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Prince of children in us are homeless in Kansas most of them and it didn't form of homelessness living with other family called doubling up their access to school and Educational Services is guaranteed by the federal mckinney-vento homeless Education Act and Kansas State education policy where's the state without a people temporarily because they have nowhere to go doubled up means instability tension and worse parents me legally for their teens out of the house and call it emancipation or they might have use them or family split up youth struggle with their hardships with nowhere to go to Avis car the principal's office one day can't remember if I was a junior if I was a senior and my mom delivered papers to me because she had me emancipated and so she told me I could come and get my stuff ready on the porch that night youth on their own for a variety of reasons face extraordinary hardships with few services or shelters to turn to since I was 15 and I turned I turn 18 today now I live with my this lady she used to be my manager they also have some problems and since I'm leaving there I get to circumstances sometimes I feel like like I don't even belong samini girls and all my belongings are packed up in his little one-bedroom apartment of my Bosses 2 weeks after we moved in he died of a massive heart attack family no help my ex-husband was mad at me for leaving for inside the landlord said well if you can't come up with $450 you need to get out and like you I have two kids I don't like Chinese Just Dance the welfare couple churches in the area nobody can help me do anything so me and the girls go I talked to Angie I explain to her what happened we're getting evicted and explain what's going on she takes pity on me and she says well you can move into my house to problem is my daughter has six kids and they're staying with me and I was like okay I don't care at this point I just didn't care if it is a floor to sleep on you know whatever nowhere to go that's the bottom line few realize that a safety network doesn't exist in many places the room that we were going to be staying in was probably literally from the doors where I am back I had a twin bed mattress and like a little makeshift closet and it was very small and I knew that both my girls and myself we're not going to be able to actually be in this room so that's the time I talk to my ex-fiance about Madison Hughes our daughter falling into homelessness is easier than climbing out of it being able to access stable affordable housing presents the ultimate challenge I was in the Marines for that's where I'm at my daughter's dad I married him but we separated because he was good alcoholic and abusive as our house falling apart and our landlord refuse to fix it I lost a big part of my income and I have health problems and I was going to be moving in subsidized housing I found out that I didn't qualify I found myself without a place to live for me and my daughter move back to Kansas at a year ago after spending some time and domestic shelter my daughter night we live together for a couple months and we couldn't seem to see eye-to-eye on discipline she did get upset with me one night and she threw me out of the house Lebanon Wisconsin person In & Out moving to Colorado to get away from their beust didn't work out there in Colorado with family situations playing a pair of staying with my brother and it's a big household Scott Hammond his girlfriend and five children and then it's me and my two children and they just moved in another family in $2 two more children in 5 dogs and a cat crazy I need more time with my baby she's four and in the military there's not really time with my baby so so I left I stay with my mom for a couple weeks and then I stay with a friend and then I started school and so the military started paying me and housing allowance well I was in school I moved into my place and then I kind of fell behind on bills cuz something happened with my car and I was trying to pay for my car but pay for my house and then ended up and make it an effective then I moved in my car my car got stolen hello then I thought of staying with him from Friends bouncing around for my friends to my cousin's to my dad to other friends we had a fire in California and Barstow where my son was burned pretty bad when he got out of the hospital we were homeless we stayed in about 15-20 hotels I'm trying to keep a roof over our head and then my dad put us on the bus and we came back to Kansas we stayed with a friend for about two months that didn't work out I got a call from the bank that said they were repossessing our mobile home and the next day and yet again it's myself in a situation where I didn't have a home again thank goodness for Julia she allowed Josh my first-born Josh and I to stay with her until I got into housing and I had a disagreement with my parents and she didn't agree with my parenting Style with my dog and so once again I found myself without a place to live I was asked to leave the shelter after a week and a half. One of the guys this will look and I've already fire department you know you and Hannah can just stay there to figure out what to do next and I was just so grateful that time cuz there was nowhere else to go I mean every kid has needs but she has been very severe eczema so a lot of time she doesn't get any sleep so so she's waking people up because she's uncomfortable and she's screaming and she's scratching so you kind of feel like you're walking on eggshells and you know sooner or later they're going to ask you to leave my friend Trish's house it was awful I had to work at 6 in the morning and she didn't seem to quiet down till about 4 in the morning I'm so it made it hard for me to get to go to work cuz I'm sleeping in the living room when I'm in her way her apartment so that didn't make it very difficult we literally have one point in California I was dropping my kids off at their friend's house and I was sleeping in the car behind a restaurant at night well it came to that stay wherever they were saying so we drove around till about 2 in the morning until I finally decided to break down and go to the shelter that they had their cuz the shelter there was very scary and I didn't want to go there and turn it up cuz I wanted them to lay down in a bed somewhere and it was about 2 in the morning I had to fill out all the stupid paperwork they finally got to go lay down in the bed at like 4 and then we were kicked out at 6 happened to live with other people especially when there is abuse you know where you're living and you witnessed up to the point where I can't deal with what if I tell the shelter homes parent environment for me and my kids then yeah mean I will get you know do it you know but I try everything to have to go there but I'm look might think they might get some safety is what worries me we moved in with this man and there was a lot of tension there as far as he wasn't used to having a child or and so that tension was put on me and then as I carried that over on my son and stressed me out and it was just over basic things like water he could run in his tub for a bath I I wasn't ready for this another relationship so I spent a lot of nights sleeping with my son in his bed and it was just an act terrible situation and I I didn't know where to turn next I had no place to go most of the time I rented a storage unit that was another added stress or on us do you know how you going to pay for your store you need to keep all your stuff if you don't have a home in that storage unit you know comes up it's just everything just piled on you and you're like it's very very hard when