Mark was 10 years old when his family was evicted from their home. They applied for temporary housing and were placed in a facility far away from their home, and from the school Mark and his sister Alicia attended. Mark’s parents felt it was important for their children to be able to stay at their school because they had strong bonds with teachers and friends but they needed for Mark and Alicia to be able to take a school bus from their temporary housing to and from school. However, the Department of Education only provided the parents with Metro Cards to take Mark and Alicia to school via public transportation. Unfortunately, this solution posed a host of problems for the family because Mark’s father is in a wheelchair and their infant sister is medically fragile, making it impossible for their mother to leave her in order to take Mark and Alicia to and from school on public transportation.
The parents called Advocates for Children (AFC), and we were able to get the family a transfer to a shelter closer to the kids’ school. AFC also secured school busing through the Department of Education to take Mark and Alicia to school every day. Despite the family’s housing crisis, Mark and Alicia did not have to change schools and were able to continue in their same school, surrounded by their peers and supportive teachers.