Homelessness growing: Survey shows jump in number of children on list

A spike in the number of homeless people this year, particularly among children, is evidence of the continued toll the recession is taking on the most vulnerable residents, said local advocates for the homeless.

The new statistics emerged from the annual homeless count held Jan. 27, in which advocates took to the streets and stopped by shelters to count the number of homeless people in the city. The count is held on one night in January each year in cities across the country as part of a national effort to document the homeless.

Last year's count found that 485 people were living on the streets. This year advocates found 547 people, including 105 children, said Andrea Kurtz, the director of the 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. In 2009, advocates found 61 children among the homeless.

Kurtz said she thinks that the rise in numbers has to do with the economy and people exhausting their options after a period of unemployment and patching together living arrangements with friends and family.

Beverly Frey, her husband and four daughters are among the new faces of the homeless.

The Freys became homeless last summer and now live at a local motel that costs $200 a week.

Frey works as a claims consultant at the N.C. Employment Security Commission. She said she missed a lot of work during a bout with cancer and that the couple got behind on their rent. Their landlord was working with them and they had paid off half of the $6,000 they owed. But when the house was sold, a $3,000 bill came due immediately.

The change has been tough on the couple's children, Frey said.

"At first they were saying, ‘We can't let anyone know.' They were kind of ashamed," she said.

Recently, her husband went on disability for complications from diabetes, Frey said, so their income has dropped further.

Frey said that they have not found affordable housing in good condition that would allow their daughters to finish the year in the schools they currently attend.

She said she believes that her own problems have helped her be more compassionate to her clients, Frey said.

"We do what we have to do," she said. "When I start feeling sorry for myself, God puts someone at my desk who's worse off than me."

Jerrilyn Ingram, who works with Project Hope, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system's program to help homeless students, said that the numbers support what she is seeing with her own clients.

The school system officially has 122 students who are classified as homeless, she said. That includes children who are living in shelters as well as those who don't have a permanent address, she said. They may be staying with family or friends.

Students in this category are not a static bunch, so statistics fluctuate through out the year, Ingram said. Over the course of a year, 550 to 600 students in the local school system will be classified as homeless, she said. During the 2008-09 school year, there were about 551 such students.

Ingram said she has talked with several families this year who are living in their cars. Some of the heads of families have been laid off. Others have moved into the city from rural areas in search of work.

Homelessness affects children in a number of ways, she said. Many times, children don't want to be dropped off at the shelter and will live with friends in situations that may not be stable.

"It affects their schoolwork," she said. "They don't have a stable place or quiet place to do homework."

Kurtz said that homeless families can go to the Salvation Army or the battered women's shelter, although the shelter cannot take teenage boys, and mothers are often reluctant to be separated from their children.

She is concerned that the Salvation Army has been full some nights this winter. No one has been turned away yet, she said, but June and July are when the highest number of families are homeless, and there is no contingency plan in place for any overflow.

"It's very hard for children to be in a shelter," Kurtz said. "It doesn't give them the kind of stability and safety that being in a home does. Their space is constantly being violated. They don't have a sense of security."

mgiunca@wsjournal.com


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