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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 2014)
Street roots 3 Nov. 7, 2014 JACQUES VON LUNEN around the metro area echoed that sentiment. hen Oregon’s education ¿department And the numbers haven’t gone back releases its K42 homeless student down. Beaverton now is one of four districts count later this month, the report in the state that has more than 1,200 will show a disturbing trend: their numbers homeless students enrolled. The other three aren’t coming back down from peak are Portland, Reynolds and Medford, Bolt recession levels. said. Having four districts with such high Nearly 20,000 students in Oregon’s statistics is a first in state history, she said. schools were considered homeless during Data requested by Street Roots from the 2013-14 school year, the latest state Portiand-area districts under public-records records show. law show that most urban and suburban Federal educating guidelines define districts here have about as many homeless nomelessness asnothaw n^icces^rcR r**’ students now as they did toward the end of fixed, regular arid adfeciti&te nighttime' ~~ ~~ ; th e recession. The only local districts with residence, which includes those students significant reductions in homeless numbers who temporarily share housing with another over that time are small and rural. family. This is a broader definition than the The numbers provided by the local one used by the federal housing department, districts include some kids who are counted which recently reported that the number of twice as they move across boundaries. The homeless families nationwide has gone state will find these double-counts, which is down. Prominent advocates have challenged why next week’s numbers are bound to be that statement, quoting the rising numbers just slightly lower than those included in of homeless students around the country. this story. The most-recent count in Oregon schools But behind these trends and numbers lie is virtually unchanged from those taken oyer real hardships for real kids — and the the last five years. It suggests that last economic future of whole Portland year’s drop in homeless student numbers — neighborhoods. by about 1,000 statewide - likely was an aberration caused by a new counting Barriers to education method. Isabel went to Beaverton schools her This means that Oregon has twice as whole life, But she was homeless during her many homeless youths in its schools as it did 10 years ago. In the 2004-05 school year, last four years in the district. When Isabel was 15, tier parents split up and her mother barely more than 10,000 Oregon students took her to live with an aunt But living in were counted as being homeless. That such close quarters number climbed proved too volatile steadily but slowly and the teenage girl until tiie recession Homeless students pass stale ended up having to hit, when it jumped fend for herself. She tests at about twu-tfclrds the to about 19,000, stayed on friends’ state records show. rate of the general student couches, always And that is where population, For example, worried how long it has stayed since. about S3 percent of a ll each arrangement The rise from would last. students passed their math 2004 to 2008 “I wasn’t able to probably was due to tests in the 2012-13 school focus on school,” a combination of year In Oregoa, according tp Isabel said. “My factors including state records» Only about 39 problems were so overall population percent of homeless students overwhelming,” growth in the state She was struggling and stricter federal did, in her classes. requirements for Graduation seemed schools to detect less and less likely. which of their It’s a common students are pattern for homeless students, said Julie homeless, said Dona Bolt, the state Barbour, who’s been teaching in a high- coordinator for Oregon’s homeless poverty Portland neighborhood for 22 years. education program. Homeless students often have trouble But the bump between 2008 and 20i0 sticking to one task for a long time, she sâjd. surely is a result of the recession. Because homeless families move around a “During the recession, we had a definite lot, the kids may go to-many different increase in clientele who had never dealt schools. with poverty before,’’ said Lisa Mentesana, “They wonder, ‘How* long am I going to the homeless liaison for theBeaverton be hefe?’” Barbour said. School District Other school employees STAFF W R IT E R W Homeless students in Oregon 2007-08:15,859 2009-10:19,040 2013-14:19,655 This affects their social skills. And their previous school may have had a slightly different curriculum. Homeless students have many more barriers to education than do students with stable housing, Barbour said., “It’s really hard to learn when you have so much else you’re thinking about,” said Molly Frye, a social worker in the Reynolds School District, which has the highest percentage of homeless students in the tri-county area. “These kids ask themselves, ‘When school gets out, where am I going; is my family OK? What are we going to eat tonight?”’ Frye said. Education statistics bear out these observations. Homeless students pass state tests at about twb-thirds the rate of the general stttdent population. For example, about 63 percent of all students passed their math tests in the 2012-13 school year in Oregon, according to state records. Only about 39 percent of homeless students did. Schools provide extra resources for these children, inside and outside of the classroom. The wall opposite from Frye’s desk at Reynolds Middle School is lined with mfetal shelves holding cans of food. Every Friday, about 85 families come in for supplies, Frye said. Schools Uniting Neighborhoods — or SUN — is a network of support services managed by Multnomah County. It has sites at 80 schools in the county. Christine Rhoney runs the site jit an elementary school in the Lents neighborhood. Many families there have to choose between paying rent, paying utilities or feeding their children, Rhoney said. She runs a food bank at the school. “At least we’ll help you feed your kids,” Rhoney said. Beaverton has food banks at its schools, Mentesana, the homeless liaison there, said. The district, like others, also offers school supplies to high-poverty and homeless students. It holds clothing drives. And in the classroom, there are special support services. Homeless students are given extra time to graduate. Districts must direct part of their federal dollars designated for low-income children to support homeless students. But that money — called Title I funds — isn’t enough in the bighest-poverty schools, said Barbour. Students from very low- - income families, including-homeless students, often arrive in kindergarten with limited learning experience. This means they need more attention from teachers. “But we have 30 or more kids in some kindergarten classes,” Barbour said. “The Title I money is too little.” . Investing in education is an effective way to break the cycle of poverty that can begin as early as preschool, experts say. Low-wage jobs A look at the Oregon economy can provide at least a partial explanation for homeless-student numbers that jumped during the recession and never came back down. “It’s not low-income folks and not homeless folks who have recovered (since. the recession),” said Mary Li, a division manager at the Multnomah County Department of Human Services in Portland. There has been a steady rise in homeless families in Multnomah County, with no reductions after the end of the recession, Li said. One explanation: The jobs that were added since the recession were mostly at the top and bottom ends of the salary range, according to a report by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis earlier this year. There has been growth in the market for management positions, according to the report. Engineers and designers also are in demand. These are jobs that typically require college degrees and experience — out of immediate reach of most low-income families. The two fastest-growing job sectors overall were personal care and agriculture. These jobs pay around $20,000 per year, according to the state report. The report describes a “polarization” of the Oregon job market: medium-wage jobs lost in the recession are replaced in part by higher-wage jobs that require college degrees, or — more often — by minimum- wage jobs. See NEW NORMAL, page 5
