School district partners with community to help homeless students

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

A mother with four children, all living out of a car. A middle school student literally sleeping under a Charles City bridge. A troubled high school kid, kicked out of the house after an argument with a parent, using a buddy’s couch for a bed.

Examples of homelessness in Charles City are becoming more and more common.

Charles City Superintendent Mike Fisher doesn’t know exactly how many students enrolled in the Charles City School system fit the legal definition of homeless, but he considers it a local crisis, and he believes the district he administers can do something about it.

“Our poverty is increasing,” Fisher said. “Last year it was around the 52 to 54 percent mark, and it increased this year.”

Fisher said that higher poverty naturally presents growing challenges for families and students.

“My gut instinct is that this is going to be an increasing challenge,” Fisher said. “We want to lean into that challenge, and I love seeing our community wrap their arms around it.”

Gilbert Starble, owner and manager of the Hartwood Inn in Charles City, describes himself as “fiscally conservative and socially very active.” Starble moved to Charles City from the Boston area when he purchased the Hartwood Inn last year. The hotel/motel has rooms with kitchenettes that can house small families on a long-term basis.

Thanks in large part to funding acquired from churches, individuals and other entities in the community, the school district has a partnership with Hartwood Inn to put families up for up to several weeks.

“We have, on numerous occasions, temporarily housed families that have had trouble, and individuals who are having transitions getting back into the workforce,” Starble said. “People are a little embarrassed to disclose and reveal that they’re sleeping in their car with their children, because they’re homeless and either don’t have enough money to spend on housing or there just isn’t housing available.”

Starble said that sometimes, even if they have money for housing, families can get in a temporary bind because there isn’t always adequate housing for families in town.

“When somebody’s sleeping in a car with a student that might some day become President of the United States, and who is deserving of a break — a hand up, not a hand out — that would be my definition a perfect balance of human action,” Stable said. “There’s a school administrator here that’s willing to take the risk of taking special funds — not taxpayer funds — that come from private donations and contribute to the well-being of a family in need.”

Fisher said that the Hartwood Inn shelters the families at much reduced rate.

“Because of our partnership with them, we’ve been able to support families pretty economically,” Fisher said. “We’ve been getting a lot of bang for our buck, thanks to the support of the Hartwood Inn.”

Stable said he was working on a separate initiative at the school with Donna Forsyth, director of Charles City High School’s Iowa Big North program, and incidentally learned of a student enrolled in the district literally sleeping under a bridge. Starble quickly offered to help.

The next month, it was a family sleeping in a car, and after that, it was a family in transition and needing some temporary help.

“There are any number of different experiences of an urgent nature,” Starble said. “They hear about it and take action, then I hear about it and do what I can to help the situation.”

In all the cases so far, Starble has given the family a place to stay at a reduced rate for a period of time, and Starble said that in all the situations so far, the families have been able to find an adequate home before departing the Hartwood Inn.

“We’ve been lucky,” Starble said. “God has been with us.”

Fisher said that Starble has been “very gracious” in the partnership.

“Gilbert has just been a great partner,” Fisher said. “I can tell you that it doesn’t cost us a lot — a few hundred bucks for a family to stay a couple of weeks.”

Fisher said that more than a half-dozen churches and other community entities and individuals have contributed money to help fund the program.

“If anyone on our staff identifies a family in crisis or homeless, we can use some of those funds temporarily to get them a stay at the hotel,” Fisher said. “It’s not a free-for-all, there’s a process, they have to qualify — we don’t give money to the families, we’re in partnership with the local hotel.”

Fisher said the length of time a family can stay can be a few days up to a maximum of four weeks. During that time, community resources, school counselors, social workers and administrators are used to line up permanent housing.

“I love that our students and families are choosing our school district, and we have to realize that sometimes those families have some challenges,” Fisher said. “We’re glad they’re here, and we have a beautiful, beautiful community to help support them.”

Rev. Rob Williams at The Bridge Church was the first to contribute to the partnership, according to Fisher, supplying enough funds to get it started. At least half a dozen entities have donated, and the number is growing. Trinity United Methodist Church, for example, recently announced to its congregation that it will be donating this year’s Advent offering to the initiative. The program recently had a fund drive, and Fisher said the district has been getting calls.

“We even had a church in New Hampton donate to it as well,” Fisher said.

Former Floyd County Sheriff Bill Cavanaugh has also helped with the effort, identifying families in trouble and connecting them with people who can help, supplying clothing and helping families clean their homes, among many other things. Cavanaugh said the number of families struggling with homelessness in the community would surprise people.

“There are a lot of variations on homelessness, and we just want to make sure that those kids are cared for,” Fisher said. “How can they get themselves to a healthy spot, where they’re contributing members of society?”

According to the most recent statistics compiled in 2018 by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the state of Iowa has nearly 6,800 homeless students enrolled in public schools, nearly 1.200 of those classified as “unaccompanied,” which means they are experiencing homelessness and are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.

Fisher wouldn’t guess as to how many students in Charles City fit the legal definition.

“It’s a hard number to get,” Fisher said. “We see a lot of numbers out there, but we find that a lot of our students won’t identify — there’s a lot of shame there.”

More than 100 students in Iowa are unsheltered at night, meaning that they are sleeping outdoors, in cars, or in other places not ordinarily meant for humans to sleep.

More than 1400 Iowa students sleep in shelters, more than 500 sleep in a hotel or motel, and more than 4,700 are classified as “doubled up,” meaning they sleep at the home of an acquaintance.

Helping those local students who are in a homeless family situation isn’t just the right thing to do, Fisher said, but it’s also the smart thing to do.

“It’s not just us being nice, or altruistic, or feeling pity,” he said. “This is an investment, we’re investing in our kids. We want them to grow up to be people who can find circumstances where they won’t find themselves in that situation again. We’re investing in the heart of our community, and that makes me feel good.”

Fisher said that Charles City is a “regardless school,” which means, “regardless of who you are or what your story is, you can learn to be loved.”

“If we’re going to give students a head start, so that they don’t fall into the same trap of poverty, they’re going to need some advantages at times,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re all fighting for the same thing. We want to watch those kids walk across our stage as Charles City graduates. We know that one of the keys to a happy, healthy life is an education.”