More students being identified as homeless in Ahwatukee

AHWATUKEE, AZ - The Kyrene School District has been charting a steady increase in students they identify as homeless since 2005.

Each school year the number goes up, the biggest jump happening from 2007-2008 to the 2008-2009 school year.

The trend isn’t stopping, or even slowing down.

Amanda Hamm, the district’s prevention manager, said district-wide they already have 100 more homeless students than they did at the same time last year.

Many of the “newly identified” homeless students are appearing at schools in Ahwatukee, an urban village of Phoenix.

Hamm said in the past two school years, “we had schools in Ahwatukee that never had homeless families but now we have them in every single school.”

There has also been a jump in the number of kids on the free or reduced lunch program which can often be a precursor to homelessness.

Hamm explained how, “homeless is generally 10 percent of your free and reduced lunch program,” and so if more kids need the program you can expect more children will be homeless.

The district does have social workers to help campus staff spot signs that a child is homeless and help that student and their parents locate resources.

Sheila Coonen, the executive director of Connecting to Serve , explained how these families represent the “new” face of homelessness.

You don’t see them on the street because they may be crashing at a friend’s house, a relative, a friend from church; it is something called “couch surfing”.

“They could be the person in front of you at the grocery store, next to you at the stop light, dropping their kids off at school, but they may not know where they are going to go at the end of the day. You probably know someone who is homeless but don't know they are because they do everything in their power to look just as they did before.”

Coonen is working with Hamm, area pastors, and the Ahwatukee Chamber of Commerce to identify how they can help.

Coonen will be outlining what resources already exist in the community to avoid redundancies and then pinpoint where there might be a need.

One thing Coonen has already discovered is that parents are in need of financial literacy.

This is why she is working with the Kyrene School District to find volunteers and retired business professionals to offer workshops at area schools.

With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, the big effort right now is trying to collect $2,000 to provide a holiday meal to area homeless families.

They are also accepting grocery story gift cards and volunteers are always welcome.

If you would like to help contact Connecting to Serve .