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Reflections from a Project LEARN Volunteer

Posted on March 29, 2013
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Project LEARN (Lawyers Education Access Resource Network) is a cutting-edge initiative of the Law Center. It is designed to ensure children who are homeless have a stable school life by training lawyers across the country on homeless children’s rights and how to best advocate for them.

By Cara Vasquez, Associate, DLA Piper

Prior to working with the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, I had always imagined homeless individuals as being financially drained, without jobs and certainly without cell phones.  However, advocating for homeless students has opened my eyes to the variety of situations in which people are considered homeless.

A mother in Ohio contacted Project Learn about the looming disenrollment from school of her two daughters, and I immediately volunteered to help from my office in Houston.  The short e-mail blurb on the family explained that they were doubled-up with another family member.   The most intriguing part of this family’s story was that they did not fit within society’s traditional notion of “homeless.” The family had been in the process of buying a new home when their realtor recommended not renewing their apartment lease in anticipation of their home purchase.  The purchase fell through, and the family was down and out.  Unable to sign a new apartment lease due to financial difficulties, they moved in with the mother’s brother in another school district. When the school realized the family had moved, it demanded that the family either move back into the district or pay $600 a month for out-of-district tuition for her two daughters, otherwise the daughters’ enrollment would be terminated. The family did not have the financial means for either option and was certainly not in a position to take action within a week as demanded by the school.

The mother and father had been in contact with the school’s homeless liaison who repeatedly represented that, in her view, their daughters did not qualify under the McKinney-Vento Act because the family had not been evicted.  With the pressing deadline, I called the homeless liaison multiple times a day for a total of nine phone calls, all to no avail; the school did not respond.

Desperate for a resolution, I reached out to Lisa Coleman at the National Law Center to ask for advice.  She was a great resource and explained that homeless liaisons are often juggling many job duties in addition to their role as a homeless liaison.  Lisa suggested contacting the State Coordinator for Ohio, Tom Dannis.  State Coordinators are valuable assets for advocates, and their involvement is often enough to get the ball rolling.  I explained to Mr. Dannis the family’s situation, and he promised he would call the school on their behalf.  Sure enough, once Tom called, the school allowed the girls to finish out the school year!

Finally, I was finally able let the mother know that her daughters were permanent students at their school of origin.  This phone call was a rewarding experience and made all of my attempts worthwhile.  The National Law Center and State Coordinators are both tremendous resources in this process for lawyer advocates who have limited experience in this area.

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Number of Homeless Students Enrolled in Schools Exceeds One Million

Posted on June 27, 2012
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The official number of homeless students enrolled in public school has surpassed one million for the first time, the Department of Education reported yesterday. It counted 1,065,794 homeless students who were enrolled in U.S. preschools and K-12 schools in the 2010-2011 academic year—a 13 percent increase from the previous academic year. These numbers do not represent the overall number of homeless children, because it does not include homeless children who are not enrolled in public preschools or youths who have not been identified as homeless by school officials. However, they do reflect an overall trend of increased homelessness among individuals and families as a result of the weak economy of the past several years.

The McKinney-Vento Act protects the rights of homeless children to remain in school even if it is difficult or impossible to prove residency due to their housing status. Despite the requirement that all school districts have a homeless liaison to help students enroll and stay in school, many homeless individuals are not aware of the resources or are not given the correct information about their rights.

Even if homeless student are informed of their rights and are able to enroll in school, the disruptions to daily life and the challenges created by homelessness make it much more difficult to succeed in school, as highlighted by a recent congressional briefing discussed on this blog. Testimony from formerly homeless students confirmed that the status of being homeless hinders students’ abilities to complete schoolwork and stay motivated for education. Indeed, data from the report show that only about 50 percent of homeless students were able to meet or exceed standards on math and reading proficiency tests.

The Department of Education report also highlights the need to fund school system support services and other organizations that serve the needs of homeless individuals. The best option for helping youths stay in and do well in school is to ensure that they do not become homeless in the first place. But once homelessness occurs, students should be given more access to support systems that help them deal with the challenges of being homeless while in school. Getting an education is difficult enough without worrying where your next meal comes from or where you can take your next shower. We at the Law Center believe that no young person in school should have to be homeless, and that those students who are in fact homeless should not have to face that situation without support.

