BALTIMORE – A mother and 11-year-old daughter fleeing domestic violence moved to a Baltimore-area safe house in March. They had been homeless for more than a year, after a series of lost jobs and lost places to stay.
“It kept happening, and as far as I could see, I couldn’t stop it,” said the 11-year-old, who enrolled in and attended three middle schools in the span of one year. “So, instead of fighting it, [I] just accept it and move on.”
She is one of thousands of students who have become homeless since 2019. In that time, Maryland has seen a 24% rise in homeless students during that time, due to ever-increasing rental and housing costs. At the same time, federal funds allocated to assist homeless students, like tutoring, after-school programs, transportation and school supplies, are being rolled back, further imperiling these children…