More than 700 Lubbock Independent School District students are considered to be “housing unstable.”
According to LISD, while most of these kids are not living on the streets, this is an on-going problem.
“I can’t tell you how many times I hear people who are not in my office say we don’t have an issue with people living on the streets or with homelessness,” said Hollye Ladd, a Lubbock ISD social worker. “I want to tell them that it is a reality for me every single day.”
Lubbock ISD says they work with several different partners in order to connect students with jobs, food, and even housing like emergency shelter.
Schools like “Matthews Alternative High School” give these types of students flexibility to make their own schedules.
“I literally go from school to work, work from school, and then back again,” said Zai Brown. “It can be a very rough schedule especially when you are getting like four hours of sleep.”
According to LISD, the majority of these students are in temporary living situations, meaning they are constantly moving house to house.
“It was never fun, but sometimes it was the only thing that we could afford,” said Christy Brown, Zai’s mom. “I am blessed and lucky to have a school that is so supportive of me and my son, we couldn’t do this without them.”
Lubbock ISD says this doesn’t stop most students from succeeding, but it does mean that they usually have to work twice as hard.
“They will just have a more difficult time,” Ladd said. “However I see every day students succeed and I want people to know that it’s just as possible for them as it is for students in a more stable situation.”
