- What comes to mind when you hear the word homeless?
Somebody that's drunk, schizophrenic, or even somebody
that's sleepin' in the street.
You even see a lot of these stereotypes portrayed
in the media.
- [Announcer] There are more homeless in New York City
then ever before.
- [Announcer] By late afternoon, the homeless returned.
- [Announcer] The aggressive and growing
homeless population --
- But if you ever watched an episode of this show,
you know that there's more to the story than that.
Behind the headlines there's a category of people
that are routinely hidden, homeless students.
(school bell ringing)
(upbeat music)
(chattering)
Let's start with an inside look
at what it's like to be a homeless student.
For that we have to give a huge shout out to Jacob.
A student reporter and recent grad from Hilldale High
in San Mateo, California.
He introduced us to his homie, Dante,
who was homeless for about six months in middle school,
when he was 12 years old.
- I had him from one of my classes,
and he vaguely brought up the point that he was homeless
at one point of his life,
but he didn't really want to explain why.
- Just how big of a problem is student homelessness,
and how are they supposed to get help?
I met up with Dante to hear his story.
- It was 2012 and it was just me and my uncle
and my grandma who we're living in the house.
I was walking down the hill and my Mom was outside,
and I remember she had already started crying,
her eyes were red.
My grandma had just passed away, and like after that
it kind of dropped, like what happened was my uncle,
he kind of kicked us out.
It was barely like four days after,
and he was basically like, you guys gotta go.
It gets me mad talking about it,
but it's terrible, but it's whatever.
So we moved in with my Mom's friend for a little while,
until we found a shelter.
It was difficult.
When I lived in the shelter, I couldn't take showers
in the morning, so I stunk a little.
One thing my Mom says I'm good at is coping.
Like that's one of the best things like she says,
I can be sleeping on a hardwood floor and still not be
complaining, as long as I have somewhere to sleep right?
- There are many reasons why people become homeless.
Maybe their rent is too high.
Maybe, you're LGBTQ and your parents don't approve
so they kicked you out.
Each situation is unique to the individual and where
that person lives, but once students are homeless
it's really difficult to identify them,
because different federal agencies have
different definitions of how to define who's homeless.
HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development
has a pretty simple definition.
You're homeless if you're A, living in a shelter,
or B, living on the street.
The agency has almost two billion dollars set aside
to help the homeless so if you're in either of those
two categories, you're eligible for some of that money.
In 2015, HUD counted over 560,000 homeless people
and to get that number the agency
uses an interesting method.
On a single night in what is usually the coldest part
of the year, around late January,
workers and volunteers count the number of homeless
people they see living in shelters,
and living in the streets at
that one specific point in time.
This gives us a snapshot of how many homeless people
there are in the country during that year.
But that count misses most homeless students.
80 percent of them, couch served,
they live in motels, or they double up
with other family or friends.
They don't live on the street or in shelters,
but they also don't have a permanent home of their own.
The Department of Education does consider these students
homeless and they estimate that
there are 1.3 million of them.
That's double the amount from just ten years ago.
So how do homeless students get the help they need?
Increasingly schools have picked up the slack.
Every public school is required
to have a homeless liaison on staff.
It's that person's job to make sure that homeless students
have a smooth, stable experience while at school.
But there's a problem.
State's haven't been required to track
their graduation rates until very recently,
but in the five states that do,
the data is pretty clear.
Homeless students are much less likely to graduate.
A recent report offers the reason why.
Most homeless students are uncomfortable telling people
at school about their situation.
The stigma of being homeless prevented
them from seeking help.
How did the other students and faculty
and teachers treat you?
- I really, I tried not to interact with students.
Like the people that I knew, I knew,
you know what I'm sayin', like they we're cool with me.
They kind of knew my situation.
I was a young man like 11 or 12.
Like you're not gonna want to tell anybody
because you think being homeless is like
being someone who's on the street,
you know, dirty, not clean, nowhere to stay,
like those things go through your mind,
so you feel like as if you have no reason to tell anybody.
- What about like your grades?
What about attendance, like how did that --
- Attendance was good, got in trouble a lot.
I did homework but I didn't at the same time.
My Mom worked at Goodwill for like two years.
It was pretty hard on me, seeing her like struggle.
I like to bike and other things like that
so I would stay out until seven.
I would ride to Goodwill.
I would get in the car, start doing homework,
get bored, have nothing to do.
I would just sit there and think, (speaks off mic).
Is this gonna be it (laughs).
You know what I'm sayin'.
Is this gonna be it?
- [Myles] After six months in a homeless shelter,
with the help of a better paying job, a housing program,
and support from friends, Dante and his Mom moved
into their current home.
- It's crazy 'cause I made it outta that.
There's always that hope, you know what I'm sayin',
that drive, that you always have.
I don't know why, but you always got it, like
and it was kind of that,
my Mom calls it like the little guy,
you know what I'm sayin'.
It was like keep goin'.
- So now we wanna hear from you.
What can your school or even just you do
to support homeless students?
Let us know in the comments below,
and again, thank you for tuning in,
and we'll catch you next time!
(upbeat music)
For more infomation >> Bible Details About Jesus Are Not Consistent How Bad Is That For Christians - Duration: 2:34. 
For more infomation >> Kirsten Gillibrand on health care fight This is not over MSNBC - Duration: 4:05. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét