Foreclosures snipping school budgets and creating havoc in young lives

foreclosure-snipping-school

Foreclosures are telling on school budgets causing them to be snipped. This is creating havoc in the school districts and in young lives. One of the worst affected school districts is Hickman Mills. Deidre Anderson of At Risk Programs and Grants said, “Sometimes school is the only thing stable in the child’s life.”

The district makes no distinction between children who have a home and those who do not. The same kind of basic transport is provided. Anderson elaborated, “If you don’t help homeless families they are at greater risk of substance abuse, child abuse, and of committing crimes.”

This has led to Hickman Mills District and many others in the entire metro region to do their best to address the problem. The districts have been holding meetings many times during a year. The most significant question that will loom large over the next meeting is the price they will have to pay. Anderson added, “Just being frank, just making sure school districts are not being gouged. Taxi cabs are aware they kind of have a monopoly on things.”

Anderson is happy that these taxi cabs are adjustable and on top of that safe but the price is rather steep.

The district has received $8,000 from stimulus funds to sort out the matter of transportation for the homeless. The money was based after calculating the homeless from 2007 to 2008. That period had not witnessed an increase in the homeless lot. There a good number of tenants in the Hickman Mills area but relatively few agencies dealing with social services. The nearest youth shelter is about 45 minutes distant.

Anderson finds no logic in this. She said, “There is no reason a kid should have to be 45 minutes from school when there is so much abandoned property.” The problem is mind boggling and the district is desperately trying to answer it. It is hunting for grants and is hoping to join hands with some shelters to bring the facilities to the regions that are most in need of it. Anderson explained, “We as a district are just asking what is it that we can do to create shelter, living, or transitional living? Whatever it may be even if it’s for a few families it would alleviate a lot.”

Taxi cabs are doing fine currently but there are occasional lapses. Sometimes they fail and one mother was left desperate looking for her missing child. The story had a happy ending but it may not always be so.