- Caroline Sherrard, Tufts ACS Fellow

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Voices of Youth: A Discussion on Homelessness

Posted on June 22, 2012
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Thirty-nine percent of the national homeless population are children, and approximately half of those children drop out of school. It is tough for homeless teenagers to fathom how they can finish school and attend college while also looking for a place to sleep, food to eat, and just trying to survive on daily basis.

Last Tuesday, at  a Congressional briefing titled “Voices of Youth: A Discussion on Homelessness,” thirteen currently and formerly homeless youths from across the country shared their stories. They are students who received scholarships from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY)’s LeTendre Education Fund.

The briefing was held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building room and attended by staff from NAEHCY and the offices of Senators Patty Murray and Lisa Murkowski.  The students sat in a circle, facing each other instead of the audience.  The moderator explained this was to make them feel more comfortable.  A number were visibly nervous.

The majority of the students became homeless as a result of bad living situations.  Most of their families struggled with domestic violence, drug/alcohol problems, and family deaths that resulted in neglect. One student became homeless at eight years old because his father had a serious drug problem and his mother was disabled and could not earn a living. They moved around, but they were usually rejected from shelters due to his father’s drug use. Another student explained that her parents were alcoholics and she could not bear living in that environment. A third student talked about caring for his loving sister who suffers from cerebral palsy.  He was forced into this role when his mother died because his father saw the child as a burden.  Many others discusses witnessing domestic violence or experiencing abuse—triggers that led them to flee to safety.

The unbearable living situations pushed the youths to focus on schoolwork more. When asked why they found education so important, they answered that it was an escape for them. But that is not the only reason they work hard to succeed. One pointed out that they must do well in school in order to escape this situation permanently.

“To get a good job with a good salary, you must do well in school,” said one student.

Unfortunately, school is not always an escape. Many explained that they felt scared to disclose their homelessness to a teacher or counselor. They did not want to be placed in foster care or be separated from their family. At the same time, they wished that they received more support, such as free meals at school, extra tutoring, and better transition to college. Some expressed their anger towards counselors who turned their back on them when they asked for help.

Another common issue this population faces is accessing student financial aid. A couple of youths explained that they had a difficult time working with financial aid counselors, in part because it is difficult for them to prove they are financially independent when they lack information about their parents.

A young woman explained that being homeless creates a lot of different barriers.  Their lack of life-proving documents, such as a Social Security card, keeps them from applying for a variety of aid. They struggle to find a place to sleep, eat, do laundry, bathe, and so on. They are afraid of being kicked out of their temporary housing. The bottom line is, they don’t have what many Americans take for granted.

- Stephanie Johnston, Development & Communications Intern

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For Homeless Youth, Getting an Education is Easier Said Than Done

Posted on June 18, 2012
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High School Senior Dawn Loggins (CNN)

Concerns regarding student loans are increasing.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are making ample time to discuss this issue in the presidential campaign. However, the majority of Americans do not realize how fortunate they are. Most of the college students and graduates who are concerned about their student loan debt did not need to worry about where they could live, eat, or sleep when they were growing up.

Forty percent of the nation’s homeless population is made up of families with young children. Read more »

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Homeless children shouldn’t be kicked out of school

Posted on March 1, 2012
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Across the country, children are being kicked out of school when they become homeless.

It’s not something you hear talked about much.  Maybe that’s because homelessness in general is ignored in our public discourse.  This may even be the first time you’re hearing about it.

Under federal law, children have the right to remain in the same school when they become homeless.  Schools are also required to provide free transportation, meals, and access to extra-curricular activities.  This provides vital stability when the rest of their lives have been turned upside down.

Unfortunately, a lot of schools either don’t know about or simply ignore their obligations to homeless children.  That’s why we’ve launched Project LEARN, a cutting-edge initiative to keep these kids in the classroom.  We’re working with attorneys from across the country to provide legal advocacy to homeless families and train school officials to follow the law.

