Maine legislators are uniting behind a bill that would provide housing subsidies to homeless students and their families in the face of growing youth homelessness. 

The Legislature’s Committee on Housing voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a bill that would direct the Maine State Housing Authority to work with other state agencies, school district homeless advocates and other relevant parties to create a rental subsidy program for homeless students and, where applicable, their families. The bill would allocate $2 million each year to create the program.

Shawn Stanford walks through the rain towards a waiting ride to get fuel for his propane heater at the tent encampment in Waterville in November 2022. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Lawmakers cited the urgency of the problem during a work session Tuesday and endorsed L.D. 1422 as an emergency so that it would take effect immediately once approved by at least two-thirds of the Legislature and signed by the governor.

Youth homelessness is on the rise in Maine. Five years ago, there were 1,405 homeless students in Maine. This year there are 2,186, according to state data from this fall. Many say that is likely a significant undercount due to challenges in identifying and tracking homeless students. They often fly under the radar by staying off the streets and out of shelters and instead moving between temporary sleeping arrangements. The stigma attached with homelessness also can be a deterrent to those who might otherwise seek help. 

Children are considered homeless if they don’t have a regular, safe and otherwise adequate nighttime residence or they are temporarily sharing housing with others because of financial challenges, safety concerns or other reasons.  

Of the 2,186 homeless students, 1,134 are staying with peers, 730 are staying in hotels or motels, 229 are in shelters and 93 are unsheltered – living on the streets in a car, tent or otherwise. Rural and urban areas are equally impacted by youth homelessness, according to state data, but it has an outsized impact on students with disabilities, students with limited English and non-white students. 

Most homeless youth live with their families, but roughly 375 homeless students are estimated to be living alone without an adult.

Like adults, youth can become homeless for myriad reasons. The effects of the pandemic, rent increases, the inflated cost of living, shortages of affordable housing and the influx of asylum seekers who don’t have a place to say all have contributed to the recent rise in youth homelessness, said Amelia Lyons, the Maine Department of Education’s coordinator for homeless education.

“There just isn’t enough housing, and housing costs are increasing faster than wages,” she said.

Although the number of homeless students is a small fraction, 1.2%, of Maine’s K-12 student population of 173,907 students, those affected face severe challenges.

NUMEROUS BARRIERS TO LEARNING

From managing hunger and stressors of not having a stable household, to finding transportation to get to school and getting homework done with no internet access, to dealing with the stigma, homelessness can impact every part of a student’s life, said Jamie Caouette, the homeless student coordinator for the Lewiston school district.

“How can you expect students to go to school and participate in schoolwork when they have this mountain of problems on their plate?” Caouette said.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Michael Brennan, D-Portland, said his bill aims to help homeless students by providing them with housing subsidies and streamlining the process of finding them housing by creating a direct relationship between the state’s housing authority and school district homeless coordinators.

A STRUGGLE TO SUPPA 2015 federal law requires that every school district have a homeless coordinator. The capacity and roles of those coordinators vary greatly by school district. In most Maine school districts, homeless student coordinators double as superintendents, school counselors or heads of departments. Lewiston is the only school district in the state with a staff solely focusing on homelessness. Around the state, school districts struggle to support their homeless students, who often require urgent and time-consuming support, Lyons said.

With the voucher system in place, school district homeless coordinators could identify homeless students within their district and work with Maine state housing to provide those students with housing subsidies. This, Brennan said, would expedite the process of housing students by avoiding long waitlists and red tape involved in other voucher programs such as the federally funded Section 8 program. The program also could provide vouchers to unaccompanied minors of at least 16 years of age. Federal funds cannot be spent to house independent, unaccompanied minors. 

Brennan admitted the program isn’t perfect. In communities with tight housing markets, a housing voucher might be no more than a piece of paper and landlords often discriminate against renters using vouchers.

But a targeted student housing voucher could still be a useful tool, he said. “If we have the opportunity to assist 100, 200, 300 families through this program I would consider that a great step in the right direction,” Brennan said at a hearing on the bill Friday.

“We have to make sure all the students who show up every day in our public school system have the opportunity to learn and have academic success and are not struggling to figure out where they might be living from week to week,” he said.

Brennan noted that there are other bills moving through the Legislature this session aimed at increasing the state’s affordable housing stock.

Youth homelessness is a problem nationwide. In the 2020-21 school year, the latest year for which data is available, there were 1.1 million students, around 2.5% of all K-12 students, identified as homeless, according to U.S. Department of Education Data. Like in Maine, national experts expect that number is likely much higher due to the fluidity of homelessness and challenges surrounding identifying homeless students.

Student homelessness is particularly concerning as it creates a huge barrier to finishing school, which can lead to future challenges as education is a strong determinant of future homelessness. But student homelessness also offers schools and the state a unique opportunity to connect with and support those who are struggling to find housing while they are still ingrained in a school community.