Ep 190 | Sheltering students from homelessness!

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It's so heartbreaking when you have a parent on the phone crying to you, and we're trying to just encourage them to stay strong one step at a time, one thing at a time. And when you hear those success stories, you're like, man, like, look at all of the pieces that came together. Like, it's not just us. I mean, it's the agencies that we work with in our community. It's the nonprofits, it's the religious organizations, it's the independent individuals who reach out to us. And it's the parent, too.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week, we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every child in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support your child's success. One child in every Escambia County classroom is experiencing homelessness. It's a fact that may surprise you, confuse you, and sadden you. You have questions, and my next guest has the answers. She's a homeless liaison for Escambia County Public Schools. And today she's going to help us get clear on the reality for these families and what we can do. Barrier Buster and Opportunity Waymaker, Cassandra Manis. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to share the great things that our office does in the district that some may not be aware of. Me too. I'm really excited about this. And I think it might be important for everyone to be kind of on the same page for an issue that has a lot of layers, right? So how does the school district define homelessness?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Sure. So it's not our own definition, it's a federal definition under the McKinney Vento Assistance Act, where there's different categories. And so what we are utilizing to determine if a family is experiencing homelessness and if they would qualify for our resources would include those who are in shelters, those who are in transitional living facilities, which could be a house provided by an agency, those who are living in hotels and motels. We also have more extreme hardships, such as those who might be residing in their car. We have a couple of families that we've known to live in tents or abandoned buildings. And then we also have a bulk of our population that we work with are in what is considered shared housing. So doubled up. They're living with families like their grandparents or cousins or friends because they're unable to afford housing on their own or they don't qualify. We also have people who might be in trailer parks. There's some specific details that we're looking for because we might have, say, a military family that's transitioning here and they're temporarily in a in a RV while they're house shopping. So something like that would not qualify because that's just a short-term situation to get to their permanent solution. Um, but we have people where living in an RV may be their only thing that they that they have for for shelter. So we're looking to see if the structure is a fixed structure, like uh a building, if it's on wheels or if it's derelict or whatnot, we're taking those things into consideration. So that goes into the adequate, like, is it some place that's meant for habitat? Like if there's a big hole in the roof and there's a leak and it's caused mold and mildew, that could qualify somebody as being in an inadequate living situation. And then is it a regular location, someplace that they can come back to consistently? You know, you could be staying with grandma one night and grandma says, I'm sorry, but my landlord just found out and you have to go. So, you know, looking at fixed, adequate, regular, and then the locations uh that was defined is what we use to determine if somebody's living in a homeless situation.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So, what's the history behind the McKinney Vento Act? Because as you're describing all of this, you know, I'm actually thinking about one of my best friends in middle school. And I'm realizing right now that she would have been in this under this umbrella of housing instability because we were always like, oh, well, where is Megan staying tonight? We didn't understand, but we were too busy being sixth and seventh graders to really like, hey, Megan, we need to talk about your housing situation. We were just doing our thing. But I'm wondering how much the McKinney Vento Act, you know, opens up eyes to situations like Megan's. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Well, that's a lot to unpack right there. I mean, uh the first thing is as a child, that's what they need to be, is a child. Right. I mean, unfortunately, there's the stressors that does come with the instability of where you're gonna sleep each night. But as a kid, you're not thinking about your friend and and where she may be staying. You might. I mean, in today's times, they might be a bit more in tune to that as friends. And matter of fact, we do have some high school kids who will self-report to us about their friends in need of help. But when we are majority-wise working with the parents, we want to work with the parents. And we talk with some school staff that, hey, careful with what you say with the children because the children might not know that their situation is homeless. And that can sometimes have this negative stigma, right? So we just want everybody to be compassionate and patient and just be confidential if if they do have that insight of what the family's going through. We don't want that to get out to friends and whatnot. But to go back to your previous question, uh, I mean, I don't want to guess your age here because that's a misnomer here. But McKinney Vento has been around for 40 years almost. So since 1987 is when Congress first passed that. They noticed an abundance of homelessness and some of the barriers that were being created in education to getting children quick access and enrollment in school. And as we've had things like No Childs Left Behind and ESA, the McKinney Vento Act has continuously been reauthorized and reauthorized with even more strict criteria. I believe it was in 2002, is when Congress stated that each school district is to have a McKinney Vento