Philly schools are spending $2.3 million for the 10,000 students experiencing homelessness

The Philadelphia School District is spending $2.3 million to support students experiencing homelessness — money officials say is crucial to making sure about 10,000 young people are able to access public education.

The programming had been at risk, originally paid for by federal stimulus funds that provided the ability for the district to add staff and partner with outside organizations to identify homeless students, then provide them with services ranging from backpacks and uniforms to groceries and transportation help.

Tianna Gaines-Turner, housing supervisor of Eddie’s House, a nonprofit that works with the district, said because of the money, children “will not have to sleep on the floor, not have to go to bed cold, not have to go to school without clean clothes, will not have to stand in the rain waiting for shelter.”

In the pandemic and post-pandemic years, the number of students who were identified as experiencing homelessness rose sharply, from 6,000 to 10,000.The district’s total enrollment is about 116,000.

Homeless students aren’t simply those who live in shelters; many families experience housing insecurity in other ways — for instance, by doubling up with friends or family, couch surfing, living in cars, sleeping outside.

Officials trumpeted the funding Tuesday at a City Hall news conference where an old couch was placed in front of a lectern, a visual to drive home the saying that “couches don’t count.” Any student “who lacks a regular, fixed, and adequate nighttime residence,” Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said, is considered homeless and is entitled by federal law to special protections and supports.

The numbers are stark. Across the U.S., 4.7 million youth experience homelessness each year. Homeless youth are 87% more likely to drop out of school, and are more likely to become truant. Children who experience homelessness are a staggering 347% more likely to become homeless as adults, officials said.

Watlington attributed the district’s academic progress in part to increased focus on and supports for homeless students — “lifting the floor and focusing very intently on our children who are homeless.”

City Councilperson Isaiah Thomas, chair of Council’s education committee, said he has seen the issues faced by youth experiencing homelessness as a longtime high school basketball coach who has worked with players struggling because of their housing situations.

It would have been easy for the district to punt on the issue, but “Dr. Watlington, his team, and everybody involved, we’ve all said that this is all of our problem,” Thomas said. “As a city, how we service our children determines who we are.”

Tuesday’s event hosted by the city and district was also significant because the two entities, while interdependent, can sometimes be at odds; last year, the school board sued the city over its attempt to control whether schools could open. Thomas has called the district out on facilities issues.

Thomas credited the district and school board with stepping up and said that, in the future, he hoped the city and state could supplement funding.

Officials made clear that the district finding the $2.3 million in its $4.5 billion budget is a temporary fix; that sum pays for services only through the end of the school year.

“At some point,” Thomas said, “we have to have structural solutions to structural problems.”

Still, Quadirah Locus, program supervisor of Valley Youth House, another nonprofit that works with the district on the issue, said “it feels amazing to be able to breathe a little bit today.”

Because of the funding, her agency has been able to work on dedicated case management that removes barriers that had jeopardized students’ ability to attend school.

More can and should be done, Locus said.

Now, “it’s very crisis response, where there’s a need to move toward more prevention work,” Locus said — more training for staff, more supports on the front end so “young people aren’t experiencing needing to go to a shelter, to sleep outside or stay outside all night.”