Young, Black, successful, and homeless: examining the unique academic challenges of Black students who experienced homelessness

Abstract

Youth homelessness is a growing crisis impacting urban high schools across the United States. Black youth, in particular, are disproportionately affected. While the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is designed to provide educational access to students experiencing homelessness, the extent to which the policy supports Black students is unclear. This qualitative study uses structural racism as an analytic framework to examine the narratives of eight Black youth who successfully graduated high school while experiencing homelessness. Findings show that being Black and experiencing homelessness creates unique challenges for accessing resources under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Participants identified hostile racial climates at school as a common deterrent from disclosing their homeless status to adults at school, thereby restricting their access to federal support. The findings suggest the need for race-conscious language and interventions to be included in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Additionally, the author urges more researchers studying youth homelessness to use a critical racial lens to address the racial knowledge gap that exists in the current literature on student homelessness.

Putting Homelessness in Context: The Schools and Neighborhoods of Students Experiencing Homelessness

“…Because our results suggest higher mobility while homeless, districts should ask students to update their residency status each time a student moves schools or changes addresses. Additionally, students may not feel comfortable disclosing their homeless status because they lack caring and trusting relationships with school personnel and a positive school racial climate (Edwards 2020). Aside from technical fixes in the identification process, building caring relationships and attending to racial disparities in academic expectations and discipline could also improve identification.…”

The Limits of Choice: A Black Feminist Critique of College “Choice” Theories and Research

“…Her concept of the matrix of domination illuminates how societal power structures work in tandem to circumscribe college pathways and “choice.” Collins’s ( 2002 ) concept of matrix of domination recognizes a full range of individual, cultural, and structural factors intertwined with interlocking systems of power shown to affect Black students’ college “choice” in this chapter’s review. Future studies can employ Black Feminist Thought and other critical lenses to examine how racialized and gendered violence, homelessness, and criminalization contribute to limiting postsecondary opportunity structures for minoritized students (Edwards 2020 ; Huerta et al 2020 ).…”

Homeless and Foster Youth, Racial Inequity, and Policy Shifts for Systemic Change

“…41 For foster or homeless youth with multiple minority identities-such as being Black and identifying as LGBTQ-accessing necessary resources can be more difficult because of identitybased discrimination. 42 Black and LGBTQ youth are at heightened risk of experiencing racial bias, sex-or gender-based discrimination, and family rejection. Therefore, these youth experience compounding layers of discrimination on top of the financial and socio-emotional challenges that can come with being homeless or in foster care.…”

“…Importantly, foster and homeless youth with multiple layers of identity-based discrimination will need greater levels of resilience to persevere through their educational trajectories. 45…”

“…A recent study found that some students are hesitant to disclose their homeless status to school staff due to hostile racial climates. 71 Given the disproportionate impact homelessness has on Black students, a school's ability to foster a positive racial climate and empower students to disclose their status to adults is critical to obtaining an accurate count. At the postsecondary level, counting homeless students is even more difficult.…”