By Dr. Patrick Jones
Homelessness has recently risen to the top of mind for many in the greater Tri Cities. We typically associate the homeless with those we see living on the street, technically the “unsheltered.” But there are other forms, such as in those spending the night in shelters or in motels.
For youth, yet another category exists: the “doubled up.” These are young people with who are living in a dwelling – apartment, mobile home, or residence -- that is does not belong to that their immediate family. An act of Congress, known for its authors McKinney & Vento, stipulated that all public school districts track its homeless by this definition. In all cases, the “doubled up” constitute the lion’s share of the students counted as homeless by the nearly all districts in Washington State.
For many communities, the number of students who find themselves in this situation is shocking. The numbers are much higher than those tallied in the one-day count of all homeless that takes place in January. So it is in Benton and Franklin Counties. The Trends tracks both series. Indicator 7.4.1 displays the one-day count. For the most recent year reported to the Washington State Department of Commerce, one can see that the numbers totaled 222 in the two counties.
Contrast that count to the annual average reported for school year 2018-19 by the public districts in the two counties: 1,545, viewable below or the full Homeless Students indicator on Benton-Franklin Trends. As we can observe, this is slightly more than double from a decade ago when the districts’ reports showed 731. Thankfully, the total has declined a bit since the peak of 2014-15 peak of over 1,800.
Contrast further the rates. Homeless students, by the McKinney-Vento definition, are much more common than the homeless as tallied by the one-day count. For school year 2018-2019, the average total in the two counties was 25.7 per 1,000 students. This is an order of magnitude higher than the local rate of the homeless from the one-day count in 2019: 0.75 per 1,000 residents.
Relatively speaking, the numbers of homeless students in the Tri Cities area look better although their outcomes do not. Rates are higher, sometimes much higher, elsewhere in eastern Washington than here. Take the neighboring counties. In all of Yakima County’s public school districts in school year 2018-19, the rate of homeless students was 38.3 per 1,000 and 40.7 per 1,000 in Walla Walla County’s districts. To the north, students fared even worse: in school year 2018-19, Grant County showed a rate of 56.8 per thousand while the greater Wenatchee area reported 58.1.
Despite the numbers, homeless students haven’t attracted much concern as those more homeless more visible. Yet, the consequences are real, at least as far as they can be measured. Statewide, the high school graduation rates for homeless students are far lower than those who have a steady roof over their heads. In the 2018-19 school year, only 60% of the population identified by McKinney-Vento definitions graduated in five years. The state average for all students was 83%. This comes as no surprise, since homeless students often change schools two to three times within a school year. It’s hard to stay on track if you face a different teacher, classmates and even coursework every three or four months.
Greater Tri Cities students actually fared worse than the state average. Data on the 2018-19 cohort from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction indicated that among the public districts in the two counties only 54% graduated in five years. In contrast to the prevalence comparisons, this result places local districts last among eastern Washington metro areas. The neighboring counties of Walla Walla and Yakima reported 59% and 63% graduation rates, respectively, for these students in 2018-19. Grant County and greater Wenatchee area schools yielded rates at 62% and 66%, respectively.
It is common knowledge that the economic consequences of low education levels are severe, compared to those who have at least a high school diploma or equivalent. Health disparities follow, usually driven by low-income status. Similarly, crime rates are disproportionately rooted in people with low education levels.
Tackling the challenge of youth homelessness is a complex task, taking in family structure, substance abuse, addictions and domestic violence, among other factors. These are often inter-generational problems. But if young people can enjoy at least a stable dwelling environment, the odds of breaking the cycle certainly improve.