The number of homeless L.A. County students is surging, with thousands more unhoused in the span of a single school year.<\/p>\n
The number of students experiencing homelessness in the county surged by 28% \u2014 from 47,689 in the 2022-23 school year to 61,249 in 2023-24 \u2014 according to a pair of studies from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. It is the largest increase the county has experienced in the last five years, according to researchers. <\/p>\n
The spike exceeded California\u2019s homeless student rate, which rose by 16% for the same school year from 246,480 to 286,853.<\/p>\n
The increase is due to several factors including a shortage of affordable housing and a lack of federal funding for school districts, which disproportionately affects communities of color in which students are already struggling with economic hardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cA shortage of housing, economic instability and other barriers [are] making access to housing more difficult, just as important temporary funding streams and policies supporting access to housing are expiring,\u201d said Mayra Cazares-Minero, a research analyst at the UCLA center and one of the authors of the research briefs.<\/p>\n
Researchers say tracking and addressing youth homelessness is further complicated by Los Angeles County\u2019s vast education system, which includes 80 school districts and 371 charter schools. <\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Unified School District alone has an enrollment of more than a million students, making it the second largest district in the nation.<\/p>\n
To get a better understanding of this system and to identify statewide trends in youth homelessness, researchers analyzed state and county data, as well as patterns at Los Angeles County\u2019s 10 school districts with the highest proportion of students facing homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch data in the briefs shows that, over the past five years, the number of students experiencing homelessness has increased within every racial and ethnic group \u2014 except Filipino students,\u201d the study authors wrote.<\/p>\n
Latino and Black students were also more likely to experience homelessness in Los Angeles County, according to researchers.<\/p>\n
Almost 76% of the county\u2019s students experiencing homelessness were Latino in the 2023-24 school year, compared to 72% statewide. Black students made up another 12% of the county\u2019s total for the same year, the data showed.<\/p>\n
Researchers found that Latino students faced myriad challenges, including immigration issues, English proficiency and unstable housing that is linked to their parent\u2019s employment status.<\/p>\n
In the 2023\u201324 school year, migrant students accounted for 2.7% of California\u2019s homeless student population \u2014 double the national share among homeless students reported the previous year, according to the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese statistics align with the finding that [Latino] students disproportionately experience homelessness,\u201d the study read in part. \u201cResearch consistently highlights that factors such as immigration status, English language proficiency, employment, and socioeconomic status are closely linked to rates of housing insecurity among [Latino] families in California.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research brief identified 10 school districts in the county with the highest rates of student homelessness, with Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District and Wilsona School District being among the top two.<\/p>\n
Three of the top five school districts with the highest proportion of homeless students are in the San Gabriel Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concentration of student homelessness in specific regions\u2014particularly in the East and San Gabriel Valley\u2014suggests that homelessness is not evenly distributed across Los Angeles County and is shaped by localized factors such as housing costs, community disinvestment, and service gaps,\u201d Joseph Bishop, executive director and co-founder of the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools, said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
In another study, researchers interviewed school-based homeless liaisons \u2014 staff tasked with supporting unhoused youth \u2014 and county officials at five school districts to examine how they go about identifying and providing support to students and their families facing homelessness.<\/p>\n
Adriana Jaramillo Castillo, a research analyst at the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools and one of the authors of the studies, said schools serve as a connection point to services and resources for students.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchool district homeless liaisons play a central role in connecting families to assistance, ensuring academic accommodations, and navigating policy requirements,\u201d she wrote in the study. \u201cYet, their challenges are compounded by under-resourced systems, evolving administrative priorities, and persistent inequities in access and support, especially for students from disproportionately impacted backgrounds.\u201d <\/p>\n
Researchers found that families often avoid telling school officials that they\u2019re experiencing homelessness due to stigma and fears of child welfare or immigration enforcement. Some families have a narrow definition of what it means to be homeless. Some of those families, researchers say, \u201cdouble-up,\u201d sharing a home with relatives or other families. Researchers said that leads to confusion about eligibility.<\/p>\n
Siloed student data systems and platforms further hinder that verification process, while limited federal funding forces many districts to rely on short-term grants and donations.<\/p>\n
Researchers found that homeless liaisons often have to cross-check a patchwork of systems to confirm a student\u2019s eligibility and status. <\/p>\n
The studies recommend that school districts take a more proactive approach in identifying students and their families experiencing homelessness and improve coordination by integrating data systems, among other measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a larger scale it is unclear how California\u2014or the nation as a whole\u2014will continue to support students experiencing homelessness, especially as numbers continue to rise while funding and focus is fading,\u201d Bishop said. \u201cIt is essential that California and Los Angeles County take urgent, coordinated action to address homelessness among the youth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of homeless L.A. County students is surging, with thousands more unhoused in the span of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[380,7,9,8,166,1431,110381,1493,14833,63,212,22178,37318,1997,4574,4743,110382],"class_list":{"0":"post-247009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-county","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-homeless-student-rate","15":"tag-homelessness","16":"tag-latino","17":"tag-los-angeles-times","18":"tag-number","19":"tag-researcher","20":"tag-school-district","21":"tag-schools","22":"tag-student","23":"tag-study","24":"tag-ucla-center"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}