MARSHALL — Homelessness isn’t just an urban problem, Mary Kay Thomas said. It’s something that affects children and families in southwest Minnesota, and she said Marshall Public Schools is working to try and help those kids get the support they need.

Last school year, MPS had a total of 22 students who didn’t have permanent, adequate housing, said Thomas, who serves as homeless liaison at MPS. She said that number was down from what it was five years ago. But with the COVID pandemic, it wasn’t certain whether MPS had fewer homeless students last year, or if district staff weren’t identifying as many homeless students.

Thomas gave a presentation on homelessness at the Marshall School Board’s regular meeting Monday.

“Homeless liaisons are responsible for a number of different items,” Thomas said. “Basically, we do everything in our power to make sure (students) have every advantage they can have while at school, enrolling in school, staying at school and continuing to stay here.”

Students who don’t have permanent housing may need additional support to make sure they have transportation to school, school meals and educational resources, Thomas said.

Thomas said MPS tries to identify whether a student has steady housing when they register in the school district.

“There’s a question within the registration form where they can alert us,” she said. “They try to notify me, as well as a point of contact at each school building.”

For children and youth, “Homeless isn’t necessarily homeless the way we think of for adults,” Thomas said. Most often, students who are homeless are living with other people because of economic hardship or loss of housing.

“So, any time that they’re doubled up. They can be doubled up with another family,” Thomas said, but it has to be for financial reasons. “So, some of our generational families who live together are not considered homeless. Those are not financial or economic reasons behind it.”

In other examples, homeless youth can also be moving a lot, living in emergency or transitional housing, or living in hotels or motels, she said.

Most Marshall students who are experiencing homelessness are living “doubled up,” Thomas said. In the 2018-19 school year, 70% of MPS students without permanent housing were living with other people. Twenty-five percent were living in hotels or motels, and 5% were living in some form of transitional housing.

“Our most marginalized populations are the ones that are highest at risk” for homelessness, Thomas said. Youth who are Black, Hispanic, living in poverty, are LGBTQ, or are unmarried parents are all at a higher risk for being homeless at some time in their lives, according to the organization Voices of Youth Count.

Thomas also shared data for the number of homeless students identified at MPS since 2013. The numbers of students each year ranged from a high point of 50 students in the 2015-16 school year, to a low of 22 students in the 2020-21 school year.

“This is something that’s happening at both a state and a national level, where they’re seeing fewer kids identified” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomas said. “They’re not very certain whether the lack of identification is because we don’t have our hands on enough of them, or if it’s because youth homelessness is truly decreasing.”

Thomas said hopefully more information on the reasons for the number change will be gathered in the future.

Thomas said MPS is working collaboratively with United Community Action Partnership and other organizations in Lyon County to help identify homeless students and get them resources they need.