A 10th grade student in one of the schools served by HopePHL was kicked out of his home and reached out for support. He did not have other family or friends to stay with. HopePHL's Thrive program referred him to the emergency shelter at YES, which provided safe housing for the student. During that time, our team provided money for clothing and school supplies so that he was able to keep up with school. At the end of the 21 days, he was able to return home to a diffused situation with his parents. The story above is just one example of the positive affect the American Rescue Plan’s funding is used to support students experiencing homelessness. Pennsylvania received $32 million from the American Rescue Plan for the Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program. This program supported 40,000 children and youth in 2022. The funding has paid for activities that increase high school graduation, lower truancy, stabilize housing, and much more. More than 400 school districts and charters have received the funding but stand to lose it as the APR dollars expire January 31, 2025. Any funds that remain will go back to the Treasury. As of January 31, Pennsylvania still had $7.3 million unspent (see general fund status here) with five months remaining. Thanks to HopePHL and our allies, United State Senators Robert Casey and John Fetterman responded positively to our request to sign-on to a “Dear Colleague” letter that proposes to extend the obligation deadline by one year for funding made available under section 2001(b)(1) of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, for the purposes of serving homeless children and youth (ARP-HCY). A problem that Senator Casey can solve is to extend the deadline. We are encouraging Congress to extend the obligation deadline by at least one school year to ensure that all ARP-HCY funds are used strategically to support increasing numbers of students experiencing homelessness. Congress also should increase annual funding for the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) funding. As outlined in the report, Congress should extend the deadline because:
This funding has had a transformative effect in the lives of children, youth, and families that have experienced homelessness. Thank you, Senators Casey and Fetterman, for doing what is important to support our homeless students.
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The “State-Level Brief Update – A Call to Action” is brought to you by the Pennsylvania Head Start State Collaboration Office and HopePHL, in partnership with Grace Whitney, PhD. The Update highlights key state-level housing, education, and early childhood sector data regarding young children experiencing homelessness and it expands earlier efforts by including data related to young children in foster care.
Over 22 million U.S. households are enrolled in the The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), that is equal to roughly one in six of all Americans. ACP is a federal benefit that helps low-income households that qualify pay for internet services and devices. The one-time funding for the program that was appropriated by Congress is set to run out by April 2024. Congress may approprate additional funds but it is not guaranteed so the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must operate as if the program will end. Dates to know:
The official last fully-funded month will be announced in late February. ACP households will receive further instruction after this confirmation. Providers must offer additional opt-in to continue service if the consumer had not already been an active customer prior to applying the ACP benefit or if the ACP benefit covers the entire cost of a customer’s bill. Notifications To Look For:
2) 15 days after FCC announcement of last fully-funded month of ACP 3) During the customer’s last bill or billing cycle using the ACP benefit *Provider Notifications 2 & 3 must state the ending date of ACP and date of the last bill it will be applied to, bill amount without the ACP benefit OR statement that the customer will be subjected to undiscounted rates per term conditions, and give them the ability to change their service and/or to opt out continuing service at the end of ACP. We thank our Pennsylvania Congresspersons Dwight Evans (Philadelphia, left), Chrissy Houlahan (Chester, middle), and Mary Gay Scanlon (Delaware, right) for signing onto a letter pressuring the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to respond to data showing the decline of support for families and children experiencing homelessness.
Led by Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), our three Congress persons joined 22 of their colleagues in drawing attention to the decline in federal housing assistance programs for families with children. The information they are sharing is shocking! The letter asserts that the Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, one of the largest federal housing programs that can help prevent homelessness, shows that families with children have received a smaller share of voucher recipients over the last decade. Read the press release here. Action Steps: Don’t agonize, Organize! We joined SchoolHouse Connection in supporting a set of actions to address the declining support. Read SCH’s analysis here. HopePHL organized a coalition to venture to Harrisburg to educate key staff and legislators on October 10 and November 15. For the later event, we joined in with two related efforts for a full day of advocacy for the November event.
