OAKLAND POST — Laney College’s latest tiny home prototype will house two homeless students beginning this spring semester.
Laney College carpentry presents the Pocket House at Capitol Hill. Right to left: Digital fabrication instructor Marisha Farnsworth, Laney student Kim Gordon, Congressperson Barbara Lee, Laney students Daniel Ticket, Miguel Vega, and Rick Rothbart.
Laney’s carpentry department has achieved success building tiny homes. They won a contest hosted by Sacramento Municipal Utility District for a tiny home they built in 2016. Councilmember Abel Guillén spearheaded a collaboration between the City of Oakland and their department with an $80,000 grant to Laney carpentry to build a tiny home prototype for mass production.
The latest model of the Laney-made tiny homes is the Pocket House Model M. It was delivered to West Side Missionary Baptist Church by Martin Kauffman, a truck driver who donated his services.
Art Ramirez is an electrician who will also donate his services to get the tiny home’s water and electricity up and running.
Rev. Ken Chambers said the 200-member Interfaith Council of Alameda County supports this project, and has a goal to house 1,000 people this year.
But the first step is to work with Laney coordinators to interview and select students in need of the home each semester. The parking lot the tiny home sits in is already a safe car park, and Chambers is taking steps toward being able to pay a stipend to the selected students for overseeing the lot. The church will also offer access to health and employment services.
Chambers hopes to create a system that can be replicated throughout Oakland and have a deep impact on the unsheltered communities it holds.
Editor’s Note: This Commentary is part of a special report exploring game-changing trends and innovations that have the potential to shake up the schoolhouse.
Read the full report:10 Big Ideas in Education.
I have spent many years working in education as a teacher and social worker, and it is clear that schools are no longer just a learning environment for young people. As the number of students affected by homelessness or living at or below the poverty level continues to increase, the demand for services for those affected also increases. Schools have become sanctuaries that provide food, warmth, and support, with a little education thrown in. The reality is that learning takes a back seat for a child whose basic needs are not met.
Shining a light on youth homelessness galvanizes districts to confront the prevalence of homelessness and begin creating solutions. Congress passed the McKinney-Vento Act more than 30 years ago, issuing landmark legislation that recognized a shared responsibility among community members to care for young people who live without safe and stable housing. And in 2012, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness began a coordinated effort across federal agencies to end youth homelessness by 2020. Despite these efforts, homelessness continues to have a big impact on the academic and economic success of our students. Homelessness can contribute to students’ failing classes and affect their social-emotional well-being. For school districts, it can topple graduation rates.
About the Author
Kerry Wrenick is the state coordinator for homeless education at the Colorado Department of Education. Based in Denver, she was the president of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth from June 2016 to October 2017.
It has been my challenge to find a better way to support these students to help them reach their full potential.
In 2015, I was the McKinney-Vento liaison for Kansas City Public Schools—which are located in the highest-poverty county in the state of Kansas. The community had nearly 1,200 identified homeless students and counting, and families were turning to our schools for help. But a lack of resources and funding to provide assistance compounded the problem. We couldn’t count on federal grant funds alone, which then rounded out to about $50 per student.
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More than 104,000 students were identified as homeless by NYS school districts and charter schools according to a report by New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students.
The data come from the New York State Education Department’s Student Information Repository System. The new number represents a 6 percent increase from the 2015-2016 school year. Students in temporary housing now make up approximately 10 percent of the student population in NYC.
“One out of every 10 NYC students is homeless,” said Kim Sweet, AFC’s executive director. “The number of children and youth experiencing homelessness in NYC is twice the size of the entire Boston public school system.”
Sweet added that the city has taken some steps to help homeless students, including offering yellow bus service to kindergarten through sixth-grade students living in shelters and hiring more than 30 Department of Education social workers for schools.
Being homeless can have adverse effects on a child’s education. They experience twice the rate of learning disabilities, are four times more likely to show a developmental delay than middle-income children and have three times the rate of emotional-behavioral disorders than children who are housed.
Commentary 
More than 104,000 students were identified as homeless by NYS school districts and charter schools according to a report by New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students.