WP4 Draft
The issue of homeless people has been the most exacerbated one in LA since the 1930s. As the central community for the most unfortunate ones, Skid Row has amassed thousands of homeless people in which they gather together and meander around the streets. The status quo in Skid Row is palely tragic since people residing here with a purposeless mentality. Sleeping in tents, sitting on chair, and gawking at the sky have become their only daily routines, and this lifestyle is pervasive through the community. The youth group, as the minority here, are currently facing the quandary and affected the most in this situation since they are still in the early stage of their life span and could have lived a brighter future if their growing environment is less flawed, or at least they are given a more organized development. Lack of education due to inadequate government funding and unstable living environment is the critical cause for homeless youths’ future high rate of juvenile delinquency and low life quality. While potential obstacles exist, assigning agencies for each district that offer teachers who visit homeless community to teach could ensure homeless adolescents’ basic education.
The character and knowledge of a person is largely formed by the environment where they grow up within. Skid Row, as the capital of homeless people in America, is a place full of despair and corruption epitomized through crime and drugs. Reports from New York Post shows that crime in Skid Row has increased 59 percent since 2010, with officers responding to 13,122 incidents last year, including 2,698 assaults, 2,453 thefts and 1,350 car break-ins. This statistic demonstrates the terrible crime rate and the diverse cases of crime in the community, which would in various ways disturb their life. In addition to this, more than 12,000 homeless heroin and meth addicts lived or have been to Skid Row during 2019 (Rufo). While I was volunteering for WaterDrop at Skid Row last weekend, the scene becomes more real when I truly witnessed a tiny transaction of drugs among a group of homeless people on the other side of the street. When distributing water at that side, one of them even asked if we offered weed in our supply. Passively growing up and immersing themselves in an environment like this, homeless youth would definitely find it hard to not be influenced adversely by the distorted norms here. A study at Coalition for Juvenile Justice has found that nearly 44% of the homeless youth in 11 U.S. cities (including Los Angeles) had stayed in juvenile detention center and prison, 78% of them have had at least one confrontation with the police, and nearly 62% had been arrested at some point in their lives (Pilnik). To put into a nutshell, for the teenage groups in Skid Row, it’s prone to become the next generation of these kinds if keep staying in the depraved places like it.
As a determining solution to the abovementioned problem, education, an essential step for all adolescents transitioning into the society, is playing an even stronger role and more needed for them to break through the circumstance they are facing. What education could bring to young people is multifaceted as for developing social knowledge, critical thinking, skills required for employment and etc. Supporting homeless young people’s access to appropriate education is essential if young people wish to embrace a civic and fulfilling life over which they have control and passionate about (Robyn). Education in liberal art subjects is responsible to render teenagers the humanistic and moral nourishment, which is something largely absent during their growth. This knowledge will also assist them to develop their recognition of social norms, adjust them to become qualified citizens and adapt the bigger society. Moreover, if we think further and link to their employment, education is still a significant part: for instance, if homeless youth wish to commit himself/herself to the IT industry, which currently has the largest demand for employee, mastering coding language is something in the must-to-do list, and learning it systematically is exclusively available at school. Without the support of education, homeless students would be arguably less competitive to their peers and unable to satisfy the hard and soft requirements for the positions. Besides, the degree earned through education is also a standardized qualifications needed from students. Survival in society nowadays has strict criteria on education as even small companies would require at least high school degree from candidates. Moreover, companies treat education as a process to see whether students have the ability to learn and the degree they get as the result of showing this ability. Therefore, education could be seen as the overarching and only revenue for them to break the deadlock in which they are caught in as students of homeless.
