Number of homeless children surging in Vermont

As executive director of the Committee on Temporary Shelter, Rita Markley is on the front lines of combating homelessness in Vermont — especially child homelessness, which Markley says is growing more acute every day.

Markley organized a recent campaign to draw attention to the fact that there are 172 homeless children in Chittenden County alone, enlisting the help of 172 students from Rice Memorial High School, who staged a recent demonstration to highlight the plight of homeless children.

Last week, Markley joined Gov. Peter Shumlin for a news conference announcing his administration would try to end child and family homelessness in Vermont by 2020. Markley announced that COTS had received a $580,000 grant from the federal Community Development Block Grant Program to help build a new day station and 14 apartment units.

Shumlin said about 1,500 people in Vermont are homeless on any given night, and about half of those people are families with children.

Markley responded by email to the following questions:

Burlington Free Press: You have reported there are 172 children in Chittenden County alone who are homeless, including 32 children under the age of 5. How does this compare to past years?

Rita Markley: We've seen a steady increase in the number of homeless families with children since the late '90s. The numbers started to rise much more sharply the year following the Great Recession.

BFP: Do you know how many homeless children there are statewide, or are the children concentrated in Chittenden County?

RM: There are homeless children all over Vermont, but they are largely unseen because they look like every other kid with their backpacks and lunch boxes. The U.S. Department of Education noted that Vermont was among the top 10 states in the country with the sharpest increase in the number of homeless students in 2013.

It's almost like there are two Vermonts — the one that wins awards as the best place to raise children and the one where 7-year-olds are getting ready for their first day of school in the bathrooms of fast food restaurants because shelters are full and there are now much tighter restrictions on emergency placements in motels.

BFP: National reports show nearly one in every 30 children in the United States is homeless, which would work out to about 3.3 percent of all children. How does that compare on a percentage basis with Vermont?

RM: In 2014, the state's Point in Time Count reported that 1,556 Vermonters, including 371 children, were homeless. Nearly one in four of every homeless person in Vermont, or 24 percent of people who are homeless, is a child. Overall, 20 percent of the state's population is under age 18.

BFP: The number of homeless children nationally has been described as "surging." Would you apply the same term to the number of homeless children in Vermont?

RM: Absolutely. The number of homeless students in Vermont increased 34 percent between 2007 and 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

BFP: What are the main causes for children becoming homeless?

RM: In Vermont, the key challenge is flat and falling wages coupled with an extremely tight housing market that drives up the cost of rent. For many households, the rent consumes nearly 50 percent of monthly income. After groceries, utilities and transportation, there's very little left over to cover any unexpected cost like a repair bill or deductible. There's just no margin when the family budget is strained too tightly.

BFP: What are the main effects of homelessness on children?

RM: Homelessness has an enduring impact on children. The stress and transience they experience affects everything from health and nutrition to academic performance and self-esteem. A national study done several years ago by the National Center on Family Homelessness and Doorways for Women and Families:

• Children experiencing homelessness are sick four times more often than other children. They get four times as many respiratory infections, twice as many ear infections, five times more gastrointestinal problems, and are four times as likely to have asthma.

• Homeless children go hungry twice as often as other children and 25 percent of homeless children report eating less after becoming homeless. They also have high rates of obesity due to scarcity of affordable foods with high nutritional value.

• Children facing homelessness have three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems compared with non-homeless children. For example, 53 percent have problems such as anxiety, depression, or withdrawal, compared with 17 percent of other school-age children.

• Homeless children are twice as likely to have learning disabilities and are four times as likely to have slow or delayed development.

BFP: Is homelessness harder on children than it is on adults?

RM: In some ways, yes. It can change the trajectory of a child's life, and what they believe about their place in the world. Imagine the shame a third-grader feels when she's called "shelter trash" at school. Or the teasing that happens for wearing damp clothes that aren't quite clean because it's so hard to wash anything well without access to laundry facilities. These children often will pretend everything is the same — but they can't have sleepovers, and they're often very tired in class from living in crowded overflow rooms or congregate shelters.

BFP: Are you confident we have a complete picture of homeless children in Vermont, or do you suspect there are a significant number of homeless children we're simply not aware of?

RM: It's very hard to be confident that this is a full count, but we work closely with schools, community partners and the faith community to identify children and families who are connected with families who are homeless.

BFP: Are children under the age of 5 more or less adversely affected than older children by homelessness?

RM: Multiple recent reports and studies have shown the adverse effect poverty has on the developing brain and children ages 0-5.

BFP: Is it your sense that Vermonters are generally aware that we as a state have a problem with our children being homeless?

RM: No, that's why we launched the #172vt campaign! It seems like teachers and early educators are keenly aware of the growing problem but very few others are aware. Children are often the hidden and unseen face of homelessness in our state.

BFP: What are the main steps we need to take as a state to address the problem of children being homeless?

RM: The main steps we need to take are first, increase awareness about magnitude of the problem.

Second, we need to focus on housing and prevention. We know that breaking the fall works because we've done it through our Housing Resource Center program for five years. The Housing Resource Center is COTS' successful homelessness prevention initiative. In 2014, we averted homelessness for 259 households, including 181 children. The program is designed to help families avert the crisis of homelessness entirely.

And the more we have, the more we can help. Our ability to break the fall is limited only by resources we have. Just $800-$900 can have a lasting effect on a child's future.

BFP: Are children at risk of being taken away from their parents because of homelessness?

RM: Yes, children can be removed from their families if there is lack of regular housing and there are other problems within the home that jeopardize the safety of the child.

Contact Dan D'Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DanDambrosioVT.