Third in a series by Cliff Lewis

According to Ken Marzinko, coordinator of the School District of Lancaster Homeless Students Project, the greatest challenge in serving Lancaster’s homeless students is a shortage of affordable housing in the area.

Kay Moshier McDivitt, Community Homeless Advisor for Lancaster County, told NewsLanc that the county’s lack of low-income housing is part of a national crisis. And, although Lancaster’s problems are less severe than in many other parts of the country, Moshier McDivitt said, the crisis could not be any more real to those Lancastrians affected.

All throughout the United States, McDivitt explained, lower working wages are not keeping up with the cost of fair market housing. According to a 2009 study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum wage worker in Lancaster would have to clock 83 hours each week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rates. This figure presupposes that 30% of one’s income should be spent on housing.

Section 8 housing vouchers, which can subsidize a portion of one’s rent payment, have lately been scarce, according to Anne Marie Theurer, Section 8 Program coordinator for the Lancaster City Housing Authority. Since early in this decade, when Congress stopped regularly granting new Section 8 vouchers, Theurer’s agency has only dispensed vouchers retrieved by attrition.

According to McDivitt, the waiting list for Section 8 vouchers is not even open at this time.

As Marzinko put it, “I don’t think the federal government, the state government, Lancaster County, or the city government can absorb [the need]. So it has to be the whole community pitching in and doing part of it.”

Marzinko has lately spent time speaking to “Rotary Clubs, church groups, anybody that would listen” with a call for these private organizations to begin independently ‘subsidizing’ apartments and homes for impoverished area families. For example, a club could jointly purchase an apartment complex, and charge a low rate for qualified families: “So instead of paying $600 a month,” Marzinko explained, “[The renter is] paying $300, and the club is paying the difference.”

On a smaller scale, Marzinko recommended that church groups could “adopt a family” by subsidizing their individual living arrangements.

However Lancaster’s problem of student and family homelessness is to be dealt with, Marzinko maintains that the effort will require all hands on deck: “I’m not waiting for Washington to send us millions of dollars…it ain’t coming. If we’re going to do something, it means that the whole Lancaster community has to be willing to get their hands dirty.”

Second in a series by Cliff Lewis

Given the circumstances, the School District of Lancaster’s Homeless Students Project is a success worthy of note. Project Coordinator Ken Marzinko mentioned some of the statewide recognition that Lancaster’s program has received: Sheldon Winnick, coordinator of the State Homeless Children’s Education Fund, once told Marzinko that Lancaster’s is the foremost homeless education program in Pennsylvania. This reputation has even brought the PA Secretary of Education for a visit. But, even in the midst of relative success, Marzinko keeps a sober perspective: “Quite frankly, we lose more than we win,” he said.

The inherently ‘losing’ nature of this effort begins with the general and pervasive presence of poverty within the district: “You may be aware,” Marzinko noted, “That 81% of our student population was eligible for free and reduced lunch last school year. So the needs of many students living in poverty—not just homeless—are huge.” Right out of the gate, Marzinko’s program is forced to filter out the many needy students who do not technically qualify: “We have to concentrate our efforts on what we’re mandated to do—to serve homeless students.”

Students who do qualify for the program often slip away from the district before they can be adequately served. According to Marzinko, because of transient living situations, “students move out of the area, and we don’t know where they’ve gone for long periods of time—if ever.” Since shelters like Water Street Ministries only allow a limited stay (about 30 days), some students can pass through a school in only a month’s time.

The school that encounters the brunt of this problem is Carter and MacRae Elementary. Just across from Water Street Ministries, and with two other shelters within its territory, this school serves a population with a uniquely high rate of homelessness. According to Principal Ollie Jones, Carter and MacRae’s student body can be 20-40% homeless at a given time. Some of these students arrive without any identifying paperwork at all.

The school places students’ basic needs as the first order of business. Through a partnership with St. James Episcopal Church, Jones is always supplied with an emergency stock of shoes and clothing so that “if we have a kid that shows up without shoes, we have shoes.” The philosophy at Carter and MacRae is to “teach the child that’s in front of us today,” Jones said, never presuming that a student will be there tomorrow. Teachers regularly augment their lessons with instruction on basic life skills—like preparing a can of soup.

Perhaps surprisingly, this focus on the essentials of life does not detract from Carter and MacCrae’s academic record. While seven district elementary schools did not reach Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in 2009, Carter and MacRae was one of the six elementary schools that did.