Not capable of reaching self-sufficiency, fund from government is undeniably the primary life insurance for people at Skid Row, including the expense for education. One representative act enacted by the government regarding funding particularly for homeless education was the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act under a program called The Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHYC). It aimed to “improve the educational outcome for homeless youth group”, and had a wild range of goals in supporting homeless teenager education including the provision of tutoring; broad evaluations of where efforts need to be directed; professional development; medical, dental, mental and other health services; transportation not otherwise provided for through federal, state, or local funding; before- and after-school programs; costs resulting from tracking, obtaining and transferring necessary records; education programs for both parents and schools; school supplies, and others (Mundy). It certainly provided the pathway for homeless adolescents to get access to education.
Nevertheless, the program itself was established immaturely and unclear in many aspects. The underfunding from the government and unstable living environment for these teenagers has become two obstacles that impede homeless students to receive decent education. While the number of homeless schoolchildren is tremendous, the amount of money doled out by the federal government is inadequate. Funded through the McKinney-Vento act, in 2007–08 homeless students only received $61.9 million. That works out to less than $70 per homeless student, an amount falls far short of the money that these children need to overcome the significant obstacles their living situations put in front of them (Mundy). Also, due to the scattered distribution of homeless people, lack of fund and the huge number of local education agencies (LEA) wishing gain the fund, nearly 60% of homeless student literally had no access to this act.
Besides, the living environment itself has become another obstacle to education in various aspects. The fact of living in a turbulent community of Skid Row has predestined an unstable way in educational development for kids here. They spend time fighting for life necessity with their family, suffering through another day without food, and learning how to survive themselves within the brutal environment in Skid Row, which have already overwhelmed them and left them few energies to consider things besides, say education. Also, they are faced with the task of re-establishing living arrangements that many young people take for granted in a supported environment. In Mundy’s study, a homeless student named Ailene recalled that she and her family have to move from one motel to another every four months, which coercing her to switch schools each time. She felt burdensome and disappointing when she learned something from school but had to move to another one and started all over with the same thing just studied. Moreover, many students who are constantly moving all over Los Angeles County are forced to travel up to two hours to attend school, making it remarkably difficult for many students to be on time at all (Mundy). Lastly, the dangerous situation in Skid Row is also harmful when students are on the way back from school to home: they usually get frightened as there’re people haunting around at the back. After experiencing all these, it’s even incredibly hard for an adult to refocus on the work, not to mention a child with his/her study.
My Suggestion and solution (thoughts):
1. Assign specific agency for each homeless community/ have teacher volunteers in each city to teach homeless students. 2. The transportation system needs to be improved hugely since commute for students is also of great importance.
Potential issues with my solution: not enough government funding, no textbooks/ supplies, could only do basic education (no college level or above high-level education that teaches work related knowledge such as coding)
Education is important for young people as it’s a process for them to transition into the society, and it’s epitomized on homeless youngsters. Considering the gigantic number of homeless adolescents, the diverse demands derived from education, the problem existed in different districts and etc., providing every homeless student with comprehensive educational assistance is indisputably a huge work. While we might be despair about the situation, it is important the government stick with the current framework but keep revising where might be flawed. A success program is not accomplished in an action, especially for a better education outcome for homeless students, more are needed to be done.
Work Cited:
Rufo, Christopher F. “The Moral Crisis of Skid Row, LA’s Most Notorious Neighborhood.” NewYork Post, New York Post, 19 Feb. 2020, https://nypost.com/2020/02/18/the-moral-crisis-of-skid-row-las-most-notorious-neighborhood/.
Pilnik, Lisa. “Representing Our Members in the Nation’s Capital.” CJJ | The Coalition for Juvenile Justice, June 2016, https://www.juvjustice.org/.
Broadbent, Robyn. “The Real Cost of Linking Homeless Young People to Employment, Education and Training.” Youth Studies Australia, vol. 27, no. 3, 2008, pp. 30–38, https://doi.org/10.3316/ielapa.330710327884823.
Mundy, Matthew Jonathon [Author]. High and Dry: Homeless Education in Los Angeles and the United States. Los Angeles, California [Place of publication (of the original version)], 2008.
