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.

Given the circumstances, the School District of Lancaster’s Homeless Students Project is a success worthy of note. Project Coordinator Ken Marzinko mentioned 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…

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…