Despite months of lobbying and advocacy by homeless students and their advocates, the School District of Philadelphia will lose over $3 million of funding it received under the American Rescue Plan to support homeless public school students by the fall.
The shortfall will impact hundreds of students currently receiving services that allow them to stay in school and address practical issues that make it hard for them to get the education they are entitled to.
ARP funds has been invested in three community organizations experienced in working with homeless students and their families: Eddie's House, HopePHL, and Valley Youth House. The organizations, along with the Philly Homes 4 Youth Coalition, which represents 40 agencies and over 60 youth with lived experience of homelessness, advocated agressively in Harrisburg and Philadelphia for the funding to be restored by City Council or the School District using other available funds, to no avail.
"Every legislator we talked to expressed support for our request," said David Fair, co-chair of Philly Homes 4 Youth. "But unfortunately, we were unable to convince them to actually add the funds to the state, school, or city budgets."
The coalition of agencies also partnered with Allegheny County’s Homeless Education Children’s Fund and more than a dozen agencies across the state to advocate on this issue, asking for a $10 million allocation in the state budget, but to no avail.
Philadelphia City Councilperson Isaiah Thomas will hold a public hearing on youth homelessness in Philadelphia on July 31st at 11am at the Alan Horwitz Center for Philadelphia Youth Basketball, 4250 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19129.
The purpose of this hearing is to raise awareness and advocate for funding for the critical issue of students experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia. Reports from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) show that 8,363 children and youth were identified as homeless in School Year (SY) 2021-2022 in Philadelphia, a significant increase from previous years. Experts say they anticipate the following school year to be over 10,000 children and students.
