30,000 Orange County Children Experience Homelessness, Watchdog Estimates

An Orange County grand jury report estimates there are 30,000 students experiencing homelessness in the county. That's a massive number compared with the 722 children identified in the "Point-in-Time" count last year.

The discrepancy is largely due to competing federal definitions of "homeless," but the grand jury wants the county to accept its much larger estimate over the point-in-time definition, which is set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

"The County’s use of the HUD definition of homelessness results in the undercounting of children experiencing homelessness in Orange County, the denial of housing assistance, and contributes to ongoing homelessness for families," the watchdog body wrote.

The federal McKinney-Vento Act requires schools to identify students experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity for the purpose of providing appropriate support and services. The law defines these students as children and youth who lack “a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,” including students living in overcrowded homes, couch-surfing, living in motels or vehicles.

It's a broader definition than the one used in HUD's Point-in-Time homeless counts, which only include people living outside or in shelters.

The grand jury reported that O.C. public schools have identified more than 23,000 students experiencing homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Act. Interviews with experts suggesting even that number is an undercount led the grand jury to estimate that "30,000 is closer to the real number."

According to the O.C. Department of Education, students experiencing homelessness make up about 6% of public school enrollment. More than 90% of these students are doubled-up, tripled-up or otherwise in shared housing, according to the data.

The report found that school liaisons assigned to support students experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity are often inexperienced, overstretched and lack proper training. It also found that the major resource families need — affordable housing — is elusive.

Page 1 of The ABCs of Educating Children Experiencing Homelessness In Orange County

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The O.C. grand jury investigates and reports on civil and criminal matters and reports to the presiding Superior Court judge. Each California County is required by law to have a grand jury.

Most families considered homeless by their school don't qualify for housing assistance

Families identified as homeless by schools often don't qualify for housing assistance because they don't meet HUD's definition of homeless, said David Gillanders, executive director of the nonprofit Pathways of Hope.

"Most shelters that are going to be funded through public money, through HUD grants and things like that, a lot of the time the family has to be literally homeless to get into a shelter," he said.

Meanwhile, families who are homeless according to McKinney-Vento's broader definition make up the majority of those who need help.

"We shouldn't find it satisfactory as a society to say, ‘It's OK if this family is living tripled-up with no electricity but they're not literally homeless and that's good enough’ — it's not good enough," Gillanders said. "There's almost a blind spot to the kinds of services those families need sometimes."

Still, he said, it shouldn't fall to schools to figure out how to help those students. "I think it's almost unfair to ask schools to also be the one-stop shop for people's housing concerns," Gillanders said, adding that there "seems to be no real slowdown" in the number of families experiencing housing insecurity.

What else did the grand jury find?

• Many students experiencing homelessness don't get identified as required under the federal McKinney-Vento Act.
• School liaisons who are federally mandated to support students experiencing homelessness often have many other duties and therefore don't have enough time to fully support housing-insecure students and their families. 
• The position of McKinney-Vento liaison tends to have high turnover and therefore liaisons sometimes have minimal experience in the job. There's also no mandatory training.
• The federal government provides grant funding to support students experiencing homelessness. But some districts don't have the capacity to apply for those grants. 
• Students often lose their McKinney-Vento support when they change districts or enter high school because federal law prohibits sharing information about their housing status across districts.
• When surveyed, McKinney-Vento school liaisons said the main support they needed was housing for vulnerable students. 

The report also looked at the correlation between homelessness, test scores and absenteeism and found:

• Students experiencing homelessness generally face higher rates of absenteeism and lower test scores — in some cases much lower — than other students, including socioeconomically disadvantaged students. For example, just 21% of high school students experiencing homelessness met statewide standards for math compared with 53% of high school students overall.
• Elementary school students experiencing homelessness are nearly twice as likely to be chronically absent compared to all students. High school students experiencing homelessness are closer to three times more likely to be chronically absent compared to all students. 
• In schools where students experiencing homelessness are rare, those students tend to be absent more frequently than at schools with large numbers of students experiencing homelessness.

What are the grand jury's recommendations?

• McKinney-Vento training should be a mandatory component of back-to-school preparation for all school administrators, teachers, office staff, and counselors.
• Districts should identify ways to increase support for McKinney-Vento liaisons.
• A waiver should be added to enrollment forms so that parents can give a district permission to share their housing status if they move to a new district. 
• Each school district should develop a list of employees who can write grants to support students experiencing homelessness.
• The county should develop a plan to increase family shelters, permanent supportive housing and other low-cost, permanent housing for families.

Resources

If you're experiencing homelessness:

• Call 2-1-1 or visit their website
• Find contact information for the McKinney-Vento liaison at your O.C. school district

If you want to know more about McKinney-Vento:

• National Center for Homeless Education
• OCDE's Homeless Outreach Promoting Educational Success (HOPES) Collaborative