liaison. And so now there's that specific coordinated person to help these families. Some districts I think may do it a little bit better than others by having a specific person, and that's their sole responsibility. And then you might get some other districts that are small, and that individual might have a variety of umbrellas under their hat. I like to thank our school district here in Escambia, we do it very well. We have three liaisons. We also have a social worker that's dedicated to helping our homeless families. And we continue to get better each and every year. And part of that is being here and sharing this information and continuing to get it out. So in the 80s, the 90s, as this is growing, as with anything, I mean it's awareness. It's spreading like a wildfire, and we want to get the word out. Homelessness is not who you are, it's just a point in time of what you're going through. It's nothing to be ashamed of. And uh, maybe a little bit later as we get into the statistics with how many people are going through a hardship and how close many of us are to this, you know, we we need to work on destigmatizing what homelessness is because you're not a bad person because you have lost housing. You're just falling on some tough times. And uh, if we take it step by step, then there's a lot of things we could do together to help people overcome that. And it makes our community a better place.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Especially the kids. That's not anything that they have power over. I think we fight pretty hard against the American individualism of pull yourself up by your bootstraps. At the end of the day, it's your responsibility, you are in the land of opportunity, et cetera, et cetera. And so I think that is kind of the overarching color that the situations get painted with. And even if all of those things were a hundred percent true, it's still not the kids, the kid has no agency. So, regardless of where people fall on how they feel about this issue, whether they see it as a complex, nuance situation that people get entangled with, or they see it as completely like you get what you get, like that's your own fault. It's still not the kids' fault. And what I think is so great is the liaisons and the social worker, they're putting all those things aside, right? All the complexities aside. And suddenly the mission becomes real simple. We're gonna help the kids.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah. And that's because we hear the stories, we know a majority of the reasons why people fall on these hard times. And a majority of the time, it's it's not because of something that they did, it's something that has happened to them. And at any moment in time, any of us can have these things happen to us. We can lose our job. We can be diagnosed with cancer. Rent can go up exponentially. You have a job that you've had for X amount of time, and rent just goes up $200 or $300 because that landlord had to raise it. I mean, we all know what's happening with property tax and homeowners' insurance. Uh, the costs have just skyrocketed, and and income has not kept up with that. And so we have kind of a housing affordability crisis. We have people who have had their sole income provider uh pass away. I mean, and and these things put somebody on very hard times. We have unfortunately horrific situations such as domestic violence. People think that it's the choices that that individuals make that put them there. And I'm not saying that that's not sometimes a part of it, but the vast majority of the families that we're talking with, and I mean, we're talking about hundreds and into like the between a thousand and two thousand children that that we have. It's they've just fallen on a tough time that we all are just one moment away from having that happen to us. And so that's on the parent side. A kid, I mean, a kid's not going to make a decision about where they're living. And I mean, a lot of these kids are addressing themselves in the morning, but at the end of the day, they're not thinking about where am I going to sleep, they're trusting their parent. You know, like when I come home or wherever that might be, you know, my my mom or my dad has that that addressed. And so the parent tries to shelter their child. They don't want them to know what they're going through. I mean, I think that we have this thought that if you're homeless, we see uh the visible homelessness, the the person on the side of the street that might be panhandling. And I don't think that anybody who is experiencing homelessness, they want their child to experience the same things as the rest of the children. They want them to have as healthy and normal of an upbringing as any child should deserve. And so they come to school as best as they can, even though they might be in location one, and then two days later they're 15 miles away on the other side of town. The parents still trying to find out how to get them to school. They're dressing them the best that they can. They're trying to provide for them. They just have the challenge of housing. And when each night you don't know where you're gonna sleep and you don't know what you're gonna eat, it kind of has a domino effect to what happens with that kid in school inadvertently. The kid doesn't understand this is happening, therefore, that's why I'm tired and I'm grumpy and I have these behaviors that are happening at school or I'm struggling to stay focused. They don't understand, nor should they. Uh, but us as the adults and and the educators in in the system, just going back to that compassion and and patience and saying, I know that maybe this kid needs to spend five minutes taking a nap, and that's okay. And then we'll pick right back up. But it's not not on the child, and oftentimes it's not on the parent either. It's just one bad situation.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Aaron Powell Of those situations that you listed that lead to homelessness, what is the majority of causes that you're seeing for the population that you're working with? Because I understand it's different for every, you know, little corner of town in every town.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

