The number of homeless students in New York City reached an all-time high for the school year that ended in June, according to a new study.
The surge in homeless children occurred in a period where the Trump administration has proclaimed today to be the “greatest economy ever.”
Data from the New York State Techincal and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students (NYS-TEACHS), a project of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), revealed a record 114,659 students were in temporary housing for the 2017-18 school year, up almost 3% from 111,562 in the 2016-17 year.
That equates to roughly 10% of all students enrolled in NYC schools are homeless. The figure is so shocking that it is more than double the rate from the GFC 2007-08 era.
Government studies have shown that students without homes “are less likely to meet grade-level standards for reading and math, and graduate from high school on time,” said New York Daily News.
AFC’s Executive Director Kim Sweet said the city needs to address the recent surge in homeless youth before it becomes a burden on society.
“The number of students who are homeless in New York City would fill Yankee Stadium twice…While the city works to address the overwhelming problem of homelessness, it must take bold action to ensure that students who are homeless get an excellent education and do not get stuck in a cycle of poverty,” said Sweet.
Sweet said short-term funding issues hurt social workers’ abilities to address out of control homelessness trends in the city. She said Mayor de Blasio funds the program on a per annum basis instead of providing a long-term funding solution.
Sweet warns that more shelters are needed to tackle the rise in homelessness. If de Blasio does not act soon, some shelters in the city could reach full capacity, thus creating a headache for children who would then have to seek temporary refuge with extended family or friends, and or even return to the streets.
According to Newsy, a school district in the Bronx had an unbelievable 10,000 homeless students. In one school alone, over 40% of the students had been homeless at some point.
Data collected by the city’s comptroller’s office in March, as per reported by the New York Times, noticed a deterioration in homeless students’ performance due to low attendance levels. The report found the city’s education department had difficulty contacting a legal guardian of the homeless child, due to the constant shifting from one homeless shelter to another.
With a record amount of homeless children running around NYC, we think it is time for President Trump to stop touting the stock market and focus on the real economy before the next recession strikes.
via RSS https://ift.tt/2An2kue Tyler Durden