Tumwater school to house families in need: ‘It’s gonna be really nice to have our own place’

They were homeless, finding shelter with friends and family members, in motel rooms and, in some cases, broken down RVs without access to bathrooms and running water.

Soon, those five Tumwater families will be moving into brand new, fully-furnished homes right across the street from their children’s elementary school.

It’s the product of a unique partnership between the Tumwater School District and the Housing Authority of Thurston County. And it’s the first of its kind in Thurston County, according to Tammie Smith, director of housing services at the housing authority, which reserved five units in the new Allen Orchard housing development specifically for homeless families with children at Tumwater’s Peter G. Schmidt Elementary School.

The families were chosen by a school counselor and screened by the housing authority. They will pay a subsidized rent rate for their duplex-style units.

“This is a game-changer for these families,” said Jack Arend, former principal of the school.

Before being told her family was chosen to receive one of the units, Kim Vela, her husband and her three kids, ages 7, 9 and 11, were living with her older son in Lacey. But he was getting ready to move to Sacramento, and despite her husband’s full-time employment, she didn’t know how her family would afford housing once her son was gone.

“We didn’t know what we were gonna do,” Vela said.

When she found out her family was chosen to receive one of the units, Vela said she was “in shock.”

“It’s a huge impact on them,” Vela said of her kids. “They can’t wait to get their own place again. They were so ecstatic, so happy.”

Here’s how these new homes will make a world of difference: Homeless students are twice as likely to repeat a grade than other students, according to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. They also exhibit three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems.

A number of compounding factors, like ill-fitting clothes, inadequate nutrition, a lack of access to personal hygiene products and uncomfortable sleeping quarters — to name a few — make it difficult for kids to learn, according to Tami Collins, the school district’s homeless coordinator.

“It’s very hard for them to concentrate on anything,” Collins said. “How could you learn something new if you slept two hours?”

And, Collins said, homeless families change districts more frequently than other families as they move between temporary dwellings. That can lead to anti-social behaviors as kids opt to push people away rather than face losing another friend.

Peter G. Schmidt counselor Sidney Reid added that the stress of homelessness on parents can also impact kids’ performance at school.

“Kids wear that stress,” Reid said. “They see how much [stress] their parents are under and they bring that to school.”

OVERCOMING ROADBLOCKS

A significant part of that stress? Affordable housing in Thurston County isn’t easy to find.

Waiting lists for subsidized housing can stretch up to three years. And some lists are closed, including the list to receive Section 8 housing choice vouchers, which subsidize housing in the private market.

Thurston County’s waiting list for Section 8 vouchers has been closed for nearly four years, and isn’t expected to reopen until Spring 2018.

“Every time we get closer we just can’t open it,” Smith said.

That’s due to skyrocketing rent prices across the market, according to Smith. As more families are unable to afford market-value housing, the number of people joining the affordable housing waiting list increases.

But even a spot on the waiting list is no guarantee. Vouchers can also be denied for a number of reasons, including evictions, criminal background and credit history. Even when families receive vouchers, private landlords often won’t rent to them due to past evictions.

For the five Peter G. Schmidt families, those common barriers were notably absent, according to Reid.

“All these things that had always been the roadblocks, it was like, we’re gonna work through all this,” she said.

Reid, who works closely with the students at school, first identified those most in need: families without access to bathrooms or running water got priority, and all of the families met the federal definition of homelessness.

Also required: a source of income, no drug involvement and a willingness to take advantage of the school district’s other resources and opportunities — a desire to work through those “roadblocks,” according to Reid.

“It’s hard for a family to walk through our doors and admit, ‘I need help,’” said John Bash, superintendent of Tumwater School District.

The families also had to make less than 50 percent of the area’s median wage. In Tumwater, that’s $38,150 per year for a family of four.

Like recipients of traditional low-income housing, the families will pay 30 percent of their income as rent. The housing authority will pay the rest directly to the landlord.

IMPLEMENTING ‘COMMUNITY SCHOOLS’

The project is part of a greater effort by the school district to provide more resources to students in need, including Peter G. Schmidt’s 27 homeless students.

“[Superintendent Bash] has a vision for our district that we will continue to partner with community organizations to help families,” said Arend. “This kind of fits right along with that vision.”

Much of that effort has come through a partnership between the school district and local nonprofit Together, started in 2014, to implement a Community Schools Initiative throughout the district.

The Community Schools model works to take full advantage of the resources the community has to offer by bringing them directly to schools where students can easily access them.

“What it does is really put the school as the hub for community services,” said Meagan Darrow, deputy director at Together. “It acknowledges that schools can’t close the achievement gap or make every student successful alone.”

And the model has already seen results, including increased attendance across the board and an higher number of kids who report that they have adults who care about them at school, Darrow said.

“It’s transformational when you see those services work on the ground together,” Darrow said. “I do this because I know it works.”

One major component of the initiative is community resource centers, which have been installed at seven schools throughout the district.

The resource centers, located in a discrete location in the schools, are pantries full of essentials for kids and families who need them: new clothes, school supplies, hygiene products and food, as well as gift cards for gas and other necessities.

“You can see the weight lifting off people,” Reid said.

Located right across the street from Peter G. Schmidt, the families at Allen Orchard will be able to take full advantage of the resources Community Schools has to offer — and become an integral part of it.

For Vela and her family, it’s a move from chaos to stability.

“Living with other people, especially family, can be chaotic,” Vela said. “It’s gonna be really nice to have our own place again.”

This story was originally published August 26, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Tumwater school to house families in need: ‘It’s gonna be really nice to have our own place’."