The affordability piece, we have hardworking families. I mean, we have families that a mother may be working two jobs or dual income, but they cannot afford the rent. We have some places in our town, and I mean this happens all over the country, where you have to demonstrate that you're making like three times the income level for what the rent is. If somebody falls behind on rent and they have an eviction, man, do you know how hard it is to get into another place if you have an eviction on your record? So a lot of it stems to affordability. I mean, talking with the parents, we know what a lot of them end up paying because we have built some great relationships. I wish that we weren't having to talk to the same family sometimes year after year, but I'm thankful too because they trust us and they come to us and they they share a lot of information and it just opens our eyes to things that maybe our listeners are completely unaware of. And going back to like my mortgage, I mean, I pay less in a mortgage than what people have to pay for a two-bedroom apartment to rent.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, the median rent here, I think, is 1500. The median income is 50,000 for a household.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah. And and right now, statistically, if you're going to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Pensacola on minimum wage, what the current minimum wage rate is, you're gonna have to work approximately 86 hours a week. And that's hard. I mean, if you have a school-aged child and maybe you have a child that is not school-aged that needs daycare, how can you have a job when you're having a hard time getting daycare? And it's no fault to daycare providers here. We just have a shortage. So, you know, my my big message at the end is gonna be about how it just takes all of us. You know, the whole saying, it takes a village. If we want to eradicate this problem, it's gonna take all of us.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Yeah. You mentioned 2,000 students experiencing homelessness. Did I hear that right?

