Youth At Risk: Homelessness and the Need for Educational Awareness in Schools

Steven D. Coop
Counseling 545: Counseling Youth At Risk
Instructor: Catherine Nyhan, MA, LPC, Licensed School Counselor
August 4, 2013
Homeless and runaway youth are a large, vulnerable and high-risk population not only in
our communities but in our schools as well. According to the Institute for Children and Poverty
(2008), families with children are among the fastest growing segments of the homeless
population. Unfortunately, there are many people who either do not care about or do not
understand how to identify these at-risk youth. Official definitions, though varying in scope and
focus, attempt to provide a framework for understanding the problems of homeless youth.
According to Deborah Bass-Rubenstein (2008), Homeless youth are unaccompanied
youth between the ages of 16 and 21 who cannot safely live with a relative and have no safe
alternative living situation. The National Coalition for the Homeless has created a definition for
homeless that reads in part, Homeless youth, also referred to as unaccompanied youth, are
those individuals under the age of eighteen who lack parental, foster, or institutional care.
However, despite the value of these definitions, U.S. Government agencies have included
additional definitions within laws and regulations recognized by many service agencies across
the country. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD, 2009), state that
the term homeless or homeless individual or homeless person includes:
1. An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and
2. An individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is
a. a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide
temporary living accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate
shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill);
b. an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended
to be institutionalized; or
c. a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular
sleeping accommodation for human beings.

According to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which was the first
significant federal legislative response to homelessness and remains the primary provision of
homeless legislation, states that homelessness for children and youth
A. means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence
(within the meaning of section 103(a)(1); and
B. includes
(i) children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to
loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in
motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of
alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or
transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting foster care
placement
(ii) children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a
public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular
sleeping accommodation for human beings (within the meaning of section
103(a)(2)(C));
(iii) children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces,
abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar
settings; and
(iv) Migratory children (as such term is defined in section 1309 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965) who qualify as
homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in
circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii).