you live with someone else is there is sort of like been on eggshells so you'd have to make sure you don't upset that person and you realize this is not yourself it makes it tough because it just makes it seem like you have nothing I lived out of boxes and storage so it was just having enough money every mod to make sure I paid my storage because the people that storage told me if you don't pay your storage after I think it's too much you're behind after that third mom they can sell their stuff if they won't they sell your stuff if they want to I have some things in storage which I couldn't pay the storage and last my belongings right now basically all we have is the clothes on our back you feel like the rain cloud is constantly over your head until I got into my own housing I never felt like I completely belong. I was always afraid that my son would not have a place your fearful all the time play me feel like a bad human made me feel like a bad parent made me feel like I didn't deserve my kids cuz I can't take care of them properly if it's a lot a lot of bad feelings on you these people will say that people choose to be homeless or they choose to live that way and I don't choose to live that way I don't choose my daughter in that situation I don't choose to be in the situation that I'm in but I can't change my health situation I actually have a bachelor's degree in social work I'm licensed as a social worker but I let my license lapse I mean because I can't afford to pay my reinstatement fee and because of my help I can't do a job in social work it's tough makes me feel like a loser I feel like I've let my daughter down and I always will tell her that I fell as a parent you don't tell her I'm sorry that I failed as a parent and sorry that I got her in the situation and my biggest fear is her been taken away from don't even know how to describe the feelings that you have when your homeless and you have children sleep were they going to sleep her what's going to happen tomorrow where they going to be tomorrow special you don't have very good finances horrible thigh Sutton cried like I'm I going to get my children where is their home yet and we lived in one room two beds five children and I fought over who's going to sleep in what bed their friends and one little tiny room and dark Hall distressed on everybody I've seen mama when we going to get a new phone I'm like I'm working on it my son was having trouble in school and I could tell this situation wasn't helping him at all he's probably been in oh I seitan 11 different schools have been behind a lot of times and school every treated me bad but I've been through a lot of tough times sometimes people get on my nerves just I just realized my temper is just feels like I don't want to be in school no more just I want to go to a different one or you live in a empty room being being uncertain of not having a place a roof over your head really just brakes a person down it's very hard very depressing especially with kids you know always a lot of fighting and arguing not enough food or there's no privacy at all people coming in and out of your room no matter people stealing from you is hard are you really didn't want to put now on Craigslist because I know there's a lot of fruitcakes out there but at the same time you know I'm like okay I don't know what else to do I put you know a woman with a small child trying to get out of domestic violence situation that you know I put in the ad that I would prefer you have something you need like a live-in caretaker situation I want to earn my own Keith I'm not looking for somebody to be my sugar daddy or take care of us just a place to be able to start fresh so my kids and I can have a future for me and the kids came we were staying at my friend Rachel's in her husband Shane's house me and him got into an argument so bad that me and my kids literally were walking into town and didn't know where we were going because we have nowhere to go after calling everyday for three weeks till homeless shelters and no one had an opening and I told my daughter I said well looks like we're going to be living in our storage I told her we would just say that I'm working at the storage and that's why the bus had to come and pick her up there I had nowhere else to go so I was like I have a storage so that's what that's going to be our home you know it stayed for you know when we'll have to make it work I was really scared just because it's cold but I have like a little propane torch and so I told her it will just burn the the propane torch endangered unscrupulous host family friends or acquaintances subjected to sexual abuse human trafficking prostitution I made it clear I'm not looking for a relationship is not about I I kind of looked at it like I'm really not going to get probably much of a worse situation than I'm already in where I'm at now the way he replied to the ad he sounded educated and said all the right things but not in that manipulative Iowa but when you're in such a bad fearful situation about anything seems better then you know what you're in and then when you have a child and you see what's happening and that child you know you just I swear to make an irrational decision to get away and that's what I did I mean I didn't want to be woken up with him screwing me or me or my daughter or anything like that so I just said come get me I was grateful for the help that now there were here show a different kind of prison is not our home that is so temporary it's hard you try to me I'm trying to make all the right decisions and stuff and still end up at rock bottom so her story nutrition distant sometimes when they have their support class not on what we looking at math no nothing like that we need to emotionally we need someone to be there to talk with teachers should ask students about what's going on in their lives to get to know the situation and why are there in Class essay why they're like not doing the assignments in homework education even if your married get your education so you can provide for yourself in case something happens be it is hard to make it out there on a minimum wage job so do you go to keep your head up and keep going you can't stop you can't give up you have to keep going to specially if you have children get your children at home anyway you can never thought to turn into teachers or to the school for help how to help students without homes I kind of Assurance of the school stability discrete access the hygiene and food tutoring school supplies words of encouragement connection to counseling or other services realistically challenging their potential accommodating your unstable living conditions and often just an understanding smile will make the world of difference my goal is to make. Lafayette school I know I can meet some very mean kids it can be tough but if you're having a bad day I tried to cheer them up being a nice kid ever brakes I want a better place for them children should not have to struggle this hard to get to school and stay in school the knowledge that I have and believe and my fellow Educators believe we know that education is the way the road out of poverty I know it I've lived it I believe it I work it everyday I want a better place for them the majority of home Susan Kansas who doubled up identifying students experiencing hidden homelessness in determining their need is Fido alert staff may pick up clues of housing instability clarifying underlying reasons for a student struggles identifying hold up students removes barriers to academic success allowing the opportunity to focus on the only stability they know school routines

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