We joined in the staff from various ‘Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness’ networks led by the indefatigable Sonia Pitzi, Regional Coordinator from the Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12. Sonia organized a rally and press conference held in the Main Capitol Building and attended by more than 75 advocates. The second effort was organized by a number of Allegheny-county based agencies, including the Homeless Education Fund, in partnership with the National Network 4 Youth. They joined the rally and also met with state legislators on four different proposals on various aspects issues relating to youth homelessness. HopePHL was given the opportunity to provide data at a public hearing of the House Education and Human Services Committees, organized by Philadelphia’s Representative Donna Bullock. More than twenty-five legislators heard a number of shocking challenges confronting the 40,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness in the Commonwealth. Joining the day were HopePHL Board members Mike Verrill and Brandon Weber (picture above) with Rep. Bullock. The Children Cannot Wait Campaign: School Districts Who Received ARP - Homeless Education Funding1/18/2024 The American Rescue Plan directed a one-time $32 million infusion of support to the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Pennsylvania budget for the Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program. ECYEH expanded its capacity, as did many school districts and charter schools, to provide staffing, train school personnel, and provide direct services like uniforms, transportation, motel stays, mentoring, summer programming, school supplies, and more.
School Districts across the state identified 40,000 homeless children and youth in Fiscal Year 2022, enough to fill most every seat at Citizens Bank Park. The Philadelphia School District identified its highest number of children and youth experiencing homelessness – 8,383 in 2022! This is a 7% increase from 2019 and a 94% increase since 2014.
Thankfully, the federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided $36 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s ‘Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness’ (ECYEH) program, which subcontracted more than $3 million to the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). SDP expanded its capacity to provide 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. The Homeless Children and Youth Act (HCYA, H.R.5221) was reintroduced by U.S. Representatives Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ-11,) Bill Posey (R-FL-08), Delia Ramirez (D-IL-03), and Don Bacon (R-NE-02), and co-sponsored by Pennsylvanians Evans (Phila), Boyle (Phila), Scanlon (Delaware), Dean (Montgomery), and Fitzpatrick (Bucks).
A positive step forward for families experiencing homelessness would be a unification of the federal definition of who is homeless and who is not. The Homeless Children and Youth Act would unify the definition, qualifying thousands of families and children for housing supports. New reports from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) show that in School Year (SY) 2021-2022, 40,003 children and youth were identified as homeless throughout the Commonwealth, an all-time high. This paper summarizes the PDE data, which they have sorted by county and region.
HopePHL works to inform practitioners and policy makers about children and youth experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania. HopePHL’s series called the “Children Cannot Wait Campaign” (see https://bit.ly/3qAQGIX) aims to increase awareness of children and youth experiencing homelessness. Part 1 explored the data for Pennsylvania; Part 2 explored the data for Philadelphia; and Part 3 examines homelessness in Pennsylvania by county. Some of the families in HopePHL’s emergency housing today are struggling to find childcare in order to participate in programs and employment. This is one reason why we have joined numerous coalitions to fight for more funding for childcare. The advocate group Children First has permitted us to include a recent email informing the public on how the state budget woes affect childcare. “The political waters in Harrisburg over the budget are rockier than wave surfing on the Jersey shore. But some sectors are experiencing a hardcore wipeout. Fortunately, families receiving the childcare subsidy can keep their heads (just) above water through the budget impasse. The state government will continue to fund childcare subsidy payments so parents and providers won’t take a hit. Plus, the child care subsidy was the only early learning program to get any additional funds – $100 million – to fill the loss of federal dollars. However, providers who serve children through the state’s publicly funded pre-k and Head Start programs are not protected from the crashing waves. The state will suspend those payments, forcing these small business owners with already razor-thin budget margins to take out loans to keep them afloat. And with today’s exorbitant interest rates, many providers will be financially underwater quickly. This could have dire consequences for children. |
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