Fredericksburg Parent

www.FredericksburgParent.NET 15 The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act The work Lucero-Chavez, Bunn, and Swisher do as McKinney-Vento liaisons is mandated by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act—a federal law, included in the Every Student Succeeds Act, that ensures that home- less children "receive equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youths," according to a U.S. Department of Education fact sheet. The law guarantees transportation to the students' home school in the case of sudden displacement and ensures that there are no bar- riers to enrollment or to accessing academic and extracurricular activities. The law requires state education departments to designate a statewide coordinator of McKinney- Vento services, including the administration of grant funding as authorized by the law. The statewide coordinator in Virginia is Project Hope, which is housed at the College of William and Mary. The federal law also mandates that each local school division identify a liaison for homeless students. The liaison—according to a fact sheet published by SchoolHouse Connection, a nation- al organization that advocates for homeless children and youth—is responsible for ensuring transportation; referring families to health, den- tal, mental health, housing, substance abuse, and other appropriate services; participating in state- wide professional development; and providing professional development on homeless students to school building staff. Students are eligible for services under McKinney-Vento if they "lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence," according to the law. This definition includes "those who are sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; staying in motels, trailer parks, or campgrounds due to the lack of an adequate alternative; stay- ing in shelters or transitional housing; or sleeping in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, or similar settings." This definition is broader than the fed- eral Department of Housing and Urban Development's definition of homelessness, which does not include people who are "doubled up," or sharing someone else's house. The HUD definition is used to determine eligi- bility for services through local Continuums of Care, which can include housing assistance. But families that are "doubled up" are not eligible for this assistance. Emergency shelter options That leaves emergency shelters as the main option for McKinney-Vento families, the liaisons said—but emergency shelter options for Fredericksburg-area families with children are limited. Loisann's Hope House is the region's only family homeless shelter. The Brisben Center is another emergency shelter but can only accommodate up to eight families. "Even for the families who truly want and need to escape the subsistence life- style of hotels, overcrowded homes, or hiding out of sight, there is not enough capacity or funding so designated to serving them," Brisben Center execu- tive director David Cooper told attendees at the annual Brisben Breakfast on November 7. Swisher, who has been at her job for 16 years, said she is noticing that families stay eligible for McKinney-Vento services for longer periods of time. She said more families are living in hotels now than previously, because they have been homeless for so long that doubling up with another family became unsustain- able. "If you were to think about it, that is attributable to the cost of housing," she said. "Having to have that first month and last month's rent—how do you come up with almost $4,000?" Families that do stay doubled up are now bouncing frequently from one house to another, Swisher said. "There's a lot more movement, you know, 'I can stay here for a couple of nights, and then I have to go here,'" she said. In Stafford, the number of families who are doubled up and the number living in hotels or motels is about equal, where previously there were always more living doubled up than in hotels, Lucero-Chavez said. Currently, 95 of the 214 identi- fied students are doubled up. Lucero-Chavez said she is seeing families with evictions on their records from when the COVID-19 emergency rental assistance programs ended. The evic- tion's effect on their credit combined with the cost of living makes it extremely difficult to obtain another lease, so they are bouncing around from motels to friends' houses and even to sheds and closets. "There have been so many changes of address for our families this year," Lucero- Chavez said. "They are moving so much." Bunn delivered the keynote address at the Brisben Breakfast and stressed "what a relief it is for families when they do get in shelter." "It's really hard for families when they are living in the motel or hotel situations to be able to save up any money," she said. "It does seem that the shelter place- ments tend to be the best bridge to permanent housing." "For sure, more shelter space would be helpful," Bunn continued. "The shelters are amazing and doing what they can, but the need is surpassing [what they can do.]" ...there were 757 identified homeless students in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford County schools...

• Cover