A headcount of the homeless in Comal County conducted by the Texas Homeless Network this past week has shown that many area students struggle with more than their homework.
In the New Braunfels Independent School District, 348 students are listed as homeless or in danger of being homeless. The survey counted 60 students living in some sort of youth shelter care, 57 in unsheltered situations — such as camping, in a car, in a park or in a home or mobile home that has no running water or electricity — 10 living in hotels or motels, often at the expense temporarily of the school district as required by law, and 221 living in “doubled-up” situations.
“Doubled-up” means the students and their families are living with other relatives or friends, because circumstances led them to lose their homes.
Comal ISD counted 114 homeless students. Sixteen were living without shelter, nine were living in a youth shelter, six in a hotel or motel and 83 doubled-up.
“A lot of times they will need clothing, school supplies (depending on their situation),” said Kathy Williams, federal programs coordinator for CISD.
Adult homeless
For homeless youth, there is a place to turn for help through the Connections Individual and Family Services nonprofit and the shelter they run. But no similar homeless shelter exists in Comal County for adults.
While there are homeless adults in the area, the need has not reached what Eric Samuels, the balance of state manager for the Texas Homeless Network, calls a “tipping point.”
“Once a community gets to a tipping point, where (homelessness) so in your face, they do something about it,” Samuels said.
Samuels said he expects to have numbers from this past week’s homelessness survey available for Comal County sooner than the state totals.
Complete results from the survey are expected between the beginning of March and the middle of April.
The numbers produced are the result of a nationwide head count, conducted from the night of Jan. 27 through the morning of Jan. 28.
Comal County received a waiver to conduct the count through an entire week, in the hopes of casting a wider net to some of the more rural areas of the county.
Once the numbers are released, Kellie Stallings, executive director of Connections, said it is more likely that local advocacy organizations will push for transitional housing rather than an adult homeless shelter.
“I think when the faith-based community sees a need, the community sees a need. A shelter is longer down the road, people still see that homeless here can just go to Haven for Hope in San Antonio even though many homeless are from here,” she said.
With transitional housing, Stallings said, “People that need help need longer term housing than a shelter. They need some time to gather their resources.”
