McKinney-Vento homeless liaisons, shelter staff, human service workers and a handful of astute political leaders, plus courageous and stalwart efforts of parents and loved ones to get their kids through these tough times, it’s harder and harder.

When the new president steps into office in January 2017, she/he will replace Cabinet officers, including that of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). So whatever progress we’ve made, including the dubiously titled “functional zero” way of describing (faux) ending veterans’ homelessness, the quickly forgotten and equally ineffective “10 Year Plans” and the 2020 deadline for ending family homelessness, all will be scrapped. I want to be clear--many people have worked hard, in good faith--on these efforts. It’s just that their hands have been tied behind their backs by lack of funding and zippo political will. HEAR US will continue to encourage action, large and small, via our “Compassion Epidemic” section of our website. 

So back to my Gettysburg NO Address. Maybe I’ll just let the experts explain.

Open Letter to Sheila Crowley, Respected Housing Advocate

Dear Sheila,

I think we’ve met. We certainly have walked the same paths, dinosaurs that we both are in the world of housing advocacy. And I think we both want the same thing. But I’m troubled by remarks attributed to you:

‘While representatives of organizations and governments say the definition of homeless should be expanded to increase federal aid for the types of homeless in rural areas, Crowley stressed that without more funding, it would just take money away from helping other homeless living on the streets.’

What will it take for us to get beyond this log-jam of an argument, one that gives elected officials cover for ignoring the skyrocketing homeless population?

I get the math you’re suggesting. But, what I can’t figure is how do we get to Point B, the funding, if we don’t make a case for it? Knowing how slow our federal policy and funding mechanism is, I suggest Point A: get the feds to own the scope of homelessness as it really is--people have lost housing and have nowhere to go--is the vital first step.

Having spent time with doubled up and otherwise homeless/not-HUD-homeless parents and kids over the past 10 years as I’ve traveled backroads of America chronicling homeless families/youth for my nonprofit organization HEAR US,  I can tell you that the suffering they experience is often every bit as bad, or worse, as the people I worked with in my shelter-running days. My Worn Out Welcome Mat series of documentaries lets these families and youth speak for themselves. 

The last thing we need is to pit one group against the other. That’s what seems to be happening on this effort to get HUD to expand the definition of homelessness to include those they’ve managed to exclude--families, youth, and others not counted as homeless. 

My respect for the National Low Income Housing Coalition is profound. My concern is that your position on this issue might be mistaken for agreeing with HUD on their ever-narrowing definition of homelessness that paves the way to their bowing out of their role in ending homelessness. 

We can’t expect Congress to loosen their pursestrings to alleviate homelessness unless we make the case that it’s a need. Millions of homeless families and youth in addition to the uncounted single adults, a number I’d estimate to be at least 7 million, far exceeds the 500,000 HUD reports to Congress.

Having recently spoken to a number of Hill staffers and Congresspersons, I’m appalled at their lack of knowledge of HUD, homelessness, and housing needs of people in poverty and crisis. The NLIHC Out of Reach report provides vital statistics on the extent of the housing  affordability crisis. What we are lacking is a credible account of the scope of homelessness in our country. 

Until we establish a comprehensive definition of homelessness that includes the spectrum of people who have lost housing and have nowhere to go, we will be complicit in the ongoing strategy of ignoring the plight of houseless babies, toddlers, children, youth and adults. That, I suspect, is a point of agreement for both of us.

Respectfully,

Diane Nilan

President/founder HEAR US Inc.

How To Help Homeless Families and Youth?

I’ve looked into the eyes of too many homeless children. That partially explains my task-master teacher-like attitude for following up on “assignments” I’ve given, like the edict I issued at the end of January at the CARES Community Discussion about homelessness held at Dickinson College.

The assignment was simple, requiring less than 30 seconds on www.helphomelesskidsnow.org under “Take Action.” I urged the audience—CARES volunteers and guests, Dickinson students and professors, and the public to send Congressman Barlettta a message requesting that he co-sponsor the Homeless Children and Youth Act (HR 576).

This bipartisan legislation will expand the narrow definition of “homelessness” used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to reflect the more realistic definition used by the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies. It sounds benign. It’s far from that. It’s a matter of life and death.

HUD’s definition excludes literally millions of children, parents, youth on their own, and adults from services, including emergency shelter, and from being counted in HUD’s annual Point-In-Time census which recently happened in Cumberland County.

This exclusion means that HUD reported to Congress that about 500,000 people were counted as homeless, including 128,000 children/youth, while the Education census identified over 1.3 million students as homeless, not including younger/older siblings or parents, a number that has appallingly doubled in the 10 years I’ve been on the road chronicling the plight and promise of homeless families and youth.

