Students Deserve a Safe Place to Live
The number of homeless students in California has been steadily increasing since 2021. There has been an increase of 60,000 homeless students since 2014. This increase is largely due to an increasingly unaffordable economy and improvements in identifying homeless students. Ideally, there would be an increase in funding meant for homeless students in an effort to combat homelessness, but that does not appear likely, especially if Trump is successful in dismantling the Department of Education or the state of California does not allocate adequate funds in the current budget process. Experts even suspect that the number of homeless students is actually higher than what has been reported, because there are still gaps in districts’ ability to identify homeless students.
All students need to have a safe place to live. Properly engaging with one’s education and getting the most out of it is only possible if students don’t have to worry about their basic needs, such as food, water, and shelter. Homeless students are already incredibly disadvantaged and have worse education outcomes due to the stress that being unhoused can put on a student. This is part of the reason we need to reform Proposition 13; if schools have more funding, they will be better equipped to provide homeless students with the resources they need to thrive in the education system. It is important to provide these students with the resources they need to ensure that they do not fall behind in a system that was not built with them in mind.
Julie Leopo / EdSource
California schools see 9% surge in homeless students as funds decrease
By Betty Márquez Rosales | EdSource | May 27th, 2025