With unemployment reaching new highs and the rate of foreclosures showing no sign of slowing, stability becomes a fleeting concept for families who find themselves out of work and out of a home. For children, this instability and impermanence could potentially jeopardize their education. Since 1987, a federal program has been in place to help assist these children and as their numbers rise, these services have become increasingly pertinent.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was put in place in 1987 to ensure that homeless children and youth have equal access to a free public education. According to Jan Steed, the McKinney-Vento coordinator for the Fremont Unified School District, homeless children are registered for the free breakfast and lunch program and receive free school materials, backpacks and PE uniforms.

“We try to ensure that the student has the same opportunities for things like field trips, school dances and sports teams, even if they don’t have the money for it” said Steed.

Along with financial assistance, Steed said the Act requires that school districts provide homeless students with free transportation to and from school.

Over the past year, Steed said she has seen a rise in the number of homeless students due to the foreclosure problems. The Tri-City Homeless Coalition has also observed this increase.

Louis Chicoine, the group’s executive director, said, “There has been a five to ten percent increase over the past year resulting from chronic housing problem and the nation’s economic state.”

As these numbers continue to grow, one of the most pressing concerns, according to Steed, is the reluctance of families to identify as homeless.

This is something that Toni Adams, the director of special programs for Alameda County, said she has been struggling with during her nine-and-a-half years in the position.

“People have to self-identify and people don’t always do that. We work with the shelters and the school districts and have posters there, but you can’t make people do what they don’t want to do,” said Adams.

Steed said that in her district, she is working with school administrators to create a relaxed environment where families do not feel afraid or ashamed to come forward and identify as being homeless. “We’re really decreasing the level of fear of humiliation and misunderstanding by saying that regardless of circumstance, ‘come on in,’” said Steed.

In establishing an open atmosphere, Pete Murchison, the principal at Irvington High School, said the best approach is one of anonymity. According to him, the majority of students, teachers and administrators do not know who the homeless students are.

“I see the paperwork, but I don’t really know them. I work best to support them as quietly as I can. It’s really about trying to pull all our forces together so that student can have as normal an experience as possible,” said Murchison.

For many of these students, being homeless can bring with it a myriad of problems, academically and emotionally. According to Amanda Carlson, the head counselor at Irvington, this is just what school counselors are trained for.

In dealing with homeless students, Carlson said that her main concern is the well-being of the student.

“There’s always going to be some anxiety on the part of the student. It’s hard to keep up with your studies if your worrying about your family, living in a shelter, have no private room or desk to get your work done,” she said.

Carlson said that, while the school counselors may not know who the specific homeless students are, they strive to reassure all the students that the counselors are a confidential source to turn to if help is needed.

“When we [counselors] do find out that a student is homeless, we become a sort of liaison for that student. We keep in contact with the district, we work with the homeless shelters and if there’s a parent, we try to maintain contact with them,” said Carlson.

Communication is a key component to the McKinney-Vento program. For her, Steed said communication means continuously training school staff, reaching out to the community and bringing awareness to the school district about the presence and needs of homeless students.

Steed went on to say that people need to realize that homelessness is unpredictable and not just chronic. Perhaps the harsh losses in this economic crisis will help de-stigmatize homelessness and show that it can happen to anyone.

Fremont, considered the “Gateway to Silicon Valley,” may be an expensive suburb, but it is also home to a hidden homeless population.

The cost of rental properties in Fremont is higher than San Francisco; the city also has a larger number of homeless children than the national average. And the recent economic downturn has caught these homeless in a painful squeeze.

Louis Chicoine, executive director of the Tri-City Homeless Coalition, said that Fremont has between 700 and 1,000 homeless people on any given night.

“There has been a five to 10 percent increase over the past year resulting from a chronic housing problem and the nation’s economic state,” he said.

Bonnie Wilson, the Coalition’s volunteer coordinator, has witnessed this increase at the Sunrise shelter, Fremont’s largest homeless shelter.

“We have rooms for up to ten families and there’s 33 families on a waiting list with people calling everyday,” said Wilson.

Kevin and Sarah Buford and their two children, ages four and six, picked at their food at the Centerville Presbyterian Church, which holds a biweekly free dinner program. This was their first visit to a free meal program.

“I did custom flooring but there’s no work because no one’s building homes. I just couldn’t keep up with the bills, so we were evicted,” said Kevin Buford, 33.

His wife Sarah, 29, wiped mascara from her puffy eyes. She spent an hour talking with the pastor of the church, crying about finding housing for the night.

“He just gave me a list [of shelters] and did a prayer for me,” she said, “All the shelters are closed now. Our stuff’s in our truck so we can’t sleep there. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Sarah Buford said that she is grateful her children are young enough not to fully understand what is going on, and she is committed to keeping them in school to maintain some consistency.

This consistency has been difficult for Bridget (who did not want to be identified by her last name) and Steve Rusher’s three children, a son, eight, and two daughters, 11 and 18.

The family has been in and out of shelters for more than three years, often sleeping in the cab of Rusher’s big rig truck.

“You have to know how to work the system to get any help and the shelters are a joke,” said Bridget.

She specifically referred to the Sunrise shelter’s sister program, Winter Relief, which operates at six different churches from November to April throughout the tri-city region.

Rusher, 47, was frustrated that the family was forced to change churches every 30 days and that there was no communication with the children’s schools.

“I’ve had to pull the kids out of school three times because they [program administrators] said they had to be at a school closer to the churches,” said Bridget.

Bridget said that the shelter never gave her children the school supplies they were supposed to receive as a part of the California McKinney-Vento homeless children’s act. She also said that the children were routinely made fun of at school because she did not have access to a washing machine to clean their clothes.

Out of all these factors, Bridget’s biggest complaint was that “then they [program administrators] made me choose between having a roof over our head or my kids going to the doctor.” Bridget’s said that her ex-husband was abusive to her and her children. As a result, she said that her two youngest children suffer from attention deficit hyper-activity disorder, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We had notes proving that they had doctors’ appointments and would miss curfew. But they didn’t care,” said Bridget, “So we got kicked out because I wasn’t going to jeopardize my kids’ health.”

Sitting on the floor of the church with her five-year-old son, Jane (who did not want to be identified by her last name), 26, is worried about his future. Jane said she became homeless after running away from her ex-husband who was beating her.

One night, the police raided the tent shelter she was living in, arresting everyone. After testing her urine for drugs (which came up negative), “The police came into my cell and told me I was pregnant.”

Jane was in and out of shelters, dodging attacks from her ex-husband, before finally securing a Section 8 apartment. Section 8 provides government sponsored subsidized housing for low-income families and individuals. “I’m proud to take care of my place, proud to be there,” said Jane

Jane is on disability and would like to go to college and have a career one day, but is pessimistic about the status of the economy. Pointing to her son, she said, “I want to see him go to college. So I really hope things brighten up or everyone’s in for it.”