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Yeah, well, approximately. Okay, so the way our data runs under McKinney Vento law is families have to be verified annually. So every July 1st, anybody that we had worked with the previous school year and verified that they were in one of those housing situations, we have to re-verify. So July 1st, we go to zero. Okay, and as the the days and the weeks and the months tick by, our numbers grow and grow. On average, I mean, dating back to 2020, 2021, we're sitting between 1800 and 2,000 kids annually, is what we're consistently identifying. So that number can ebb and flow as you have students graduate, families move away. The good things, sometimes families get housing. And so that changes the statistic.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Can I pause you? What is that like for you? What do you mean? When you're working with a family and they're, you know, frustrated and probably tears in their eyes, and and you know, they're just trying to like, okay, get the kid here and we do this, and then I'll do that. And then all of a sudden they have housing and everyone can exhale. What is that like for you as a liaison?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Oh, we have to hold on to those moments because it's so heartbreaking when you have a parent on the phone crying to you, and we're trying to just encourage them, just stay strong one step at a time, one thing at a time. And when you hear those success stories, you're like, man, like it look at all of the pieces that came together. Like it's not just us. I mean, it's the agencies that we work with in our community, it's the nonprofits, it's the religious organizations, it's the independent individuals who reach out to us. And it's the parent, too. The parent plays a huge role. So, I mean, when you see that and you can see the success of a coordinated effort, that's your why right there. And then you just, you know, you kind of check in on the kid from time to time or the parent. I mean, we'll we'll send text or phone calls, or they'll even call us. So we have a mother who a couple of years ago was on hard times and she was in a shelter and coordinated effort, as I was mentioning, with the agencies, because it's not just us. I mean, we're experts in education. We help you navigate the complexities that come with the school district, the enrollment and the transportation, and what documents do you need? And do you need to be connected to other departments for certain services for your child? So when we have all of that coordinated effort and a mom finally gets housed, as this one mother did, she is now a manager of an apartment complex. And so with that comes the ability to be able to stay in one of the units. And that's that's huge in being able to get ahead a little bit and not having to pay fully for that apartment. Three weeks ago, she calls me and she says, Hey, Cassandra, do you remember me? Like you helped and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I absolutely remember you. How are you? And so that's when she updated me on the fact that now she's an apartment complex manager. She said, I have a lady here who is trying to apply for an apartment. She's staying in her car with her daughter. Can you help? And so we got connected with the mother on the phone and did some things. Her child is in school. We've got transportation. And I mean, that's going to be a continued check-in story and trying to see what other things are transpiring with that mom to help her get stable. But, you know, the mom remembered us. The mom is on her feet now, and and then she cared enough and she respected us enough in our relationship to say, these people, let's let's get you in contact with these people, and they can help out. And that shows so much trust. A hundred percent. Because it is hard to have trust when you're in a homeless situation. You get passed around sometimes, it feels like a lot. Have you ever called in? I love to use this example. Have you ever called in to a customer service line and you explain what's going on that maybe they messed up on your bill or something, and they tell you, okay, please hold. And so you're holding, and you're like, okay, you got a lot of patience. And then they come back on and they say, Well, I have to transfer you. And so they transfer you over and you're like, okay, all right, you still got a little bit of patience. And next person comes on, you re-explain your situation all over again. And the person puts you on hold again. And person comes back and either says that they can't do anything for you or they need to transfer you again. And this sometimes can build. Sometimes you'll get passed along three or four times. And in our situation, our world of homelessness, not necessarily us with the school district, but agencies, their funding is very strict. How they can use it, how people qualify, the different projects that they have is very specific. And so you might have to go to one agency for one situation or another agency for another situation, or if you've had help in X amount of time, you might not qualify until a certain time lapse. So there's all these little variables that come into play. But the parent doesn't know that. And we don't always know that either because it's constantly changing, faster than we can keep up with. But by the time you get those no's, you're just beat down and you're stressed out and you snap and you're frustrated. And so anybody that works with a family experiencing homelessness or has a child in their classroom and they experience maybe moments of frustration, just think of a time whenever you have had to call customer service and you've gotten passed around four or five times. That really gets to you. And when we're talking about life, that customer service phone call has nothing on comparison to talking about survival. It's hard. And when we get those moments where we have that trust, we really hold on to those and we're thankful for those.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

I don't think I would have guessed that, like, someone could call you and be like, hey, I have someone here that really could use your support. There's a lot of Escambia County Public School employees who listen to the show. How would you recommend they notice the signs that a student is experiencing some housing instability?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Listening. Just you can pick up on a lot by listening. Attendance is another one. When we notice that a student is not shown up for a couple of days in a row, could be something as simple as being ill or maybe taking a trip. So let's not jump to that. But if if we look at maybe the address is changing frequently, or they have habitual attendance concerns, picking up the phone as a teacher or working through whatever that chain of command might be on campus. Some schools want it to funnel to the school counselor or through the assistant principal or whatever that is. It looks a little bit different, respectfully, on each one of our sites. But listening and paying attention to the attendance and the addresses, is the child always hungry? Are they wearing the same clothes day in and day out? Do they have some extreme behaviors like sleeping always in class or anger and aggression, things that put you on edge? I think that it begs the question to call and just say, hey, I've seen this happening in in class. Is everything okay? That's how how like in the last week, how often have you been asked, Are you okay?

SPEAKER_00 21:28

I don't think at all. Oh, wait, no, that's not true. My husband, he has asked me, You're good? Everything's good.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Good husband. Good husband. Yes, yes. Um, but sometimes it's just are are you okay? I mean, I I have met with unaccompanied. Those are our kids um who are well, we have certified unaccompanies, so those kids are 16 years and older, because an unaccompanied could be somebody who's seven or eight years old. So they're not with their parent or a court appointed guardian.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Can you unpack that a little bit? Because does that mean they're a ward of the state? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 21:57