What this issue boils down to is dreadfully underfunded shelters and services for those who need it most—babies, toddlers, younger and older kids and parents. If you want a face on this issue, watch this 4-minute video of kids talking about homelessness. 

If you want more, go to www.hearus.us (my organization, HEAR US Inc.’s website) and scroll down a bit to watch Worn Out Welcome Mat - Kansas. 

In short, the bill would help vulnerable families and youth by changing HUD’s policy which “excludes children and youth who face real harm, including negative emotional, educational, and health outcomes; it also increases their risk of physical and sexual abuse and trafficking.” And much more. 

I stopped in Congressman Barletta’s Carlisle office and spoke with Leah, his field representative. She was quite understanding and willing to help Pat LaMarche and me set up an appointment to ask the Congressman to cosponsor this bill. Since she was so nice, I asked if she could look up how many emails were generated after my plea last Tuesday night. She did.

I wish I could say it was a lot. I can’t.

Sadly, people are busy. Survival is hard, even for those with homes. And we'd like to think we made it easy, but maybe it's not.

If you want to weigh in, simply go to www.helphomelesskidsnow.org and click on TAKE ACTION. 

The bottom line is, without community support (i.e. emails or calls) to get laws like this passed, we will continue to have skyrocketing numbers of homeless families and youth. People of Cumberland County (and beyond) will have to increase even beyond your impressive efforts to provide emergency services to families and youth who will have little hope to escape the ravages of homelessness. And I will continue to have to look in their eyes, knowing much more needs to be done, wondering what it will take to get people to care. 

What Homeless Kids Want For Christmas…And Beyond

Peer into the face of any of America’s 2.5 million+ homeless children. What could you do to ease their suffering? A toy for Christmas does not assuage their basic human need of housing, but that seems to be all they’re likely to get, and even less from our perpetually politically-hamstrung, priority-challenged Congress. 

Let’s stop pretending that homeless kids count. They don’t. 

HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) continues to deny their existence, saying that families and youth who’ve lost housing and rely on a patchwork quilt of nightly accommodations—insecurely doubling up with a succession of friends, families and acquaintances; bouncing in and out of cut-rate motels—are not “really homeless." The only “benefit” of this declaration is to keep the homeless numbers down and avoid addressing the surging increase in families, youth and adults without a place to call home.

An effort to expand the definition of homelessness to bring HUD’s definition in line with the Department of Education’s definition, one that reflects reality, is still being pondered by Congress. HUD’s annual Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR), indicates a slight decrease in homelessness, based on their “Point In Time” (PIT) count, a process criticized by homeless children/youth advocates. “The obvious discrepancy between the AHAR numbers and what any provider, public school employee, or American who regularly walks down a city street can see with their own eyes, calls into question the need for the AHAR and indeed, the purpose of the PIT counts,” stated Ruth White, executive director of National Center for Housing and Child Welfare, in a recent press release criticizing HUD’s PIT and AHAR.

Surprisingly, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 recently made it through Congress and was just signed by President Obama. The new law includes a sliver of language addressing the issue of education for homeless students, finally reauthorizing the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, last addressed in 2001. Unfortunately, this legislation includes a recommendation for a paltry amount of funding, $71.5 million, resulting in what my educator-friend points out boils down to an “unfunded mandate.” I can hardly argue.

In the 10 years I’ve been traveling backroads of America to chronicle the plight and promise of homeless children and youth under my nonprofit banner “HEAR US,” the number of homeless students identified by schools has more than doubled, from 600,000 to the current 1,360,747. During that time, funding to help schools cope with this growing population has languished, to say the least. Current funding is a mere $65 million, “up” from $62 million in 2006, reaching about 10% of districts. Money is used to provide supplies, tutors, and transportation as well as pay for staff on the state and local level to coordinate services for homeless students. So much for “homeless kids count.”

Education alone will not alleviate homelessness among families and youth, though without it they’ll have no chance to get ahead. Mostly ignored by mainstream media, accounts of homeless students breaking the chains of poverty merit sporadic coverage, highlighting their hard work and luck, but sadly diverting attention from the millions experiencing daunting struggles with poverty, gut-rumbling hunger, immobilizing trauma, debilitating physical and mental health issues (kids and their parents), and numbing insecurity, the result of not knowing where to sleep at night.

One family I’ve met in my travels, a mother of 2 girls forced to ask her ex-husband to care for their daughter until she finds a secure place to live, illustrates the devastation of homelessness. The mom has continued to try to work, providing in-home health care in return for lodging for her and her youngest daughter. In the process she’s endured grueling abuse from her hosts. Imagine the worst. 

