Children’s handmade artwork hangs on the walls throughout Booth House, a shelter for homeless youth in Syracuse. A whiteboard lists the names of every child living in the shelter and the school they attend.

“Every kid — this is all schools they go to,” said Kiana Williams, residential manager for Booth House. “We have a new kid, her busing is supposed to be set up in a week.”

More than 1.5 million children in public schools experienced homelessness in the 2017-18 academic year, the most recent available data, the National Center for Homeless Education found this year.

In the Syracuse City School District, 6% of students enrolled in the 2017-18 academic year were homeless under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The law defines homeless youth as children who lack a stable home or a permanent address.

“When you think of homelessness, you think of someone maybe in their 50s or 60s. You don’t think of kids,” Williams said. “If we changed that around, maybe people would care more.”

SCSD identified a little more than 1,900 enrolled homeless students this year, said Deb Montroy, coordinator for student support services. She believes that number is underreported.

“We have a lot of kids who may spend an afternoon, instead of going to class, looking for a place or someone to spend the night with,” Montroy said.

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, all homeless children must be enrolled in school and provided with necessary resources, such as school supplies, free lunch and transportation.

Parents who enroll their children in SCSD must be able to provide proof of address, Montroy said. She’ll have private conversations with parents who are unable to do so to determine if their children are protected under the law.

“It’s obviously very personal, and there’s a lot of stigma attached,” Montroy said. “Parents aren’t really quick to say to the school, ‘Hey, I’m homeless now.’ It’s hard to support those families if they don’t tell us what’s going on.”

There are many circumstances that may contribute to child homelessness, Williams said. Though some parents may be incarcerated or experiencing drug and alcohol addiction, many families may find themselves just unable to provide shelter for themselves and their children, she said.

Children staying at Booth House are considered “unaccompanied,” meaning they’ve been moving from place to place on their own. Booth House typically shelters anywhere from two to 12 teens at a time, Williams said. Numbers are usually higher in the winter.

The Booth House program is voluntary, and children can leave whenever they want. Employees will alert parents or guardians, but they can’t stop a child from leaving. The goal is always to reunite the children with their parents, Williams said.

On some occasions, police will bring in children they find on the streets with nowhere to go, Williams said. In other cases, parents will bring in their child if they know they’re experiencing unstable housing.

A closet on the second floor of Booth House stores donations such as toiletries, extra clothing and other basic necessities for children who might not have any.

“Some of our kids’ parents will pack up every damn thing they have in their room, and some parents won’t let them take anything at all,” Williams said.

Palmer Harvey, co-founder of Syracuse Tenants Union, said homelessness has been on the rise in the Syracuse community. Eviction often leaves Syracuse families homeless, and parents must deal with the stress and stigma attached, Harvey said.

“They live in a constant state of ‘I don’t want people to know that I’m living through this right now,’” Harvey said.

Troy Gray, director of programming for Rise Above Poverty, an organization in Syracuse providing basic necessities for homeless and impoverished youth, said children don’t come to mind when people think of homelessness.

“The first thing that usually comes to mind is a grown person living in a shelter,” Gray said. “People don’t realize that the definition of homelessness is not having a permanent address to live in.”

Williams said she hopes people start to recognize the severity of homelessness and that shelters such as Booth House can provide the stability and peace homeless kids need to continue their education.

“You just gotta be loving, and kids will love you back,” Williams said.

Published on March 3, 2020 at 11:51 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan