In a region where no one bats an eye at monthly apartment rental rates higher than some people’s annual income, families struggling on the margins tend to get overlooked.
There are thousands of them. The most recent count pegs the number of homeless students in Washington at roughly 43,000 — the highest figure recorded since the state began regular tracking, and sixth-highest number in the nation.
Two thousand of those students are in Seattle Public Schools.
Imagine being a child in such a family. You wonder if other kids know you live in a shelter or transitional housing. You watch your parents stress over back-to-school shopping, trying to stretch a few dollars far enough to cover new shoes, clothes, backpacks and school supplies, which can easily total hundreds of dollars.
Education is still the most reliable way for a young person to climb out of generational poverty, and the first rung on that ladder is a high school diploma. But children without a stable home face major hurdles reaching it. Last year, 35% of homeless students in the Class of 2024 did not graduate with their peers.
Each summer, in an effort to ensure kids in need don’t worry about school clothes and school supplies on top of housing, Seattle Times readers generously contribute to the newspaper’s annual School Supplies Fundraising Drive.
It kicks off today, and every dime collected will be divided among three groups that work with families who are homeless or in danger of becoming so: the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness; YWCA Seattle-King-Snohomish; and on the East Side, Hopelink. They use the donations to give families gift cards for clothing, and to provide each child with a new backpack stuffed full of fresh supplies.
Last summer, more than 600 readers contributed a combined $120,802 in donations. Since the drive began in 1999, it has collected over $1 million and helped to set up tens of thousands of kids for success.
The drive continues through Labor Day.
