Homeless students are few in Sisters

The number of homeless students in Sisters schools was not included in the federally-mandated report released on Wednesday, November 15, by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) on homeless students. The reason: Sisters does not have enough homeless students to be included in state calculations. There are less than 10.

Sisters School District Human Resources and Special Education Director Tim Comfort said "Every year we have a few homeless," but since the number is less than 10, they are not reported.

The students are not reported to protect their anonymity.

The state's theory is that when numbers reach 10 or more, homeless students are not readily identifiable as individuals or as members of a specific family and anonymity is maintained. When numbers are sizable, Comfort commented, the homeless "could be anybody walking down the street." He added, "When there's basically few, it's too easy to track them."

Sisters' low number of homeless students, however, is not indicative of the situation in other parts of Central Oregon or statewide. Wednesday's ODE report identified 240 homeless students in the Bend-La Pine School District during the 2004-05 school year and 280 in 2003-04. The report totaled 13,159 homeless students statewide for the 2005-06 school year, a figure that is up 1,867 from the number reported the previous year (see related story, page 41).

Even though homelessness has not been a serious issue in Sisters' schools to date , Family Access Network (FAN) advocate Shawna Bell confirmed that homelessness in Sisters is on the rise. Bell said that since mid-August, FAN has assisted seven families that fit the homeless profile (see related story, page 41).

Bell said that the homeless profile, "is not generally what you'd think of people sleeping on a park bench. The definition is if they're doubled up in an apartment."

She explained, "I had a situation where there were two families in a two bedroom apartment and six were in one room. That's considered homeless. They don't have a permanent residence of their own."

Other examples Bell related are families bunking with other families who then transition to a hotel and hopefully later to permanent housing and people living in trailer parks with no bathroom facilities. Bell added that last spring in Sisters, "We had a family in the city park in pup tents, and they actually had infants."

Bell said that almost all of the seven homeless families she has helped this year are employed.

"These are under-employed folks," she said. "These are the folks that work in our restaurants, shops and gas stations. These are the folks that actually work and support our tourist industry here. They make $8.50, $9.50 or $10.50 an hour, and there just isn't (affordable) housing here."

Winter proves an even more difficult time for these people, as expenses, such as heating and clothing, are on the rise and income, with Sisters' summer-oriented tourist economy, is on the decline.

Bell commented that three of her seven homeless families are able to afford low rate rentals. However, with the housing boom landlords have sold the properties these families were previously renting, making it extremely difficult for these families to locate housing in the same price range.

One family, even though still employed in Sisters, was forced to move to Redmond.

"I just wonder for a $10-an-hour job, how long are they going to commute," Bell said. "Pretty soon, they're going to find a $10-an-hour job in Redmond, just as easily. And so, I think the employers here (in Sisters) are going to very quickly find that they're not going to be able to support jobs."

All but one of the homeless families Bell has served this year have students in Sisters schools. FAN works with Sisters School District homeless liaison Kelley Powell as students transition into district schools.

Whereas in the past school districts could deny enrollment to children of families that did not own property or rent within district boundaries, this is no longer the case.

According to Comfort, "Current law says, you cannot do that. If somebody comes in and says, I want to enroll in your school, you need to enroll them. What that means then, is that it is for the sake of the child. You want to have them engaged in learning with other kids to try to normalize any portion of their life if other portions of their life are mobile, in transition."