Little Change in the Number of Children and Youth Identified in PA Shelters
More Data Needed To Understand Trends
We continue to examine data recently posted by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) on the numbers of children and youth identified as experiencing homelessness in School Year (SY) 2023. See sources at Reports (pa.gov).
Only numbers have been released; PDE will publish an narrative later that we can study. The PDE homeless education program is called the ‘Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness” (ECYEH) and structures its work via eight regions throughout the Commonwealth. A map below identifies the regions.
The chart immediately below shows a difference of 30 children identified by the ECYEH program and residing in shelter between the years 2022 and 2023. More significantly, this is a 6 percent decrease (N=501) from the SY 2019 data.
Please keep the following in mind when considering these numbers:
The children identified in one year are not the same year after year. That data might exist but is not published.
Changes in shelter counts are influenced by many factors, including the reduction of shelter and transitional housing beds due to changes in polices, improvements in diverting families away from shelter with improved use of rapid rehousing funding, prevention, vouchers and other supports, an improved economy, and other factors. In-depth research at the county level would be needed to identify changes between the years.
We looked at Philadelphia, Region 2, and Region 4. Together, they represent 65 percent of all children and youth identified as homeless. Region 2 has consistently identified more children and youth experiencing homlessness than Philadelphia, the poorest large city in the nation. It includes urban, suburban and rural communities. Region 4 includes Pittsburgh and eight mostly rural counties.
We note the following in the chart below:
The SY 22-23 data identified four fewer children and youth than in SY 21-22:
Number of SY 21-22 = 4,953
Number of SY 22-23 = 4,949
Region 2 and 4 both identified fewer than Philadelphia between SY 21-22 aand SY 22-23:
Philadelphia: 2,441
Region 2: 1,380
Region 4: 1,128
However, both Region 2 and 4 identified more children and youth in SY 22-23 compared to SY 18-19, but Philadephia identified fewer. A strong correlation with the number of children is the number of emergency or transitional housing units and beds. A homeless child is one who is either residing in this type of housing or in places unfit for human habitation. Philadelphia had 240 units and 799 fewer beds for families in its emergency and transtional housing program, and had much more rental assistance, prevention, and diversion support. Interestingly, it had about the same number of rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing units and beds (data can be furnished upon request).
For those interested in Philadelphia, here are the shelter numbers:
There was an 8 percent increase between SY 21-22 and SY 22-23, and a 15 percent decrease from SY 18-19.