PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas stood behind a couch in the mayor’s reception room on Tuesday, and said as a basketball coach he’s seen homeless students struggle.
“Homeless looks like a young person staying with their grandmom for a month or staying with a friend for a month or couch surfing to a person’s home that might not even necessarily be their bloodline family,” he said.
Thomas and Superintendent Tony Watlington said COVID relief funds paying for aid to students experiencing homelessness expired in June, but the district has allocated $2.3 million out of its general fund to continue paying for services for another year.
It will pay for access to social service agencies like the Valley Youth House, where program supervisor Quadirah Locus said students get help to stay in school.
“We have gift cards, ShopRite cards, we’re able to help with utilities, transportation, get uniforms,” she said.
Tianna Gaines-Turner of Eddie’s House, another nonprofit with services being paid for by the school district, said they can continue to help those students without a permanent address.
“One more child will not have to sleep on the floor, will not have to go to bed cold, not have to go to school without clean clothes and not have to stand in the rain for a shelter line,” she said.
The funding will only last another year, and Thomas said a more “structural solution” is necessary to continue supporting those students in need.
“I want to say that the conditions that people are dealing with have gotten worse,” he said. “And we as a city are trying to figure out how do we tackle the hand that we’ve been dealt?”