Student homelessness up in Connecticut

Rising housing costs, end of pandemic-era relief programs could be contributing factors, data shows

After dipping during the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness among Connecticut students is rising again, data shows.

According to figures reported to the federal government, Connecticut school districts record 3,979 students experiencing homelessness during the 2021-22 school year, up from 3,310 the year before. Data from the State Department of Education, meanwhile, showed 2,409 students experiencing homelessness as of Oct. 1, 2022, a figure certain to rise by the end of the year.

State data shows that student homelessness is largely concentrated in cities — with Waterbury, New Haven, New London, Bridgeport and Hartford reporting particularly high totals — but that numerous suburban and rural districts record meaningful numbers as well. In total, 31 different school districts reported 20 or more students experiencing homelessness at some point during the 2021-22 school year, including at least one in each of the state’s eight counties.

(The federal government defines homeless students as those who “lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,” including those in shelters as well as those staying temporarily with friends or relatives.)

“We see it all over the place,” said Amber Freeman, of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. “In some cities or some regions they will say, ‘We don’t have homelessness here,’ but everyone does.”

Though homelessness statistics are often imprecise or incomplete, the trends in state data align with what advocates, experts and school district officials have seen first-hand over the past year or two: more students lack reliable shelter.

“We are seeing more and more of it,” said John Lawlor, who directs the homeless youth program at The Connection, a Middletown-based nonprofit. “And I don’t think it’s going away too soon.”

Some factors that might explain it.

Rising housing costs

Maybe nothing has driven Connecticut’s increase in homelessness more than a rise in rental prices.

According to data from Apartment List, rents in Connecticut have risen 18 percent since the start of 2021, stretching household budgets across the state. For some families, a spike in rent might meant down-sizing apartments or cutting back on luxuries. But for those already struggling, it can mean eviction and homelessness.

“We’re seeing more people come into our system because of the rising housing [costs],” Freeman said. “We’re seeing more people at risk of being evicted, and we’re seeing more people that have actually been evicted, and they can’t find a new unit because they simply can’t afford it.”

Stacey Violante Cote, who leads youth homelessness initiatives at the Hartford-based Center for Children’s Advocacy, said rising rental costs can be particularly difficult for young adults, including those still in high school, seeking to support themselves.

“They cannot afford a place to live,” she said. “We have young people we’re working with now who just cannot afford housing,”

As long as rent prices are rising, Violante Cote said, homelessness will likely continue to worsen.

“If we don’t fix the affordable housing issue, I don’t see how this is going to improve,” she said.

Lack of housing stock

Part of why Connecticut has high rental prices is a lack of housing stock. Connecticut has, by at least one estimate, the lowest vacancy rate of any state in the country, meaning housing is difficult to come by for people at all income levels but particularly for those with limited means.

Danny Diaz, coordinator of parent engagement for the New Haven school district, encounters this problem frequently.

“There is a very low percentage of available housing in New Haven,” he said. “All the housing that is being built in downtown New Haven, these families cannot afford.”

Lack of housing stock can trap people already experiencing homelessness, leaving few options even for those with some financial means.

“Those that are already experiencing homelessness, they may have a housing voucher or a subsidy or financial assistance, but they can’t find a unit,” said Freeman, from the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. “Or they can’t find a landlord that’s willing to rent to them.”

End of pandemic-era relief programs

For several years, these effects were mitigated somewhat by various federal programs aimed at helping vulnerable people through the COVID-19 pandemic. As these initiatives have ended one by one, some families and children have fallen back into poverty or homelessness.

The expanded child tax credit, which reduced child poverty to record lows, expired last year. So did enhanced unemployment benefits. Temporary SNAP benefits lasted until February before ending as well.

“We’re looking at eviction rates because families can’t afford to pay for their housing without those subsidies,” Violante Cote said. “We definitely see that.”

Freeman said advocates relied on numerous pandemic-era programs to keep people housed or help them if they became homeless.

“It was easier to connect someone to that financial assistance to help with preventative work or to help move them into an apartment or connect themto a subsidy,” she said. “Now that that money has kind of dried up, we are back to pre-pandemic days.”

Shynea Paris, district liaison to the homeless for the Waterbury school district, specifically cited a state-run, federally funded program called UniteCT, which provided $400 million in rental assistance during the pandemic.

“There’s been an increase [in homelessness], especially after COVID, after that UniteCT funding has pretty much stopped,” Paris said. “There have been a lot of evictions.”

Mental health and substance abuse issues

In Connecticut and elsewhere, the pandemic led to a well-documented increase in mental health and substance abuse issues. While not everyone experiencing homelessness struggles with mental health or substance abuse, those factors can contribute.

“Especially since the time of COVID, we’ve seen increased mental health [challenges], increased substance abuse,” Freeman said. “That has been a driving force for people entering homelessness.”

Tim Maguire, chief operating officer at the New Haven-based nonprofit Youth Continuum, said programs have seen a rise in homeless people with significant mental health challenges.

“We’re definitely seeing an uptick, most times with some pretty active mental health concerns, especially in our shelter,” he said. “Our clients have often cycled from our bed to a hospital bed and back.”

Lawlor, who works with 18-24 year olds experiencing homelessness, said he had noticed rising mental health needs even before COVID but that the pandemic had exacerbated the crisis.

“So many of the youth who come into our program likely fit some kind of diagnostic criteria for a mental health disorder,” he said. “It’s a pretty strong driver.”

Data collection

To Diaz, from the New Haven school district, the current high reported numbers of students experiencing homelessness aren’t necessarily a sign that homelessness is rising after a COVID-era dip. Instead, he says, they may be a sign that districts are again able to record incidents of homelessness they missed during the pandemic.

Often, Diaz said, school systems only know that students are homeless because they’re required to transport them to school. During the pandemic, when class was often remote, districts likely missed students in their official counts.

“During COVID, because kids were staying home or at hotels, they were not in need of transportation,” Diaz said. “As a result, many parents didn’t report that they were at a hotel or that they were living with other families, so the trend during COVID went down completely.”

Now that districts are again able to record more accurate data, Diaz said, the numbers have increased. In New Haven, they’ve nearly returned to the unprecedented numbers they reached when the city sawan influx of Puerto Rican students in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

In the end, Diaz said, the high levels of student homelessness likely owe to a variety of factors, beyond any single explanation.

“There’s been almost a perfect storm,” he said.