HopePHL is proud to join a large and growing coalition that includes disability rights and aging advocates along with leaders in public health, youth justice, anti-trafficking, and homelessness services who are calling on Congress to fully renew 2026 CoC grants.
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Without Congressional action, communities will see rising homelessness, strained health systems, and disrupted services. People with disabilities and many others who rely on supportive housing to remain safely housed will face the greatest harm. CoC funding begins to run out in January, and communities will feel the impact throughout the year unless Congress acts.
Read the full letter: https://bit.ly/3K5VEYs

This report is Part 1 in a series that seeks to inform state and local practitioners and policymakers about young children identified as experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania. It updates an earlier summary using data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). Part 2 will focus on data from the HUD Continuum of Care System in Pennsylvania and other sources.

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) supports homeless students with its Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) office, a federally funded program.

Funds allocated toward ECYEH are used for staffing to train school personnel in 300 public district and charter schools and provide direct services like uniforms, transportation, mentoring, summer programming, school supplies, and more to better support students experiencing homelessness.

This paper shares data recently published by the SDP and the Pennsylvania Department of Education using School Year (SY) 2022-23 data — the best publicly available source of data. The report offers insight for decision makers about the prevalence of student homelessness, challenges, and recommendations.

The SDP’s American Rescue Plan funds (ARP) (the primary source of funding for this critical work since 2020) have expired and the new capacity and supports for students will disappear on June 30, 2025. No plans have been developed to build on or continue this support; the School District informed advocates that available state funding is not adequate to support homeless students. 

A new report from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) shows the increase in young children experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania.

Highlights include:

• Overall, the PDE identified 10,158 children (more than the seating capacity of Palestra Arena in Philadelphia) aged birth to Kindergarten as homeless in 2023, an 11 percent increase from 2022, and an 8 percent increase from 2020.
  
• These young children represent 22 percent of all of Pennsylvania’s homeless children and youth.
  
• Of the four age categories used by PDE, infants and toddlers are the largest group of these young children, representing 35 percent of the 10,158 young children.
  
• The largest percentage increase was in Pre-Kindergarten at 34 percent since 2022 and 49 percent since 2020.

This report seeks to inform practitioners and policy makers about young children experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania. HopePHL’s series called the “Children Cannot Wait Campaign” aims to increase awareness of children and youth experiencing homelessness.

We provide a summary which identifies children in various categories, using recently published data from the PDE of its the Education of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program.

The Back to School Policy Brief was developed by HopePHL in collaboration with Philly Homes for Youth, Eddie's House, Turning Points for Children, and Valley Youth House.

With additional funding and staffing the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) was able to support 10,000 children and youth who experienced homelessness in the School Year (SY) 2022-2023.

The SDP's American Rescue Plan funds (ARP) are expiring December 31, 2024, and the new capacity and supports for students will disappear. No plans have been developed to build on or continue this support; the School District informed advocates that the new state funding is not adequate for replacing supports for homeless students; the Parker Administration and City Council are talking about this, but no actions have been taken.

Forty-eight charter schools and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) will lose $3 million in support for the thousands of students and their families who experience homelessness during the school year. The Commonwealth will lose the capacity built by the American Rescue Plan’s $32 million investment.  
 
Despite public hearings, countless meetings, direct discussions with policymakers, and multiple policy briefs framing the issue, no legislative body answered the call to use local funds to support homeless students.  
 
Every legislator on both sides of the aisle says they support homeless students, but only Rep. Ismail Wade Smith-El of Lancaster County and Philadelphia Representative Donna Bullock publicly stepped up to keep the new capacity going.  
 
The Commonwealth and its schools will revert to the federal $5 million for the 500+ school districts and charters to support more than 40,000 children and youth who experience homelessness.  
 
Yes, we are extremely disappointed.  ​

Forty-eight charter schools and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) stand to lose nearly $3 million in support for the thousands of students and their families who experience homelessness during the school year. HopePHL's school-based programs, such as Thrive, depend on these critical funds to provide the best support to students.
 
These funds were provided by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) via Pennsylvania’s ‘Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness’ (ECYEH) program. The ECYEH program is the only federal education program that removes barriers to enrollment, attendance, and reduces truancy caused by homelessness.
 
The schools used this money to expand their capacity to provide staffing, train school personnel, and provide direct services like short-term housing support, uniforms, transportation, motel stays, summer programming, school supplies, and more.
 
WHAT ADVOCATES ARE ASKING FOR: Advocates are asking Mayor Parker and the Philadelphia City Council Assembly for $3 million in General Funds to continue much of the expanded support for students experiencing homelessness. We are meeting with City Council and members of the Parker Administration to convince them of this needed support.  
 
ACTION ALERT: Contact the Mayor and City Council and ask them to “Fund homeless education by investing $3 million.”   
 
Contact Mayor Parker: Mayor’s correspondence form | Office of the Mayor | City of Philadelphia 
Contact City Council: Use their websites to send your message: Council Members - Philadelphia City Council (phlcouncil.com) 
 
Learn more about our school-based programs here

Check out this month's edition of the HopePHL Perspective, our Policy newsletter to learn how you can help support getting more funds to support students facing homelessness, why collecting data on infants-toddlers experiencing homelessness is important, and upcoming events!