Natalie Dascoulias:
Homeless youth are on the rise, according to the New York State Department of Education. In the Syracuse City School District, nearly two-thousand students are homeless out of almost 20-thousand students, this is about ten percent. Reporter Kallan Arkeder investigates how Syracuse schools are trying to support homeless students.
Kallan Arkeder:
Next year the Syracuse City School District will use over 94-thousand dollars from a federal grant to provide school supplies, tutors, and transportation to homeless students. The schools help homeless students through the McKinney-Vento Law which requires schools to provide homeless students with basic needs such as meals, clothes, and health care. Syracuse School District’s McKinney Vento Liason Deb Montroy says the schools have other programs to help their homeless students.
Deb Montroy:
We do have a homeless student population. We have programs set for them to try and help them out. We provide them all their meals when they are at school and offer them supplies for school.
Kallan Arkeder:
However, to receive these benefits, the students need to report their homeless status. Montroy says many families won’t come out and say there are homeless.
Deb Montroy:
Families will say they are living with another relative because they don’t want to tell anyone they are homeless. A lot of students are couch surfing and moving from one bed to the next.
Kallan Arkeder:
Many students don’t consider themselves homeless, but schools do and so does the federal government. They define homelessness as a person sharing other people’s housing due to economic hardship. The McKinney Vento Act continues by saying if the residence is not fixed it is considered a homeless situation. Syracuse runaway and homeless youth shelter director Mithila Hasan has been working with homeless youth for over 20 years. She says she’s seen a big change in where kids are living.
Mithila Hasan:
There are many people that are staying with a grandparent, staying with a cousin or aunt. We’ve seen that more over the years where it’s not directly a mother or a father that is taking care of a kid. Or mothers are staying with their mothers or another family member.
Kallan Arkeder:
Hasan continues to explain most of the kids who come to her Booth House shelter are runaways.
Mithila Hasan:
Probably I would say about 70% is runaway kids. Homeless kids typically if they are completely homeless is because their family is also homeless. So they are either couch surfing as a family, their family is in shelter, and so then the family determines that maybe that for their kids booth house is a little bit more suitable than a family shelter.
Kallan Arkeder:
Students who do not report their homeless status are not eligible for the McKinney Vento educational benefits. Syracuse Social Worker Kim Vargas says the schools protect homeless students and do what they can to make them comfortable.
Kim Vargas:
All we can do is try and make these kids feel safe and help them when they ask for help.
Kallan Arkeder
Despite schools creating after school programs, providing specialists, and other services, Hasan doesn’t think the schools are being supportive enough.
Mithila Hasan:
I don’t think it’s enough. City schools are overpopulated, underfunded so I don’t think its enough. But any strides to do better is great.
Kallan Arkeder:
Although Syracuse struggles with their rising homeless population, the schools and shelters focus on rising above.
Mithila Hasan:
I think they are trying to bridge those gaps and give those kids and families more support. I see big strides with the city schools at least trying to help with the situation.
Kallan Arkeder:
For N-C-C News, I’m Kallan Arkeder.
By Kallan Arkeder SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)–Homeless youth are on the rise in Syracuse, according to the New York State Department of Education. Nearly 2,000 out of the 20,000 students in Syracuse are homeless and there are 140,000 homeless students across New York. About five percent of students in New York are homeless. Whereas in Syracuse, ten percent of students are homeless.
The Syracuse City School District was recently allocated a $145,000 grant from the state to support their homeless students. The Syracuse School Board announced they are using $94,000 from the school’s budget to provide homeless students with meals, school supplies, clothes, health care, tutors, and transportation needs next year.
“We do have a homeless student population,” Syracuse City School District McKinney-Vento Liason Deb Montroy said. “We have programs set for them to try and help them out. We provide them with all their meals when they are at school and offer them supplies for school.”
“Families will say they are living with another relative because they don’t want to tell anyone they are homeless,” Montroy said. “A lot of students are couch surfing and moving from one bed to the next.”
The district goes by what families report, and only the students that report themselves as homeless are eligible for the McKinney-Vento benefits. A lot of families don’t consider themselves homeless because family households have changed over the years.
“There are many people that are staying with a grandparent, staying with a cousin or aunt,” Booth House Shelter Director Mithila Hasan said. “We’ve seen that more over the years where it’s not directly a mother or a father that is taking care of a kid. Or mothers are staying with their mothers or another family member.”
Hasan has been working for the Booth House shelter for over 20 years and explains how the majority of the kids she sees in the shelter are runaway youth.
“Probably I would say about 70 percent is runaway kids,” Hasan said. “Homeless kids typically if they are completely homeless is because their family is also homeless. So they are either couch surfing as a family, their family is in shelter, and so then the family determines that maybe that for their kids booth house is a little bit more suitable than a family shelter.”
Hasan works with the Syracuse City School District regularly to check students attendance, grades and also to take referrals from the schools. Despite the schools providing after-school programs, specialists, and other services, Hasan doesn’t think the schools are being supportive enough.
“I don’t think it’s enough,” Hasan said. “City schools are overpopulated, underfunded so I don’t think it’s enough. But any strides to do better is great.”
However, the schools see it as they can only support students that come forward and want help.
“All we can do is try and make these kids feel safe and help them when they ask for help,” Syracuse Social Worker Kim Vargas said.
