by Joanne Zuhl, Staff Writer
It is a jarring number — 18,000. That’s how many students in Oregon public schools experienced homelessness in the 2008-09 school year. That’s a 14 percent increase over the previous year, according to state figures, and still, fewer than what is expected to enter school halls come this fall.
It’s not just a humanitarian issue, it’s a financial one as well, with local districts unable to sustain the outreach and effort needed for their most vulnerable students.
This week, hundreds of people converged on Salem for the first Interfaith Summit on Homeless Children, Youth and Families, looking for ways that they can alleviate and even reverse these figures.
“There are lot of advocacy groups working on different issues, but no one has taken on this issue of the kids in public schools, and this will be the first time that anything like this has happened,” says Chuck Currie, a minister with the United Church of Christ in Portland and an advocate for health care and homeless people. “It should have happened a decade ago. I’m very happy we have finally gotten to the point where we have people getting together. I just wish it didn’t take 18,000 kids to make it happen.”
The event comes just a few days after the Obama administration released its Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, the new nationwide agenda that follows on the heals of the Bush administration’s 10-year plan initiative. Unlike its predecessor, which focused attention and funding on chronic homelessness, the new plan broadens its primary objectives to include children and families experiencing homelessness. The Department of Education reports a 20 percent increase over the previous year in the number of students in public schools who are experiencing homelessness.
In Washington County, the faith-based community began organizing several years ago to address its rising poverty and homeless rates, despite also being one of the wealthiest counties in Oregon. Eric Canon of Forest Grove, a member of Interfaith Committee on Homelessness, says that in the past three years, the efforts of the faith-based communities — including opening their facilities for winter and emergency shelter — have raised the level of support for local agencies.
“They had no clue that there were homeless people in Washington County. They know now. The churches are now much better focused on what the real problem is. That it’s not just in Portland. If you have meals to give away, don’t drive to Portland. There’s a need right here.”
As a result of the summit, organizers and participants hope to use the impetus of the faith-based community to fill gaps for students’ basic needs and push for funding and policy around affordable housing and services. That spans everything from supplying backpacks and after-school mentoring to opening facilities for shelter and looking at how the state addresses mental illness, addiction and foster care.
“There are a lot of churches that are already involved in these issues and that’s great, but there’s not enough,” Currie says. “And there are a lot of churches out there that are interested in these issues, but they don’t know how to get involved. So part of issue is bringing people to the table who have started programs and helping train other churches on how to replicate those efforts and expand on a statewide levies.”
The event is being organized by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and is sponsored by several faith-based groups from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities.
Dona Bolt has been Oregon’s coordinator for homeless education for nearly 23 years, and 18,000 was the highest number she’s seen in her career, but she hasn’t finished compiling the 2009-10 figures yet.
“There’s no indication that the numbers are decreasing,” Bolt says. “In fact, it’s likely that they will be going up.”
The state’s count of homeless students includes runaway youths who are couch surfing and students living in motels, Bolt says, a population not picked up in the one-night shelter counts. “It’s still a form of homelessness as far as children are concerned,” Bolt says. “Because we’re really interested in stabilizing their education in one school for as long as possible.”
The same year Oregon first learned it had 18,000 homeless students, it also received $1 million in recovery funds from the federal government to address the crisis. That was a one-time infusion that has long been spent. And while the state of Oregon doesn’t fund services specifically for homeless students, Bolt foresees that looming state budget cuts to other support services will have a detrimental effect on the youths.
“It’s going to take a bite,” Bolt says. One of the new efforts at the statewide level this year is to start counting preschool children, ages 3 to 5, who are homelessness, and then use that information to prepare Head Start and early intervention programs for the youths in need.
“Although we’re not going to have total statewide data, it’s preparing for the fact that we’re going to have a lot of really young kids,” Bolt says. “And the developmental delays caused by environmental factors is just ratcheted up. And due to environmental stresses, parents begin to get stressed out. It’s just a real critical time for these kids to have stability. And when you’re homeless, that’s the one thing that you lack.”
With money for social services on the decline, and the number of students experiencing homelessness on the rise, Currie and others within the interfaith community are pushing lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to channel funding toward schools and programs.
Currie and others are pushing for the passage of the Educational Success for Children and Youth Without Homes Act, which both Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have co-sponsored. The Act, introduced near the end of 2009, would dedicate more funding to public schools to support the needs of homeless students, and ensure that course credits are preserved as students change schools, and support additional transportation needs.
Janet Byrd, executive director with Neighborhood Partnerships, one of the sponsors of the summit, says there are plans being made for a push for additional state funds when the Legislature convenes in February 2011. “There will be efforts at the state level to support a safety net for very low income families, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Earned Income Tax Credits. At the federal level, there are a number of promising opportunities to increase funding that would support families – through the HEARTH Act, the National Housing Trust Fund, new stimulus resources, etcetera.”
Canon hopes that as the faith-based community becomes more informed on the situation, more can be done to change it. “We have to realize that we have some power and we have to raise our voices and advocate for these changes. Otherwise, the people who we’re trying to help have no voice.”
On an issue like this, says Currie, the newspapers and others like to play up the differences of people of faith. And there are many, he concedes. But there are also a lot of things held in common.
“There is more agreement between us than people oftentimes understand or appreciate,” Currie says. “I’m glad we have the chance to come together on this, but how successful we are will show in time, and it won’t be anything immediate, and that’s the terrible tragedy.”
Photo courtesy of Chuck Currie