No, so an unaccompanied does not mean that they're a ward of state. Of estate. Unaccompanied just means that they are not in the custody of their parent or a court appointed guardian. These are kids that the parent doesn't have enough sleeping arrangements. So they have to have their child, like maybe there's five kids in the household and the parent only has a one bedroom, or maybe the parent's staying with grandma and grandma's got one bedroom. And so mom and five kids, where are they going to sleep? So mom might have a child go and stay with an aunt here and a grandfather, grandmother over here, or whatnot. So mom is still involved, dad's still involved, or whatnot. But because they're all experiencing homelessness because they're in shared housing and they're not solely with their parent, they're unaccompanied. Okay. So we have we can have unaccompanied anywhere between kindergarten and a senior. However, when they turn 16, by law, they become a certified unaccompanied. And there's a lot of additional supports that we have by law in the state of Florida to help provide some wraparound supports for them, as well as some post-secondary opportunities. So we go into the schools once a month and we meet with uh the 16 and up who are unaccompanied. So they've either been kicked out of their home, there's family disagreements. That would be another reason why families fall on hard times too, just disagreements and turmoil that's happening there. So a youth can be kicked out. A youth can even run away. We don't condone that. But the law reads that it's it's not for us to get involved with the why. It is to provide those supports for that kid so that they can come to school, be successful in school, and then whatever their post-high school desires are, they're set for success with that. But but where I was going with this is the last time that you were asked if you were okay is I have unaccompanied who will sit down with me and they'll say, I'm not, I'm not at like nobody asks if I'm okay. Like I have all these things going on and I've got this subject and this test and this and this. And again, I'm not faulting any educator here because there's always so many more components to the story. I mean, they have a lot going on, and so sometimes retaining, if somebody asked if you were okay, may have been missed. So they might be being asked if they're okay. But that's just sometimes what they want to hear is are you okay? And and they want to hug and they want to know that somebody is caring and checking on them because we need that. Like when we don't have that familial support, if we don't have a parent, because whatever turmoil is going on, and I can speak to this myself because I experienced this myself as a teenager. You get a chip on your shoulder, you become cold, and it takes a long time to break down that wall and feel like somebody really cares about me and is checking on me. And now, because of that, I want to show up to see Mr. Harper, or I want to show up to see Ms. Jones, because she's always got a drawer of snacks for me, or she's gonna give me a hug, or Mr. Harper has like this special high five with me or whatnot. Like those things make a difference. Because and that could be the difference of keeping a 16, 17, 18-year-old in school, or them dropping out of school. So uh asking something as simple as you are okay when we're checking in, because tying this all back in, getting back to how can a teacher recognize the signs and what do you do? Recognition, and then just calling and just saying, hey, is everything okay? I just noticed this. You want to talk to me? Is there anything that I can do? And you'd be surprised what people open up with whenever you actually genuinely care and check in.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

So, were you saying that you experienced homelessness as a teen?

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Well, again, it's a little bit complicated to unpack. I had been in receiving homes. My my mother had been um committed, Baker acted multiple times, and my father was incarcerated, so we couldn't go with him. And so my brother and I, we were we were put in group homes on multiple occasions and in foster homes a couple of times. So I wouldn't consider that necessarily homelessness for me, albeit being in a group home. I mean, it's it's kind of a holding pattern, and you are separated from your parents. My mother had experienced severe homelessness after I went away to college. We had a gap where we separated from one another for some personal reasons, and it was just uh necessary. You know, sometimes you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first. And I did that. And I'm fortunate right now. My mom and I, we have a fantastic relationship. Um, but yeah, she went through uh a really, really hard time. And even when we talk about the causes of homelessness, um, my brother passed away. And and that led my mom to spiral even deeper into a state of depression and unemployment and inability to afford housing. And it happens that fast. And this was somebody who had at one point in time, both my parents had great careers in the military, but we are all just one severe situation away. But my my word of advice for anybody going through something like this is the right choice is the hard choice to make in life. Like showing up to school, making good choices, saying no to some of the peer pressures that could lead us to incarceration or or substance abuse or whatnot. Those are hard decisions to make, but those are the right decisions to make, is to stay away from those things and to continue to show up. Getting help, telling somebody I need somebody to talk to, building our knowledge so that we can have a good career. When we take those little steps one day at a time, one thing at a time, when we look back, I mean, you can reflect on the trials and tribulations and the struggles that you had, but you'll recognize that you're a tougher and stronger person that's built to hopefully be able to help people and connect people because you went through it. So my hope is that everybody and anybody going through this at any point in time, even if you're not experiencing homelessness, if you're living paycheck to paycheck, take it one thing at a time. Try and make those choices as best as you can, jot things down about what you need to do. And and uh, you know, it's a journey. I I point to the door all the time and I ask students, like, how are you gonna get from your chair to that door? And they they're like, What do you mean? I'm gonna walk there. Okay, but are you gonna walk there in one giant step, one jump? Well, no, I'm gonna take a bunch of steps. Okay, that's how we overcome anything. And it can be hard when you look at the big picture and it can be overwhelming and you beat yourself down and you start blaming yourself and saying that I'm the cause of this. And that's not the case. That's not the case.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