The mother is traumatized, immobilized. She struggles to make productive decisions for her and her daughter, but she’s not able to because the help they need doesn’t exist. Her college degree and rusty work ethic will hardly provide the escape from this “non-homeless” homelessness. No jobs, much less those paying a living wage. No shelters. No affordable housing. No transportation. No counseling. No health care. 

So looking her 8-year-old daughter in the eyes, all I can do is offer an inadequate “Merry Christmas” and a stuffed animal. I painfully know it is not enough. 

Shock! Homeless Families Get Attention In Florida Media

(I read a column in the Naples Herald and have submitted this response to them. DDN)

Kudos to Gary Levine and the Naples Herald for a thoughtful examination of the oft-ignored issue of homelessness (8/17/15). Mr. Levine points out the crux of this nation’s inability to address the issue of millions of people without an address: the “disconcerting…confusing” data that obscures, even distorts, the scope of homelessness in the richest country in the history of the world.

Mr. Levine includes references to homeless families. That’s far more than data collectors from the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Development (HUD) do. Their numbers exclude up to 80% of the homeless population, including millions of children and youth, in families and on their own. HUD’s arcane methods to count homeless people for their report to Congress, and the media’s lack of scrutiny of this complex issue, lies at the heart of our nation’s failed efforts to end homelessness. 

Congress, media and the general public don’t seem to comprehend that homelessness goes far beyond the grizzled guy on the streets. Families, youth and adults lose housing and desperately seek places to stay—including doubling up with friends, relatives or acquaintances; renting rooms in seedy motels; camping in the backwoods or the cheapest campgrounds they can find; sneaking into abandoned buildings; and sleeping in the ubiquitous Walmart parking lots. 

They don’t appear homeless—and often don’t think they’re homeless. “Having hard times…,” the reality of an appalling and growing number of impoverished Americans, includes losing your place to live and having nowhere to go. The emergency shelter “safety net” doesn’t exist, barely accommodating a minuscule percentage of the homeless population, particularly families and youth. Subsidized housing is more of a myth than reality.

In the past 10 years since I’ve been traveling backroads to give voice and visibility to homeless children and youth, the sole focus of HEAR US Inc., my nonprofit, I’ve been utterly dismayed at the pervasive nature of family and youth homelessness. 

My 15 years of running homeless shelters in Illinois didn’t prepare me for what I would see. My travels to my former homeland of Florida and all 48 contiguous states, speaking with those working with families and youth as well as those experiencing homelessness (3-min YouTube) shocked me with the vastly undercounted scope of homelessness. 

My anecdotal observations might not mean much, but statistics do tell a story far worse than what HUD reports. The U.S. Department of Education, because of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, requires each district to report the actual number of homeless students showing up at school doors. Ten years ago, over 600,000 students were identified as experiencing homelessness. For the 2014-15 school year, the number has more than doubled, to 1,360,747. 

That number doesn’t include younger/older siblings, parents or other house-less household members. Part of the difference is the narrow definition HUD uses contrasting the more realistic Dept. of Ed definition. Fixing this discrepancy is currently being considered by Congress, bipartisan legislation called the Homeless Children and Youth Act. (For more info, and to contact your member of Congress to get HUD to expand their definition, www.helphomelesskidsnow.org.)

To be sure, gallant efforts and sizable resources are being directed at homelessness. Collier County has several agencies doing their utmost to assist families, youth and adults without homes. My time in your community convinced me of 2 things: many compassionate people are doing their best to help their brothers and sisters without homes, and the problem is far greater than resources available. 

I’m not a data gal, but I recoil at HUD’s maneuvering stats to essentially dismiss millions of kids and adults experiencing homelessness. I urge people to contact your congressional delegation and ask them to support the Homeless Children and Youth Act. And I encourage participation and support of local efforts to help homeless families, youth and adults. If you’re curious about this issue, my HEAR US website (www.hearus.us) suggests ways to inspire a compassion epidemic, the first step to really ending homelessness. 

Shocking! Homeless Children and Youth--100% Increase

If you wait long enough and do nothing, problems usually don’t go away. Such is the case illustrated by the astounding increase of homelessness among children and youth in this country. The latest numbers just released show a jaw-dropping 100% increase of students identified as homeless since I’ve been on the road—10 years ago.

US Department of Education numbers indicate 1,360,747 students identified experienced homelessness in the 2013-14 school year, 8% more than the previous year. 

I’m almost too numb to be shocked. Almost. 

To be clear, the 1.36 million number does not include younger/older siblings or parents. And it only represents those students identified as homeless under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, with specific qualifiers. I suspect that the number would actually double if we counted thoroughly.

As part of my work with my nonprofit organization HEAR US Inc., I spent several weeks this year filming in beleaguered Kansas, including a week at Camp IBA (Imagine. Believe. Achieve.), an astounding creation of the Wichita Public School District 259’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Education program. I can’t get these young faces out of my head or heart. 

