More than 15,000 children in Maryland’s schools last year identified as homeless, and with rising rents and evictions, officials don’t expect this school year to be much different. Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Two brothers with big dreams were among the more than 15,500 children identified as homeless in Maryland’s public schools last school year, 1.7% of the student body. Together with their parents, they lived in Anne Arundel County, one of the state’s wealthiest jurisdictions, showing homelessness can happen anywhere.
“I never imagined in a million years that we would be homeless,” their mother told me. “Life suddenly changed for all of us. We lived out of bags and suitcases.”
Their story is reflective of the thousands of Maryland students, prekindergarten through high school, expected to be homeless at some point, if not most of, this school year.
Amid rising rents, increasing evictions, and an estimated housing shortage of 96,000 units, Gov. Wes Moore recently signed legislation to make housing more plentiful and affordable, and provide limited financial assistance to some at-risk renters. But it will take time to kick in.