I'm glad that you mentioned paycheck to paycheck because I think that's a experience that everyone in our county, almost everyone, right, can relate to. But then there's the disconnect when it comes to the experience of homelessness. But I think through today, sharing of your story really brings home the fragility of our own status, right? You know, we're just a big medical emergency away from a really gnarly situation. And without that outside support, we could very well be in the situation that we thought we never would be in. And so with that said, I want to close with asking you how people who are coming to that realization as they're listening to this can contribute to ending this cycle. How can they be a part of the solution?

SPEAKER_01 29:39

First, anybody and everybody can be a part of the solution, whether you have financial means or you don't have financial means. If I mean, we need mentors. There's big brothers, big sisters in our community. We have a volunteer program here internally in our school district. And it's not to say that you get partnered up with the student experiencing homelessness, because we keep that in confidentiality. You never know the student that you're mentoring. And we will continue to keep it that way. But being a volunteer is something that doesn't cost anything except for maybe an hour uh of your time in the week. Being uh kind and compassionate, I think that so many people just have this negative stigma associated with homelessness that they're criminals and that they choose this lifestyle. And we've got to overcome that because that couldn't be farther from the truth. We uh love it whenever people donate uh new or gently used clothing. It's best to do that directly to the school. Education has evolved so much. I mean, I remember whenever I was in school, I don't think that we had clothing closets and food closets, and and the times have changed. I want to say a majority right now of our campuses have some kind of a pantry or a clothing closet or do a backpack buddy program or work with feeding the Gulf Coast or I mean, just there's so many different things because if you can't provide for the basics, doing the rigorous academics and everything that comes with that, that's gonna be even more challenging to overcome. So donating, um, it can be gently used items. And if a school happens to not collect it, they can contact our office. We happily take uh gently used donations for children, so as small as size five, six, all the way up to adult sizes, men's and women's, jackets, gloves. Other things that people can do is be an ear. If you're hearing and listening to this podcast, now you know about our office. We are in the Title I department. We are the McKinney Venta Homeless Assistance Office. We are an easy find at title1.org. People can share the information and say, hey, you need to get in touch with this office. And we are very accessible. We like to pride ourselves that if we're not immediately answering the phone because there's three of us plus a social worker, you're guaranteed to get a phone call back from us within 24 hours. We have never had an individual say that they have a hard time getting in touch with us. Matter of fact, they call us because they need help, maybe getting in touch with something else in the community. And we just we figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Well, thank you so much for being that bridge and being such a genuine person. I can only imagine what the families must feel when they sit and talk with you, because you can feel the genuine care just oozing from your pores, even if they didn't know about your personal experience with that. The the feeling, the impression that that's left on your personhood just like beams out like a giant light. So thank you for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

So if you think that of me, you would think the world of the other, the other uh girls that are in the office. They're fabulous. So uh shout out to Melissa Hyde, she's a liaison, and Emily Peoples is a liaison, and Megan Cozell is our social worker, and it takes all of us. This is not something that I do by myself. I hope that they heed the words, and um, we're always a phone call away.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scambia County Public Schools.