Hidden Homeless Kids in California: Living in a Garage, Double and Invisible | West Coast

fOr the past year, nine-year-old Brigitte California. Her bedroom is almost big enough to eliminate some K-pop dance moves, though not spacious enough to get her parents to agree to make her dream cat.

There is no outdoor space or living room, but families no longer need to share a kitchen, bathroom or refrigerator with two other families, just like they first moved here from Oaxaca, Mexico three years ago.

“It’s difficult,” Brigitt said. “She did her homework on a small table in the bedroom she shared with her parents.

Family must compete for space in the kitchen. The bathroom is always occupied, so they often don’t take a shower until 10 pm. Residents kept fighting in the parking lot.

Brigitte’s mom Nancy, who works in Castroville packaging cauli, artichokes and broccoli, says she is always taking care of others and she mostly hides family food in their bedrooms because “we share the refrigerator, but they don’t respect your food and will eat it.”

Their rooms in the shared house cost $1,000, plus utilities, but then increased the price to $1,300.

Brigitte’s father, Cruz, who works on a car wash, said what prompted them to move was “the pressure of constantly fighting there, exhausted, had to clean the kitchen and others, no one else helped”.

The family meets with guardians on a playground in Salinas because they don’t allow guests to pay $1,800 a month.

“It’s really expensive to rent a house here,” Cruz said.

Number of children living in unstable housing situations California In recent years, it has grown significantly.

In 2021, the country begins The school is asked to fill out a housing questionnaire to understand the student’s housing status. Although the investigation did not capture all the uninvested children, it still painted disturbing images.

The number of homeless students in California has almost increased 20,000 in 2024an average of 4%, which is the highest rate of homelessness among students in a decade According to the California Institute of Public Policy (PPIC).

Increased awareness among school leaders may lead to an increase in numbers. But these figures are based on a single-day count in October 2024, which is almost certainly a layoff.

Students will be considered homeless if they lack fixed, regular and sufficient nighttime accommodation. It includes double-overs living in the streets, shelters, motels, students on cars, with other families or living in garages like Brigitte.

Homeless students face steep educational barriers – They are more likely to miss schools, change schools frequently, face suspensions, and attend schools with high poverty rates. They are unlikely to meet academic standards compared to their peers, high school graduate students or college. Preventing this outcome is socially and economically beneficial to students and the state.

Across California, the statewide average of 4% of student homelessness masks sharp local differences. In Monterey County, the central rural counties where Brigitte and its families live, 16% of public schools’ children are homeless at some point at some point—the highest percentage in California was 4.2% that was ten years ago, according to the California Department of Education.

Brett Guinan, one of the authors of the PPIC report, said: “This is a very stunning statistic, and this is the increase in the number of students homeless in Monterey County, because the number of students homeless in Monterey County is happening due to the long history of the county, which means that while more students are homeless, there are still a portion of the students.

Resident students doubled several families into garages that were housed or converted, such as Brigitte and her parents, making up most of California Homeless students. More than 90% The on-site life of homeless youth in Monterey County doubled, according to the latest cumulative data from the California Office of Education.

Life in the region has become increasingly common as the country faces rent inflation, wage stagnation and a long-standing housing crisis.

Renters in California have extended it — but in Salinas, they are nervous: 57.1% of their revenues are more than a third to keep lights and roofs.

Meanwhile, some funds dedicated to helping unpopular students dry out include $99 million in federal pandemic relief funds dedicated to homeless students, Ginnan said. “All of this funds are now due, and there is a lot of uncertainty about which homeless students’ funds look like they are moving forward,” Ginnan said.

In Monterey County, classrooms are not only a place to learn, but also a frontline to fight against the homeless children. With housing costs soaring and wages stagnant, local school districts have become the de facto safety net for the most vulnerable students, ensuring they are not forgotten simply because of the lack of fixed addresses.

“Our work in the school district is not about addressing homelessness,” said Donna Smith, who has coordinated services for homeless children and teenagers at the Monterey County Office of Education for the past six years. “It’s for experienced homeless students.” This includes everything from school supplies, hygiene kits and clothing to transportation, coaching and helping browse the healthcare system.

