CHARLOTTE, N.C. -School officials voiced concern earlier this month about a subject we should all be aware of saying, “There are more than 4,700 students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system without adequate housing.” That is up from about 3000 students in 2008.
Just so that we are clear, I am going to translate what school officials are trying to say in terms we can better relate too. What school officials mean is that some of these children are “homeless”.
Sure most of us are aware of the huge homeless “problem” we have in Charlotte, N.C., we pass by those people every day, and think little about it. However, few people are aware that includes children of various ages. I think if people knew about it they would maybe do about it.
"We have the highest population of homeless kids in North Carolina," said Kay Carreira of Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, in a WOTC news report recently published.
The shocking report goes on to say, “Some students live in cars, hotel rooms or on the streets.”
QUANISHA CHERRY’S STORY IS ONE OF MANY PLAYING OUT IN CHARLOTTE!
"(She'll) be like, 'Mommy, where are we going? and I break down crying because I don't know what to tell my child," said Quanisha Cherry. Cherry lost her job and was forced to move into a hotel with her husband and three kids. The youngest is just 9 months old. She said because of limited resources, she was unsure how long she would be able to stay at the hotel. She came to Friendship Baptist Church of Charlotte Saturday to get free gifts and food for her family. Students are on winter break, which means many will go without guaranteed daily meals and a warm classroom during the day. School officials told Eyewitness News that it is becoming more of a challenge for many families to find shelter. "Thank goodness for our emergency shelters, but they're already overcrowded. They are already over capacity and it is starting to get cold outside. The ones who have been living in cars and out in the woods are now moving into the shelters and there's not even room there," said Carreira (See article: “Number of homeless students in school system growing” http://www.wsoctv.com/news/30020486/detail.html ).
SALVATION ARMY DOING ALL IT CAN!
A manager at the Salvation Army Shelter for women and children said Saturday that even though they were at capacity they would try to sleep as many women and children as they could. They also work with a network of churches that house people for the night when the Salvation Army Shelter is full. These are sometimes called “overflow shelters”.
“The seriousness of this problem cannot be underscored enough, especially when we have children living like this in America”, says Walter Reed of Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a tragedy of epic proportions”. He said.
Some wonder why child protection services are not involved in some of these situations. The fact is they are in many cases. There is understandably reluctance by people to admit their shame and in those cases when they do, the child could be taken from the parents and put into foster care. Others are runaways who get lost in the system so to speak. In some cases, the kids are homeless but continue to attend public school and school officials are not otherwise aware of the situation going on with that particular child.
In one unpublicized case, a teenage high school student was discovered sleeping in the school auditorium at night. School official never knew about what was going on until the janitor discovered evidence that someone was in fact sleeping in the auditorium. In that instance they found a bed roll and an Mp3 player, as well some of the kid’s homework he left behind that had his name on it.
Some kids live out of their school lockers and gym lockers, where they stash a set of clean cloths sometimes. One PE coach told me he noticed kids taking showers that were not attending gym or sport classes in the morning and afternoon. Granted it hard to tell with some kids because they like to play basketball before and after school with their friends sometimes…
Other kids come from troubled homes and simply stay away from their house so they can escape emotional or physical abuse.
The list of why these kids are homeless is as diverse as they are in some cases. It ranges across the entire spectrum.
It has just gotten to the point now when school officials can no longer ignore the problem, which they admit is growing beyond what they feel they can control or deal with.
Obviously, we have to try to find a solution to what is going on here. Then deal with the problem instead of trying to ignore it in the hopes it will simply go away!
Robert Tilford
Charlotte, N.C
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