Holidays highlight homelessness for area kids

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – With inflation and hire hikes nonetheless on the rise, evictions that slowed down over the vacation season are anticipated to rise once more within the new yr.

A lightweight is now being shined on a inhabitants of individuals being impacted they are saying are sometimes hiding in plain sight – kids.

Previously reported in The Journal Record, exports notice that as a lot as 10% of Oklahoma’s 700,000 college students in each rural and concrete districts are both at the moment experiencing homeless or another kind of housing insecurity, together with shifting ceaselessly, dwelling in a house with important overcrowding, staying in motels, or people who find themselves thought of “couch homeless,” people who find themselves homeless however quickly staying with a buddy, relative or acquaintance.

The median price for a 2-bedroom apartment in OKC is about $1100, however a household with only one working grownup making minimal wage must work no less than 151 hours to afford it, in response to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, which caluculates the earnings that working households and people have to make to fulfill minimal requirements of their communities.

Much of the pandemic-era hire reduction that was obtainable has both run out or expired, leaving many households who relied on it with out assist to fill widening gaps for hire and different primary dwelling bills.

“70,000 kids who are school age experiencing homelessness is an estimate,” stated Kelly Berger, Director of Family Support for Positive Tomorrows, Oklahoma’s solely elementary college and social providers company particularly for youngsters and households experiencing homelessness.

Berger and different neighborhood advocates stated the roughly two week winter break for the Christmas and New Years holidays may be particularly difficult and nerve-racking for youngsters and their households.

“Family homelessness often looks very different than our typical image of homelessness,” he added.

“Because of fears of [the] child welfare system, fears of police or assumptions that they may get in trouble if they’re seen with having their kids living in their car or staying in a tent [parents] are hiding. They’re staying doubled up, tripled up in in small apartments [or] they’re staying in motels where they’re paying more than most people pay for their mortgage because they don’t have the entirety of the move in cost to get in somewhere [more stable].”

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“A lot of kids suffer in silence and they don’t want to be thought of as less than or needy and really just sometimes connecting kids or families with the right people is all it takes,” stated Teena Belcik, who serves as President & CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County.

“When they are out of school, which is usually their first line of defense for help, they really look to other areas [for] help,” she stated, noting that the Boys and Girls Clubs works intently with teams like Homeless Alliance and Positive Tomorrows to deal with the wants of kids experiencing homelessness, along with providing its personal large of vary of programs and services to empower kids and assist them kind significant connections.

“Between us to make sure we’re covering all the bases for kids and for their families,” she added.

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“The cold weather just presents really unique challenges for this population and with [kids] being out of school and there’s that lack of structure, lack of consistency [and with]the lack of meals, lack of childcare… a lot of [kids]rely on school for breakfast and lunch and those meals,” stated Meghan Mueller, Associate Executive Director for the Homeless Alliance.

Mueller stated Homeless Alliance helped roughly 858 individuals finish their homelessness in 2021, together with providing case administration providers and connecting individuals to everlasting housing.

“Homelessness is a traumatic experience for anyone but children in particular, so when we encounter families who are experiencing homelessness, I think there’s just an increased sense of urgency to really get them connected to services, to really minimize the impact of trauma and then thinking on a broader scale,” she added.

“It’s great if we can get a family off the street and into shelter, but obviously nothing compares to the safety and security of your own home,” she added.

HELP HOMELESS ALLIANCE ADDRESS NEEDS IN OKLAHOMA CITY

Kelly Berger at Positive Tomorrows stated few protections for renters and tenants will most definitely add as much as extra evictions within the new yr, so for now, his staff is difficult at work.

“We try to make sure that none of our clients were out on the street in the cold, that they were able to spend Christmas either in a shelter, hopefully in their new housing if we got there yet, or in a motel to prevent anyone from having to be on the street with their kids during the during the holidays,” Berger stated.

“There’s two areas we’re really focusing on in this week before the new year,” he added.

“One is making sure that those families that are in shelters or in some kind of housing situation, that they don’t return to street homelessness or literal homelessness. The other main focus is enrolling new kids [into] our school.”