Students experience homelessness at nearly every school in Santa Clara Unified School District, according to the Student Services branch. With the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, district and community members are working hard to provide families with the necessary resources and assistance to help these students thrive.

Passed in 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law that provides critical rights and services to students experiencing homelessness. It ensures that students are able to succeed in school despite their housing instability.

Currently, there are 118 students within SCUSD who are considered McKinney-Vento, but this number is subject to fluctuation over time. The SCUSD Director for Student Services Brenda Carrillo and the student and parent engagement liaison Beatrice Morales-Ross work with these students, especially high schoolers, to safeguard their ability to have a normal school life.

“There’s a lot of wanting to fit in and wanting to find your group, and you don’t want people to know that you’re living in a shelter,” Carrillo said. “You don’t want people to necessarily know that you’re living in somebody’s living room, right? So we also try to provide support so that students can have a more typical experience when they come to school.”

Having experienced homelessness as an upperclassman in high school and while in college, newly-elected Assembly member of District 26 Patrick Ahrens appreciates the support his water polo team and swimming team provided while in high school. He understands the critical roles that community and peer support have on teenagers facing homelessness.

“I really had a great support network of friends. Their parents quickly learned early on that I needed help and there was something going on,” Ahrens said. “Thankfully they stepped in and let me stay at their houses and looked after me the way a lot of sports teams do.”

Ahrens expressed that he experienced homelessness for most of his life. Growing up, his family was the beneficiary of Section Eight housing as they struggled to find affordable housing within the Bay Area. Similar to his sports teams, the backing he received from administration was one of the difference makers on his life and future.

“I had a really great support network of teachers,” Ahrens said. “Greg Shelby was my civics teacher. Seana Shelby was my English teacher, and they looked out for me and supported me. They helped guide me through high school, believed in me, encouraged me to go to college and that I could afford college. They told me that I was smart enough and that there was student financial aid and loans and whatnot that I could get so I could go to college because I didn’t think that college was for me.”

Although his housing situation is now stable, Ahrens is only one of four renters who are currently elected to the California state legislature. He looks to make poverty support a priority while in office.

“I made it out of that sort of poverty, and I have a responsibility to ensure that we lift other people out of poverty, especially students, and end student hunger and student homelessness,” Ahrens said. “I think that that is a policy choice that we can fix, frankly, in our lifetimes.”

When it comes to SCUSD, Morales-Ross is in direct contact with the 118 students who are currently considered McKinney-Vento. Depending on the needs of her students, Morales-Ross will use her network to guarantee that her students receive the necessary support.

“She (Morales-Ross) reaches out to the site and is like, ‘Hey, we have a student and they need some mental health support.’ She connects them,” Carrillo said. “If they’re behind on credits, she’ll work with the counseling team to make sure that the student, because of the moving around, that their credits are up to date. Even though there’s one person that’s designated, she has tentacles across the district and in the community too.”

Although only a small percentage of students and families qualify for McKinney-Vento, Carrillo and Morales-Ross encourage all of those who are struggling to reach out. From food drives to school supplies, the district has the resources to help. Prior to her role as the liaison for SCUSD, Morales-Ross worked with migrant students, an experience that changed her mindset.

“Working with migrant education students really just made me see things differently,” Morales-Ross said. “It made me more humble, made me enjoy life and just, you know, be fortunate for what you have.”

Having attended Buchser Middle School and Santa Clara High School, Ahrens is a local of Santa Clara. He later enrolled at De Anza Community College before earning a bachelor’s degree in Political Science at UCLA and a master’s degree at San Jose State University in Public Administration. Ahrens went on to work under assembly member Evan Low as his district director and also served as a member of the Foothill De Anza Community College Board of Trustees. Now a part of the legislature, he looks to make an impact in office.

“I’m going to be prioritizing policies that build affordable housing and enacting anti-poverty measures to ensure that children, students and families in Santa Clara County get the access to the services that they need to thrive and live successful, productive lives,” Ahrens said. “I think that we need the government to refocus our efforts on what is working and what is not, and prioritizing what works and going to try new things because the status quo is, quite frankly, just not working for enough people.”

As someone who had to couch surf his junior year of high school while trying to live a relatively normal high school life, Ahrens wants students and families in a similar situation to understand that they are not alone in their battle.

“There are so many people who are facing economic uncertainty right now who are taking advantage of existing services and help,” Ahrens said. “I would say that to reach out to people, if you need help, reach out to your teachers and reach out to staff members. There are so many nonprofit government and student aid programs.”

If you are concerned about yourself or a friend in need of professional support, reach out to:

• Beatrice Morales Ross (Student and Family Engagement Liaison): (408) 423 – 3516