I can’t stress how important this is.  Studies show that kids who are forced to repeatedly change schools are 50 percent less likely to graduate high school.  Worse, people who don’t graduate are more than twice as likely to slip into poverty in a single year, and live 9.2 years fewer on average.

Think about that: kicking a homeless child out of school may result in them dying almost ten years earlier than other kids.  Are we really going to let that happen?

You can help. By becoming a member of Project LEARN, you’ll be giving a helping hand to the more than one million homeless children in America.

They’re dreaming of tomorrow, but they need your help today.

To find out more about Project LEARN and how you can support this critical work, click here.

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Celebrating the 13th Annual McKinney-Vento Awards!

Posted on September 20, 2011
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Each year, the Law Center recognizes outstanding contributions by individuals and organizations to the movement to end homelessness at its 13th Annual McKinney-Vento Awards. This year’s event will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 21 at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C.

For Rob Robinson, homelessness isn’t an abstraction; he’s lived it.  For almost three years, Robinson survived on the streets and in shelters in Miami and New York.  And since resolving his homelessness in 2007, he’s become a powerful voice for all those still suffering its indignities.  Working with Take Back the Land, Picture the Homeless, and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, Robinson has been a fierce advocate for the human right to housing. He has also been a leader in the Campaign to Restore National Housing Rights.  G.W. Rolle, a former honoree and Law Center board member,  will present Robinson with this year’s Personal Achievement Award.

Robinson’s work has been made possible, in part, by the U.S. Human Rights Fund (USHRF), this year’s Stewart B. McKinney Award winner.  Since its founding in 2005, USHRF has provided more than $20 million to nonprofits fighting for human rights here at home.  Making the Law Center one of its core grantees right from the start, USHRF has helped us change the way policymakers view homelessness.  In March 2011, following years of advocacy by the Law Center, Robinson, and others, the U.S. acknowledged for the first time that homelessness implicates its human rights obligations. Human Rights expert Dorothy Q. Thomas, who helped start the fund, will present the award.

Congressman Barney Frank, this year’s Bruce F. Vento Award winner, has fought time and again for legislation addressing and preventing homelessness.  In 1987, he helped pass the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.  And in recent years, his leadership has been critical to helping enact the Homelessness Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program (HPRP), and Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA).  He was also a primary sponsor of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the Dodd-Frank Act. Susan Vento, the Congressman’s widow, will present Rep. Frank with this award.

This year’s Pro Bono Counsel Award will go to DLA Piper, which has provided thousands of hours of pro bono support to the Law Center across a range of issues, most prominently access to education for homeless children.  DLA Piper is taking a national leadership role on the Law Center’s new Project LEARN (Lawyers’ Education Access Resource Network) initiative.  The firm will provide training and technical assistance on homeless children’s education rights to families and school officials across the country. Suzanne Turner, pro bono partner at Dechert LLP, who received this honor last year, will present the award.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, originally scheduled to provide the evening’s keynote address, is unexpectedly unable to join us. In her stead, Assistant Secretary for Policy William Spriggs will join us to honor the efforts of those working to end homelessness in America.  Laura Evans, of Washington’s Fox 5 News, will also join us as the event’s mistress of ceremonies.

Thank you to all who have helped make this event possible. We’re so excited for what is certain to be an inspirational evening.

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Catch a Ride to Your Future

Posted on September 19, 2011
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Today’s guest post comes to us from Laurene Heybach, director of the Law Project at Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

Each year the start of school brings smiles and excitement throughout our town. Kids love getting the new supplies and backpacks. The faces of the children reveal a readiness for the new year with hopes high.

Nowhere is this excitement more stirring or poignant than in the eyes of homeless children and youth. Often living in chaotic, dismal or unstable circumstances, frequently hungry, these children and youth look forward to the community provided by school, a caring teacher or coach, friends and fun, a regular meal or two, familiarity and routine.

