Number of homeless students drops
Worsening economy may have lengthened ‘doubling up’ time for families and skewed the count in schools
File Photo / News-Times
Kristin Ludwig
On the surface, it’s only a number: 1,432.
But to Alice Beggs, who oversees a program that tracks homeless pupils in the 5,955-student Forest Grove School District, the figure represents more than a thousand Oregon children and teens who lived in cars, shelters or doubled up in relatives’ living rooms last year.
New statistics from the Oregon Department of Education, released last week, indicate that statewide, the number of homeless students in 2007-08 was nearly equal to that of 2006-07.
In Forest Grove, the ODE said, the figure actually dropped by 10 students – from 76 two years ago to 66 last year.
Beggs, the district’s homeless liaison, says that number is misleading.
“Saying the numbers are holding steady puts a positive spin on it,” Beggs said Friday, just seven days into the new school year. “In general out here in Forest Grove and Cornelius, we’re less likely to recognize that students might be unstably housed.
“There’s no shelter out here. The issues of homelessness are not as easily seen.”
Besides, Beggs said, even if the numbers truly were going down, “there still is a great need.”
Her counterpart in the Hillsboro School District, Forest Grove resident Kristin Ludwig, agrees. In that district, which enrolls about 20,000 students, 310 were considered homeless in 2007-08, a slight decline from the year before.
But Ludwig, who works as the student advocate enforcing the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, fears that a lack of affordable housing in Washington County, coupled with a worsening economy, will drive more families – and students – into unstable living situations.
When that happens, Ludwig said, it’s imperative that school officials provide a safety net.
“Kids deal with a lot of anxiety wondering what will happen to their families,” Ludwig said. “The one thing they have that’s stable is their school.”
The ODE reported that in Forest Grove, 36 elementary-age students were considered homeless in 2007-08. Fifty students were living in shared housing, and 11 were unsheltered or living in motels.
In Gaston, eight students were reported homeless. Banks had no homeless students.
Complicated life
For hundreds of school children in western Washington County, particularly in the younger grades, Beggs said, life is complicated by the lack of a consistent home.
Homeless students “are clustered in the lower grades,” said Beggs, whose primary responsibility is to make sure students stay in school.
She helps students get what they need – from donated school supplies to appropriate clothing to transportation – so they can claim a seat in local classrooms.
Beggs also points parents toward community services, most often the Forest Grove Family Resource Center at Tom McCall Upper Elementary School or the Community Action shelter in Hillsboro.
It’s typically easier for teachers to spot a grade school child who might be homeless, Beggs said.
“In an elementary school classroom, their teacher is with them all day long, so they’re much more likely to notice a pattern,” she said. Indicators include inconsistent attendance, regular tardiness, wearing the same clothes day after day and hygiene issues.
In the case of homeless high school students, it’s often more difficult to tell that something is amiss.
“They’re known as ‘unaccompanied youths,’ one of our categories when we’re applying the McKinney-Vento legislation,” Ludwig said. “The older students get, the better they are at hiding.”
She even has a name for the covert behavior: “sofa surfing.”
Noticing a shift
Ludwig, who is a member of the Washington County Interfaith Committee on Homelessness, has noticed a shift in the way disadvantaged people handle their housing issues.
“This is the third week of school, and we’ve already counted 70 (homeless) students in the Hillsboro district,” Ludwig said Monday. “Families have been foreclosed upon. Some are staying with relatives for long periods of time.”
For Beggs, the long-term answer to the student homelessness isn’t nearly as clear as the short-term solution.
“People seem to be taking care of each other much more willingly,” she said.