Bangor colleges served about 70 college students experiencing homelessness this previous 12 months, a marked enhance from the earlier two years, as town as a complete has grappled with a rising inhabitants of individuals with out everlasting housing.
The 70 college students experiencing homelessness in some unspecified time in the future in the course of the previous college 12 months represented a return to pre-pandemic ranges for the Bangor College Division, stated Mary Snow College principal Brian Bannen, who oversees providers for the division’s homeless pupil inhabitants.
The rise meant the college division had extra college students to assist out with primary wants similar to clothes, college provides and meals. And that assistance is carrying over into the summer time now that the college 12 months has ended.
Whereas the variety of homeless college students represents about 2 p.c of the Bangor College Division’s pupil physique of roughly 3,500, Bannen stated the true variety of homeless college students in Bangor may very well be larger. It’s because directors solely know college students are experiencing homelessness in the event that they or their households inform them, and college students typically aren’t keen to reveal that.
“You attempt, within the kindest means doable, to broach that dialog as a result of households are embarrassed or they’re afraid they’ll get in hassle,” Bannen stated. “We need to have that dialog with them in a means that’s not scary and doesn’t really feel punitive.”
Academics and different college workers are sometimes those who inform college social staff a pupil could also be homeless in the event that they discover college students coming to high school sporting the identical garments day after day, or don’t have provides they want to reach college, Bannen stated.
In Maine, college students are thought-about homeless in the event that they lack a “mounted, common and enough” nighttime residence, in response to the Maine Division of Schooling. This implies college students dwelling in accommodations, transitional housing, shelters, automobiles, deserted buildings or with different households attributable to a lack of housing — known as “doubled up” — are all thought-about homeless.
Renee Perron, a social employee at Bangor Excessive College, stated gaining a household’s belief so she may help out is usually the toughest a part of her job.
“There’s a stigma, and so they don’t need to inform us that they’re homeless,” she stated.
Some mother and father concern their youngsters will probably be taken away in the event that they reveal their housing scenario, however that’s not the case, Perron stated.
“It breaks my coronary heart when a household feels they need to be ashamed of their dwelling scenario,” stated Christina Babin, the college division’s director of pupil providers.
Perron stated she works to forestall any pupil in want from feeling self-conscious as a result of they don’t have the identical primary supplies different college students do.
She’s in a position to present college students with clothes, footwear, college provides, hygiene merchandise, sports activities tools and meals, funded via the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Help Act. She additionally drives them to well being care appointments and has achieved laundry for college kids if wanted.
“My job as a college social employee is to assist them entry their training,” Perron stated. “I inform them, ‘Something that’s getting in the way in which of you specializing in college is my job.’ It’s exhausting to see children which can be struggling and never in a position to entry their training, however I’m the one who will get to assist them.”
The providers colleges present don’t cease when the college 12 months ends. Perron stated social staff proceed checking in with households to attach them with any assets they may want. Faculties additionally proceed offering free meals college students would obtain at school, which households can choose up at quite a lot of areas in Bangor.
The division additionally related “as many college students as we might” with summer time camps and different programming funded by COVID-19 reduction and different funds, Babin stated.
Final 12 months, Bangor colleges recognized 52 college students who have been experiencing homelessness in some unspecified time in the future in the course of the tutorial 12 months, Bannen stated. This was about degree with the 2019-20 tutorial 12 months, when 57 Bangor college students have been homeless in some unspecified time in the future in the course of the 12 months.
This 12 months’s variety of homeless college students sprang again to pre-pandemic ranges, Bannen stated. Through the 2018-19 college 12 months, the Bangor College Division recognized 73 homeless college students.
Maine had an estimated 2,552 homeless college students as of January 2020, in response to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Of these, 105 have been unsheltered, 535 have been in shelters, 284 have been in accommodations or motels, and 1,628 have been doubled up.
When the Bangor College Division learns {that a} pupil is homeless, that pupil typically stays in Bangor colleges for the complete college 12 months, Bannen stated. That is vital so college students can preserve some semblance of stability, particularly in the event that they’ve constructed relationships with their lecturers and friends.
“It’s all about what a pupil is snug with,” Bannen stated. “If a pupil is already going via a traumatic scenario, you don’t need to add to that, particularly if the traumatic scenario is the explanation for homelessness.”
If a homeless pupil strikes to Brewer in the course of the 12 months, for instance, they’ll stay enrolled of their Bangor college, and Bangor and Brewer share the price of transporting the coed to high school, Bannen stated.
The next 12 months, the coed would enroll at school in Brewer.