I sat in on a campfire-style conversation of 10-12-year old girls, gathered in a circle on the floor of their camp/classroom. One girl shared her dismay of not knowing where her family would be sleeping night-to-night. Another talked about how oppressively crowded it was in their motel room. Another revealed her fear of violence if her mother’s ex-boyfriend would return. These matter-of-fact topics spun around as if these girls were adults chatting about a popular soap opera. 

Another girl told me what she liked most about the camp: she could “depend” on people, certainly the teachers and volunteers, but also her campmates. I suspect she knows about those she can’t depend on.  

Real kids. Real feelings. Real homelessness.

We apparently have decided that certain groups of homeless persons must be expendable. Kids have drawn the short straw, that, despite what we know would work for many families.

Congress is still pondering whether to let homeless families and youth qualify for federal assistance to escape homelessness. Of course, if they do, Congress might need to do something about the dire lack of affordable housing in communities from coast to coast. Legislation is dangling in the Capitol that might improve this appalling neglect, the Homeless Children and Youth Act, but though I won’t bet my lunch money that they’ll get around to passing this bipartisan, bicameral legislation any time soon, we still need to be at the table. 

As one of a handful of advocates who have been fighting for the rights of homeless families and youth for decades, I continue to be astounded at how few people, including elected officials, grasp that we even have millions of kids and families without homes, much less realize the dire conditions they face. By our collective neglect, we write off this population until they become adults on the streets. 

Something can be done. Although this seems like a long-shot, stranger things have happened in Congress. You and all those in your network can contact your congressional delegation—quickly and painlessly—by going to www.helphomelesskidsnow.org  and clicking on the TAKE ACTION link. By entering your zip code, your representatives’ info will pop up. You can customize the letter or send it as is. 

The venerable Senator Paul Simon (D, IL, deceased) once told me that until elected officials heard from their constituents that homelessness was an issue, nothing would be done. It seems like a simple formula—contact your legislator, make your wishes known, they respond. (Since big money isn't available for this issue, we'll have to do the Paul Simon method.)

With the number of homeless students increasing each year, it seems like more and more people should be aware of this crisis, maybe even knowing someone who fell into homelessness. The best motivation we have is think of ourselves in the place of those in homeless situations. 

What would we want to have happen if those kids sitting in the circle discussing their homelessness were our kids?

Ignoring Homeless Families and Youth: They Don't Disappear

Lost housing, doubled up, staying with others.

For thousands of students in Kansas, with and without parents, who have nowhere to go, doubled up means instability, tensions, and worse….

High mobility, poverty, trauma, family crises, coupled with the lack of safe and affordable housing options combine to create an onslaught of families and youth with nowhere to go. Over 70% of the more than 10,000 KS students identified as homeless are doubled up, temporarily staying in the housing of others. 

Many go unidentified…but HEAR US Inc. invites them to tell their stories in these short video clips.

Doubled up families and youth often are exposed to violence and abuse with no escape. Reliant on others for housing, often because shelters are overcrowded, nonexistent or not appropriate for many reasons, they desperately turn to anyone willing to take them in.

Often families or young persons on their own don’t connect their hardships with the official status of “homeless” and they don’t share details about their nomadic conditions. “Hard times” and “couch surfing,” euphemisms for homelessness, often mask the shame and turmoil they experience.

Fragile arrangements to stay with others often include the “walking on egg shells” mindset, a reliable predictor of the “worn out welcome mat” syndrome.

Also hidden is the instability and danger they face. Unscrupulous hosts—whether family, friends or acquaintances—may take advantage of the desperate plight of their lodgers. Sex abuse, human trafficking and prostitution can be the price for a place to stay or cause an ill-conceived option to escape the predator-host.

Once trapped in the homelessness vortex, it becomes almost impossible to escape. Not officially deemed “homeless,” a bureaucratic barricade erected by HUD, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, they don’t qualify for assistance. Slashed human service budgets means little help is available.

Through the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, tremendous support for students experiencing homelessness may be available in the form of school supplies, coats, backpacks, shoes, food and toiletries to meet immediate needs. Homeless liaisons, required in each district, may also connect students with community resources, tutoring, and extracurricular activities.

Identifying students experiencing hidden homelessness and determining their needs is crucial to ensure academic success.  Alert school personnel may pick up clues of housing instability, perhaps clarifying underlying reasons for a student’s struggles.

Homelessness. Yes, that term bears plenty of negative stigmas, but it comes in many shapes. Identifying doubled up students allows for barriers to academic success to dissolve, giving them the opportunity to focus on the only stability they know—school routines.  

To join the effort to get the bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act passed, go to www.helphomelesskidsnow.org and TAKE ACTION.