But high turnover remains the school’s most significant problem. Often, Jones said, “once we fill the achievement gaps, they’re gone.”

This chronic pattern makes for a great deal of record-keeping, which, according to Marzinko, becomes a serious impediment in itself. To meet the requirements of their Pennsylvania Homeless Education Grant, the Homeless Students Project is required to maintain a voluminous database of names, grades, addresses, etc. “But having the time to enter all of that kind of stuff is an ongoing challenge,” Marzinko said.

“I’ve told our colleagues at the PA Department of Education,” Marzinko asserted, “That, until the School District Administration says otherwise, I’m going to continue to put serving homeless students as a first priority and ‘counting’ as a second priority.”

The first in a series by Cliff Lewis

Over the course of last year, more than 900 students in the School District of Lancaster qualified as ‘homeless.’ These students, largely at the elementary level, have no permanent residence, no reliable income, and no certainty of persevering through graduation. Even worse, these students are at high risk of following their parents’ footsteps into a homeless adulthood. The district’s Homeless Students Project works to foster a sense of normalcy for these students—connecting them with services, keeping them in school, and helping them break the oppressive cycle of family poverty.

According to Ken Marzinko, coordinator of the Project, the figures of student homelessness have grown in the last two decades. In 2003, Marzinko noted, there were 864 students served by the program; in 1997, there were 615. District population growth aside, Marzinko says that this spike largely owes to a receding national economy, coupled with Lancaster’s alluring reputation for low unemployment and more affordable housing.

The most common form of homelessness among students is the ‘doubling up’ of families in a single living space. According to Marzinko, “Many times, those families that don’t have work come [to Lancaster] and live with another family, doubled up.” If a landlord then discovers that occupancy limits are being violated, such a family can wind up in a shelter—the second most common form of homelessness among SDoL students.

Beside the two most common situations, Marzinko said, there is a broad spectrum of other circumstances under which students come in need of his program. Students can fall into homelessness through house fires, domestic violence, family re-locations, or simply running away from home.

With such a diverse collection of needs, the Homeless Students Project’s two full-time staff members must work flexibly and in a variety of capacities. In fact, simply identifying these transient students requires a distinctly multifaceted process.

Referrals to the Project come from concerned teachers, homeless shelters, and from friends or family who have accessed these services in the past. The most significant referral source, however, is the District Enrollment Center. While enrolling new students, officials are keen to spot the signs of homelessness—for instance, a claim to be living with extended family or no information provided regarding place of residence. Families in a ‘doubled-up’ situation will often avoid directly reporting their circumstances for fear of reprisal.

Once a homeless family is recognized by the Homeless Students Project, staff will speak with parents to gauge their situation. At this point in the process, Marzinko said, adults are often connected with other human services in the county to serve their particular needs—such as short-term housing, employment, or drug rehabilitation.

For high school students, the Project aggressively focuses on encouraging graduation. At times, this effort is manifested in small acts of financial assistance—helping a student obtain her yearbook, attend prom, purchase athletic shoes. However, a great deal of this effort lies in counseling-related services. The staff works to build mentoring relationships with these students to promote the importance of further education. During senior year, the Project assists qualifying students in completing their college applications.

“It’s the same kind of thing that a mom and dad would do for their student,” Marzinko said, “But we have to remember that, for students in homeless situations, their parents have not had college experience.”

According to Marzinko the program has seen its fair share of success stories, with some students moving on to Millersville University and Stevens College. “It’s important that we have those stories that we can tell younger students,” Marzinko said.

For elementary school children in need, the Homeless Students Project works primarily to maintain a sense of stability by providing the basic amenities of life in the classroom. Next to Marzinko’s office is a tight stockroom with shelves and drawers all loaded with brand new backpacks, school supplies, uniforms, toiletries, sneakers, and underwear—most of which were donated by local churches and service organizations.

Last month alone, the Homeless Students Project distributed uniforms and school supplies to about 200 children. As Marzinko sees it, these actions speak the importance of education much louder than mere words:

“We believe all school staff are telling our students the same thing that we are: The importance of getting to school every day, the importance of getting to school on time, doing your best work in class, getting along with your teacher and your classmates, doing your homework. But when I say that same message to a student and their mother and then hand them a new book bag with new school supplies and a new uniform…, that same message carries a whole lot more weight.”