Thanks to the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, homeless children and youth have the right to return to their home school and receive transportation to attend and participate in school activities, receive free breakfast, lunch and assistance with other needs. But none of this start-of-the-school-year excitement is realized if the first day of school arrives and there’s no transportation to get you there and no money to buy the train or bus pass. In Chicago, the free transit passes are distributed through the school. For some of our poorest families, getting to school in the first place to claim those free passes becomes a real obstacle so children and youth miss the first day or week or even a few weeks of school. This can leave a student feeling left out of things when he or she arrives late and can result in some kids starting out the school year behind their classmates. Fortunately, the McKinney-Vento Act also requires that school districts continuously identify “barriers” such as this faced by homeless students in enrolling, attending and succeeding in school.

This school year, finally, Chicago Public Schools listened to the long-time plea of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (“CCH”) see http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/advocates-claim-back-to-school-push-missing-key-piece/. Through a collaborative effort involving the Mayor’s office, too, the Chicago Transit Authority provided free rides to school-age kids –homeless or not– and for an accompanying adult to ensure attendance on the first day of school. Chicago Public Schools is reporting the highest first day attendance in four years! CCH had proposed that the CTA service involve widespread and early publicity casting the effort as “Catch A Ride to Your Future.” Though publicity was last minute and our suggested slogan was not adopted, the free first day rides mark an important step in removing one barrier faced by our young people in accessing school. We look forward to making this a tradition in Chicago just as the free transit rides on New Year’s Eve have become.

Chicago has the third largest school system in the nation with over 600 school sites. Among its almost 400,000 students –most of whom meet federal poverty guidelines– are more than 15,000 students without stable housing. A round trip transit ride (without the student pass) is $5.00.

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Pride and Prejudice: LGBT Youth

Posted on June 29, 2011
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As national LGBT Pride Month draws to a close, advocates for gay and lesbian individuals have unprecedented cause for hope and celebration.  In 2011 alone, a remarkable succession of legal and legislative victories has already promised to reshape the civil rights landscape for this population, in matters ranging from employment to parenting to immigration.  From the Obama administration’s disavowal of the Defense of Marriage Act and suspension of same-sex spousal deportation proceedings to the passage of historic legislation granting lesbian and gay couples the freedom to marry in New York State, LGBT rights continue to advance at a rate once unimaginable.

Depsite these victories, however, discrimination against LGBT individuals can hardly be dismissed as the remnant of a less enlightened era.  Perhaps nowhere is this reality more entrenched than in the experiences of gay and lesbian youth, particularly with respect to housing and economic support.  According to the National Network of Runaway and Youth services, anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of homeless youth are gay.  Not only are LGBT youth more likely than their heterosexual peers to enter the child welfare system, they are also far more likely to age out of foster care without finding an adoptive family.

Like their heterosexual peers, homeless LGBT youth regularly encounter barriers to free and appropriate education.  Not only must these students contend with harassment and discrimination due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, they also experience heightened obstacles to stable education once they leave their parents’ homes. Despite the existence of federal laws to protect their right to public education, homeless youth are routinely stymied by residency requirements, guardianship requirements, lack of transportation, and access to health and other records.  Such added factors as frequent school transfers, lack of quiet, safe places to study, and hunger can further hamper academic achievement.

As a result, gay and transgender homeless youth, and homeless youth on the whole, drop out of school at staggering rates, with one 2008 New York study finding a full half of respondents to be high school dropouts. Similarly, a service provider for gay and transgender homeless youth in Detroit reports that over 60 percent of its clientele has dropped out of school due to bullying or discrimination.

As LGBT pride parades assemble and disband throughout the country, it’s easy to overlook the challenges faced by homeless youth amid the celebrations of their elders. While the federal government has begun to take account of these struggles, issuing an agency memo on the crisis facing gay teens in the child welfare system and introducing the Reconnecting Youth to Prevent Homelessness Act to strengthen family support for state wards, local school personnel remain an essential conduit to safety and stability.  Armed with an understanding of the law and appropriate resources, they can make the difference between pride and prejudice for LGBT youth.

- Rachel Natelson, Staff Attorney

Photo Credit: MKtp
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Sleepless in Seattle

Posted on April 21, 2011
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I woke up at 5:15 Wednesday morning in a downtown Seattle hotel.  As I struggled to get out of bed at such an early hour, I remembered why I was there – for an 8 a.m. meeting in Tacoma, with school personnel, government officials, and housing providers from across Pierce County, to talk about collaborating to provide housing and access to education for homeless children and youth and their families.  Early as it was, it was hard to justify even sleep as more important than this, so I got up and headed to the event.

When I got there I learned about lots of great things already going on in Pierce County, Washington, but I also learned that there was much work to be done.  Many people were meeting for the first time, even people who should already have been working together.  We heard about the challenges that everyone is facing right now – cuts to housing and school budgets, and school superintendents angry at rising homeless transportation costs, costs becoming more and more unpredictable as more families lose their homes and gas prices rise.

But there is a solution, and everyone’s starting to get it – it’s housing.  Kids in housing do better in school, and school districts don’t have to pay to put them on buses for hours a day.  One official noted yesterday that last year his district transported kids from four particular families at a cost of $4,000 a month.  He told the group that he could have housed all four families in apartments for less than that, except that “it just doesn’t work that way.”

It’s our job to make sure it does work that way going forward, and we will!  We’ll start by releasing a paper in the next few weeks, demonstrating that housing can cost less than school transportation, and we won’t stop until school districts, housing providers, and other key government policymakers are talking, across the country, about how to provide housing and education for all of this country’s homeless children and youth.

-Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director

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Journey to Alaska? You Betcha!

Posted on December 17, 2010
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I recently had the privilege of taking what might be the longest domestic trip ever undertaken by a Law Center staff member – a pilgrimage to Anchorage, Alaska to participate in the annual conference of the Alaska Coalition on Housing & Homelessness.  I was warmly welcomed by the dynamic and hard-working conference organizers, Kris Duncan with the State of Alaska and Suzi Pearson who runs a nonprofit focusing on domestic violence, and by their colleagues – really in all ways, except by the zero degree temperatures.

Why did I accept the invitation?   I wanted to find out what homelessness was like in Alaska.  Would it be different than down here in the “lower 48?”  What were the challenges of addressing homelessness in a state where weather conditions can be brutal all year round?  I learned the answers to these questions and others.

In some ways, Alaska has it tough.  Many people have a frontier mentality – a belief that everyone should get by on their own.  This causes some people in need to not seek assistance, and it results in many citizens not being supportive of government investment to help end homelessness.  And as a state with many low population cities, Alaska sometimes struggles to provide even temporary shelter to homeless people. Due to lack of volunteer staff resources, the cold weather shelter in Nome only opens when the temperature dips lower than ten below zero – in a community where anyone sleeping outside in the winter risks death.  Plus there are transportation concerns – one Alaska school district transports homeless children four hours a day.  That’s a lot of time for anyone to spend on a bus, and it’s logistically challenging for the school district.

But Alaska’s also got a lot of advantages – it’s got wonderful and caring people who work on this issue, like Kris and Suzi, and like Dave Mayo-Kiely and Barb Dexter in the Anchorage public schools.  And as a low population state, where “everyone knows everyone,” collaboration can be easier.  Plus, thanks to high oil prices and a good amount of federal government largesse (Alaska gets back nearly two dollars for every tax dollar it sends to Washington), Alaska is one of the few states that currently has a budget surplus.  Unfortunately, so far the state hasn’t expressed interest in devoting significant new resources to this issue – but with hard work from the Coalition, maybe that will change.

I did go to visit one Alaskan with a big huge house, and a great deal of money – former governor Sarah Palin.  I even took a picture (above)!  It was cloudy when I drove to Wasilla, so I couldn’t see Russia.  And I didn’t see the former governor either.  But if I had I would have challenged her – Alaska’s got a lot of money and a lot of land – couldn’t she help put those things together and make sure that all Alaskans have a safe place to live?  My answer?  You betcha!

-Jeremy Rosen, Policy Director

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