Rising number of homeless students challenges Minneapolis schools

Principal Lisa Pawelak did a double-take this fall when she saw how many of the students at Lucy Craft Laney Community School identified as homeless or highly mobile. The number had jumped to 19% — nearly double the previous school year.

It's not just the North Side elementary school seeing that trend. Across the city, the number of Minneapolis public school students who lack stable housing is climbing. Despite declines in enrollment, the district has identified 300 more homeless or highly mobile students than at the same point last year.

"If that trend were to continue, we'll end the year at the highest rate we've seen," said Charlotte Kinzley, manager of Minneapolis Public Schools' homeless and highly mobile student services department.

The rise in need — driven by a variety of forces, from lack of affordable housing to the end of the eviction moratorium in place during the pandemic — stresses families and districts' resources. In 2019, Minneapolis launched the Stable Homes Stable Schools program, which helps families find and pay for housing. Still, meeting the needs of more families without stable housing while inflation pushes costs up has added millions to Minneapolis' budget this school year.

"What's happening now just shows how precarious so many people's situations are," Pawelak said.

Federal law mandates that schools uphold educational rights and protections for homeless children, which includes providing transportation to their school of origin, defined as the school the student attended when permanently housed or the school in which the student was last enrolled.

When students first become homeless, district staff members arrange taxi cabs to pick them up wherever they're staying, so they don't miss any days of school. Within a few days, the district aims to serve them with a bus route or vehicles it uses for students living outside city limits.

Altogether, the district transports about 1,250 homeless and highly mobile students. Nearly two-thirds are served by special vans or sedans. Some of those vehicles travel as far as 38 miles to pick up students.

The transportation department is adding a part-time employee to help manage the constantly changing route schedule for highly mobile students.

"These kids may change addresses every few months, so from a transportation standpoint, it's super tough," said Lisa Beck, executive director of the district's transportation department. "MPS does a really great job of keeping them in school, but it does cost us to make that happen."

The cost of contracted transportation services for homeless and highly mobile students in Minneapolis jumped about 60% from last year to this year. And that doesn't include the costs of the short-term cabs, which topped $160,000 in September alone. Overall, the district's transportation costs for all students have gone up about 50%, requiring an additional $16.5 million and a budget amendment this year.

That comes at a time when the district, according to a recent projection, is set to go into the red by 2025 without drastic cuts or a significant boost in revenue.

"When the public sees the dollar figure associated with these services, I'd like them not to disconnect that these are human kids in need," Beck said. "And it's not a matter of a choice on MPS's part — it's our directive to transport these kids, and it's also our ethical responsibility."

Beck said she worries that, by the end of the year, the number of students experiencing homelessness who need transportation outside of the city will outpace what the district can provide through contracted services.

"There are only so many drivers and so many routes a company can take," she said.

The district has been proactive in trying to help kids find homes within Minneapolis through its Stable Homes Stable Schools program, a partnership with the city, the housing authority and the county. That program provides rental assistance and emergency funding to families, identified by school social workers, for up to three years.

As of September, the program had helped more than 1,100 families since its launch in 2019.

Lucy Laney has a full-time social worker on special assignment this year to help families in the program.

Sarah Olson had been a social worker at the school for several years before taking on the new role, and she said she's never seen so many families struggling to find stable, affordable housing. She's constantly texting with families who are couch surfing with friends or family or reaching out because they don't have enough food to feed their children while they wait for their next paycheck.

"If my role was at every school, that would be great for support, but that doesn't mean that necessarily more families would have housing," Olson said, adding that while Stable Homes Stable Schools is a great program, it still depends on affordable housing and landlords willing to rent to the applicants, which can be in short supply.

The district has also hired a housing navigator through AmeriCorps who scans listings to find affordable homes for families. She's working with 20 families and has a waiting list.

Olson helped Yashanna Brazelton find a place for her and her three children, two of whom attend Lucy Laney. The family had couch surfed for six months before moving into a three-bedroom duplex in north Minneapolis — outside the Lucy Laney bus route boundaries, but much closer than some of the suburbs where they had stayed, including Bloomington to Inver Grove Heights.

Brazelton pays about $433 a month toward rent; the rest of the rent is covered by Stable Homes Stable Schools rental assistance.

The months of moving around and crashing on couches were tough on her and her children, Brazelton said. But no matter where they were living, they always had transportation to Lucy Laney, where they had a consistent support system.

Since moving to their new house, Brazelton hasn't gotten a single call from the school about a behavior issue.

"My kids are so much happier," she said. They've been decorating their rooms and hardly want to leave their house to join her for errands. "They just love being home."