Somerville: Home to Dozens of Homeless Youth

Lorena Del Mar Ramirez moved out of her mother’s home several months ago. An 18-year-old high school senior, Del Mar Ramirez works over 35 hours each week to pay her share of her rent and other living costs.

“I prefer living with my mom, of course,” Ramirez told Somerville Neighborhood News (SNN). “But she has her life. I just can’t [live with her].”

Ramirez is one of at least 76 homeless students in the Somerville school system, according to city officials. Some live with their families in motels, shelters, or even cars.

Others, like Ramirez, have a home but are considered “homeless youth” under the state law because, for one reason or another, they live without the “physical custody or care of a parent or legal guardian” and “lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.”

Jasen Sousa of YouthHarbors, an agency that works for the Somerville School Department, is Ramirez’s case manager. The YouthHarbors program offers homeless students financial assistance and guidance.

“The root of youth homelessness is dysfunction in the family,” Sousa told SNN. “It could be a lifelong history of poverty with the family, or the family unit just breaks up and they end up on their own.”

“In this specific case, where there are many individuals living in the household, there might be her mother, her [mother’s] boyfriend, her siblings, and you have high school students who are looking for their own privacy… a lot of friction happens in the house,” he added. “Things become so heated to one point that either the parent or the child feels it’s not safe to live in the same space any more, and that often leads to the student become independent.”

This places a huge burden on a high school student who often has to balance a job or jobs, and schoolwork.

Ramirez said she gets up at 3 am every morning to help out with cleaning at a local restaurant. Then she heads to school. At the end of the day, she works at an afterschool childcare program.

“It is hard. Sometimes I have class but I didn’t sleep,” Ramirez said.

With the financial assistance and accompaniment of YouthHarbors, Ramirez keeps her work hours manageable, Sousa said.

Regina Bertholdo, the director of the School Department’s Parent Information Center, is the homeless liaison for students and families in the city. She is concerned with both unaccompanied youth, like Ramirez, and those who live with their families.

“Their whole lives are confined to one room,” she said, referring to families stuck in a shelter or motel. “They miss school more frequently, get sick more frequently. Kids just don’t get enough amount of sleep that they deserve. It’s not really a healthy routine of the child.”

The Mass Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says that almost 9,500 high school-aged students in public schools are experiencing homelessness on any given day.

As of March 3, 2015, there were approximately 4,500 families with children and pregnant women in state’s Emergency Assistance shelter program, according to the Massachusetts Homeless Coalition. That number doesn’t include families who are doubled up, living in unsafe conditions, or sleeping in their cars. A 2014 report found that homelessness in the state is 40 percent higher than It was in 2007.

Bertholdo said the Somerville School Department is determined to keep homeless youth in school.

“We have a strong commitment to these children,” she said.

But as the number of homeless as the number of homeless youth grows in Somerville, the challenges are also increasing, Bertholdo noted, adding that homelessness prevention programs need more funding.