For families in crisis, even basic paperwork can be a barrier, she said. Under the law, homeless children must enter school without delay, even if they lack birth certificates, vaccination records or other documents. To ensure there are no learning gaps, the district’s homeless liaison team will “recruit students immediately and then work backwards” to get the necessary paperwork, Smith said.

Staff provide “wrapping service” – overall support that adapts to student needs. “Some students may not need anything,” Smith said. “Otherwise they might just need a backpack and you won’t see them again. Then, some families need more support – maybe they need help with food.”

Smith said school staff could help homeless students’ families find housing and get grants to help deposit deposits or pay owed “so they don’t get homeless.”

Training school staff can identify signs of housing instability and notify teachers who can modify tasks. “We know that kids living in shelters can’t always do their homework,” she said. Therefore, academic expectations can be adjusted.

Smith saw that two or more families with doubled family life shared a home, often being squeezed into a single room, converted garage or worse. “Sometimes there are several families living together, sometimes three families,” she explained. “I’ve seen the converted garage where the entire family lives here—or untransformed garage.”

Homeless people here have cut jobs and immigration status. “These aren’t necessarily children from immigrant families,” Smith stressed. “Maybe their families are sick, or they are unemployed, or they do have jobs, but that’s not enough to pay rent.”

In Monterey County, about 13% of homeless students are immigrants, compared with about 3% statewide average.

In some agricultural pockets around Salinas, Smith said the situation was even more terrifying. “I know they have families living in Hotos,” she said. Events in 2023 A farmer was fined for illegally converting about 100 people into temporary housing, including many young women and children. “There are a lot of families living together. They are closed down for illegality.”

Seeing children from immigrant families do homework on boxes on the floor as their families work to rent informal living species, such as corridors, inspired Alexa Johnson, executive director of the Monterey County Housing Resource Center to shift the focus from immigration education to housing.

“The cost of rent is increasing, but the money people get remains the same,” Johnson said. Johnson drew a chart on a computer screen where people use the rates for renting engagement vouchers in Section 8, and the government provides helping low-income Americans. “Currently, in our county, locations can reach up to 74% during the pandemic.”

The housing crisis in Monterey County is getting worse for everyone, not only immigrant families, but families working in seasonal farming jobs face challenges, many of whom have no records.

Johnson said non-U.S. citizens are not eligible for many federal and state housing subsidies, so families work in nurseries selling tamales or in between harvests. However, this volatile cash-based job is not a salary stub to showcase potential landlords.

“Where are you going to get the money for rent when a season is over? During that time, a lot of people will lose their jobs, but that doesn’t cover all their expenses and what they need for rent,” Johnson said.

For kids who learn “housing is a critical part of the puzzle that is missing,” Johnson remembers the pandemic when kids without wifi cannot log in to amplify distance learning. “So you just start to see how important housing is to not only the overall well-being of that child, but also to the overall health of the family.”

Federal funding during all pandemic times helps school districts identify and support homeless children expires this school year, not only making the future of resources uncertain, but also allowing school districts to track exactly how many students need their abilities.

“I doubt the numbers [of homeless students] “As we lose the ability to identify these students, we may decline. If they don’t have the funds to get individual employees to track them, or provide more time for their current employees, the ability to capture a complete situation is limited, even if the school is doing its best.”

In Monterey County, there is no need to record the concerns of homeless students not just food, clothing or accurate numbers—it is whether immigration and customs enforcement raids will completely kick out of schools.

“Our kids are scared. Our family is scared, and as these ice attacks increase, I can tell you that we will see attendance at school when we drop in the fall,” said Deneen Guss, Ph.D., the head of the school serving 72,000 students in Monterey County. “We already know this is going to happen because we hear family members say they don’t want to see a doctor. They don’t want to leave the house.”

Brigitte’s family spent most of their time outside the park’s house, but they kept spending more time at home due to fear of ice raids.

Nancy loves baking desserts and decorative jelly and real kitchen dreams rather than the small kitchen in her remodeled garage. Cruz dreamed of a house with a large yard and fireplace, but did not hold his breath.

“I want to have a bunch of animals in my house, I want to have a brother, but sometimes I don’t.” Bridget stopped and pondered how a younger brother fits the house, and added, “I want to work hard and give mom and dad a new car, shoes, shoes, and good things.”