Displaced Students Find a Place at RITI

It’s Tuesday morning, and Family Inn Director, Melanie Hooker, is walking into work for the second time at 9am, just returning from providing transportation for a family to take a child to school. 

Transportation is one of the main challenges for families experiencing homelessness, even for the simple daily task of making sure children are at school on time. 

Shortly after Room in the Inn opened the Family Inn, we worked with the school system to arrange for a bus stop to be added outside our door. This has made a big difference for elementary school students who enroll in the nearest public school when they move into the Family Inn.

However, this still leaves pre-k, middle, and high school students without a stable, timely way to school each day. Still more complicated is the initial enrollment process for these displaced students. The MSCS office that assists families experiencing homelessness has faced massive cuts in the last year, reducing their ability to serve the reported 2,000+ students requiring assistance.

For families entering the Family Inn, the last time they were in a stable housing situation with access to transportation ranges from yesterday to a year ago. Ensuring all children are enrolled in school is one of the first challenges we navigate with incoming families. It holds its own host of additional challenges, including: securing copies of important personal documents like birth certificates and social security cards, receiving necessary vaccinations – which requires appointments and transportation, or retrieving records from the child’s previous school – which often must be done in-person. Only then do you reach the daily challenges of appropriate uniforms, supplies, and transportation.

The Family Inn provides a safe space to breathe for the parents of these children. The chaos of being unsheltered slows down as they have nutritious meals and find support among the other families in this close community. Along with case management professionals like Melanie and the Family Inn staff, parents see hope that their children can go to school each day without worry of where the next meal will come or where they will lay their heads that night.