Homelessness, however, is much deeper than even these legal definitions provide for. To
fully understand the expansive nature of homelessness, we must also take a comprehensive look
at factors that promote homelessness and those barriers that prevent successful transitions out of
homelessness.
As we know, homelessness has a devastating impact on children and youths educational
opportunities. Residency requirements, guardianship requirements, delays in transfer school
records, lack of transportation, and lack of immunization records often prevent homeless children
from enrolling in school. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty lists
enrollment requirements, high mobility of youth, lack of transportation, lack of school supplies,
and poor health as some of the leading obstacles facing runaway and homeless youth who may
attempt to stay connected or reconnect with schools and other educational focused resources.
Complicating the issue of homelessness and runaway youth are the multitude of ways by which
youth become part of this ever growing population.
According to the Analysis of Oregons Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs, youth
run away from families due to conflict for a variety of issues including sexual abuse, physical
abuse, neglect, pregnancy, rejection and fear to name a few. In addition, youth may be thrown
out of their homes or left behind when a family moves. Sometimes, youth may have arrived in
the U.S. as refugees, without family and without friends and are left to wander from location to
location in pursuit of a new life and new beginnings.
Despite their best intentions, homeless youth are faced with many consequences related
to living on the street and/or in unstable environments. We know that being homeless frequently
results in an in increased likelihood of youth participating in other high-risk behaviors including
use of intravenous drugs, participation in unprotected sex, and an increased likelihood of having
multiple sex partners. For gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning youth, the homeless
lifestyle has been known to result in higher levels of violence and sexual assaults. Because of
this, homeless youth often experience an increased risk of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem,
poor health, poor nutrition, and suicidal thoughts and death. Because of these added risks, it is
critical to understand the extent to which homeless youth exist in our communities so that we are
better able to allocate funding and resources to addressing each of added risk factors associated
with homelessness.
According to findings published by the Oregon Department of Education, the following
numbers represent the living situation of homeless students within the state. During the 2011-12
school year, 2,533 students lived in shelters, 900 in motels, 16, 151 had some form of shared
housing, and 1, 798 were unsheltered living on the streets. These students made up
approximately 3.65% of the total enrollment in Oregon K-12 schools. Of all the K-12 homeless
students reported, 3, 913 were considered unaccompanied minors who were either abandoned
by their parents or had run away from home. According to the findings, this represented a 9
percent increase in unaccompanied minors in just one year. Furthermore, the report found that in
Oregon, the number of homeless students in grade 12 has been higher than other grades, and in
proportion to grade 12 counts in other states, for several years (pg. 25). In another study, New
Avenues for Youth, a non-profit organization located in Portland, Oregon dedicated to
empowering homeless youth to exit street life, reported a 29 percent increase in families
experiencing homeless and a 48 percent increase in youth accessing basic services over the past
year. In addition, they report that 78 percent of homeless youth receiving services struggle with a
known mental health condition.
Despite these solid figures, additional evaluation of homeless youth trends across Oregon
must be done if a thorough analysis of the problem can be conducted. To help identify trends
across school districts, the Oregon Department of Education created several spreadsheets
documenting homeless trends through every school district in the state. Analysis of the data
received revealed that eight school districts in Oregon had the highest number of homeless
students. Most of the school districts with the highest percentage of homeless students enrolled
were associated with larger urban communities. Reasons for this difference between rural and
urban homeless populations were not addressed in this study.
To further understand the state of our homeless youth in Oregon, we must take into
consideration how Oregon figures compare to other states. In the 2010 state report card on child
homelessness, the National Center on Family Homelessness identified Oregon as being the worst
state related to the extent of child-homelessness. However, despite this finding, the same report
found Oregon to be in the top 10 states, ranked number 10, for policy and planning efforts aimed
at helping families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
With a better understanding of the number of homeless youth enrolled in Oregon schools,
we can begin to think of ways to help support these youth and better prepare them for productive
futures. Whether we isolate efforts to within our schools or expand out to include the larger
communities from which our students come, we must begin to expand our options for reaching
out, identifying and helping homeless youth growth.
For many students without permanent housing, the simple act of getting to class can be a
real challenge. Below are a few examples of recent research and resulting proposals made by
professionals and academic scholars who have taken time to evaluate methods used for building
rapport, increasing self-esteem, and maximizing the potential of homeless and other at-risk
youth.
Ottaway, King, and Erikson (2009) studied the effects of support systems on outcomes
for homeless youth. They argued that involvement in community art and writing programs helps
homeless students develop a stronger sense of self-efficacy and a deeper sense of self-worth. In
addition, they discuss how art programs provide homeless youth with connections to a
community which in turn widens their social network, potentially reducing their risk for
participation in risky behaviors.
In a very recent study, Ferguson, Kim, and McCory (2011) examined this concept of
community involvement and suggested that providing students with an opportunity to take on
leadership roles and engage in decision making within schools, shelters, or larger communities
allows young people in homeless situations to gain an important sense of control in their
otherwise unstable lives. It is this sense of control that ultimately leads the homeless youth to
realize that they, more than anyone else, have the ability to overcome barriers and to succeed at
reaching goals, whether educational or career focused, they may set for themselves.
Dion (2013) proposes a framework for working with at-risk youth that is focused on
providing evidence informed interventions aimed at building resilience. Within the framework,
she emphasizes the importance of being aware of youths underlying risks and protective factors
when planning and providing services aimed at stabilizing youth in crisis. She says that earning
their trust by first addressing their basic needs will go a long way in building rapport. To ensure
the services being provided are working as planned, we must not forget the importance of
engaging youth in ongoing assessment to identify if the plan is working. Because the daily
situations that most homeless youth find themselves facing are rarely constant, it is absolutely
necessary for the service plans established for homeless youth to remain flexible and fluid.
Therefore, the evaluation of program approaches must look at both short and long term impacts.
In addition to these approaches, homelessness must be addressed within our classrooms
as well. The following is a list of educational tools that can be used in schools and classrooms to
help counselors, teachers and other school personnel talk about and support homeless
populations within their communities. These items were identified by the Illinoise State
Department of Education and compiled on their website which can be located at
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/homeless/pdf/Lesson_Plan_Links.pdf .
Lesson Plans on Homeless Issues from the North Dakota Homeless Coordinator
http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/title1/homeless/resources/onlinplan.pdf

Minnesota Coalition for the HomelessClassroom Curriculum
http://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/resources/curriculum/

Kids Without HomesTexas Homeless Education Coordinators
http://www.utdanacenter.org/theo/resources/kidswithouthomes.php
This complete toolkit for teaching homeless education issues in the classroom is downloadable with the
covers to create a binder of the awareness materials and lesson plans, handouts, PowerPoint
presentations, for use with any of the five modules for organizations, lessons for kids grades K12, and
modules for teachers, nurses, nutritionists, school counselors and social workers, transportation directors,
and awareness materials for realtors, owners and managers of economy hotels and bilingual flyers for
custodians.



Kids Without Homes: A School District Responds
http://www.utdanacenter.org/theo/downloads/kidswithouthomes/vol1_overview.pdf
The lessons are related to the Texas Homeless Education Program with homeless awareness lessons for
school kids for Grades K12 developed by Nancy Walker of Austin, Texas. Produced by the Educational
Service Center in Waco, Texas through a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Homeless in AmericaGrades 812 with interactive lessons that combine field trips, photography,
paintings andCharles Dickens literature. PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/teachers/lp_homeless.html

Homeless in Americaa Mini unit on the historic work of Jane Addams and homelessness in America.
http://teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/Byrnes-famous/JANEADDA.html

Maniac Magee by Jerry SpinelliThis story is about a homeless child and several websites are attached
to this story to assist in teaching the concepts of homeless issues.
http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-8976.html
Learning to Give K 12 site Day in the Life of a Homeless PersonGrades 35
http://www.learningtogive.org/lessons/unit119/lesson3.html

PBS Homeless in America Lesson Planelementary level
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/teachers/lp_homeless.html

Hobsons Choicean interactive website that illustrates the lack of choice when people become
homeless
http://www.jamesrmaclean.com/archives/WhyHC.html
Teaching About Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty
Suggested Activities and Sources of Information for Elementary through College Students and Adults
http://www.catholiccharities-md.org/pdf/hunger/hunger-homelessness-poverty-lesson-plans.pdf

Erase HomelessnessA Lesson Plan for elementary by Crayola
Can you imagine not having a home? Crayola asks children to draw their ideas about how they would
erasehomelessness using arts and crafts.
http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/erase-homelessness-lesson-plan/

National Homeless Organization Fact Sheets on Homelessness for K2 with lessons included to expand
theunderstanding of this age students.
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/Fact%20Sheet%20and%20LessonPlan-K-2.pdf
Iowa Department of Education Homeless Resource Guideprovides links to lesson plans for Grades 1
12 focusing on basic needs, housing, understanding homelessness, affects on society, how the homeless
can be helped and bibliographies for extended reading or research for upper grades 612 .
http://www.iowaccess.org/educate/ecese/is/homeless/resource_guide.html
Because so much is yet to be learned about the epidemic that is homelessness throughout
America, its states, cities, towns and communities, the best approach to addressing the severity
of the issue and ways to help everyone affected by it is through application of lesson plans within
our schools. As educators, we need to treat homelessness like math, science, and language arts.
We cannot shy away and pretend it does not happen to people around us. We must encourage
dialogue that is supportive and educational from the earliest stages of development. We must
ensure that everyone is aware that homelessness is a problem, exacerbated by the many risky
behaviors frequently associated with it. Homelessness will not go away on its own.
As Capuzzi and Gross (2008) state in their closing remarks on homeless youth, Without
more concentrated efforts for prevention and intervention, youths who are homeless will
continue to be at risk for growing up uneducated, in poor health, and at risk for recreating the
cycle of homelessness with their children (pg 451). We must not forget that for this to become
a reality, children who are experiencing homelessness need more than anything to remain in
school. School is one of the few stable, secure places in the lives of homeless children and
youth. School is a place where they can acquire the skills needed to help them escape both
homelessness and poverty. It is only through the formation of strategic partnerships between
individuals, families, community members, students in the classroom and educators that our
homeless youth will see through the challenges and recognize their fullest potentials.




References
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