ROANOKE, VA – The night before the first day of school, many parents are packing lunches and tucking their kids into bed.
But for over 600 students in Roanoke City, that’s a luxury they don’t have.
Stability isn’t a word Christopher Bohmer would use to describe his childhood.
“There would be times where I didn’t know if I was going to eat the next day, or if what I had to eat would be substantial nutrition,” Bohmer said.
House to house, couch to couch, eviction after eviction.
“Do you feel like you had to grow up a little faster than you would have?” 10 News Reporter Abbie Coleman asked.
“Yeah, I mean I feel like kids shouldn’t have to feel the real pressures of our modern society and what we have to deal with every day. But unfortunately, the reality of the world is some people have to,” Bohmer said.
He isn’t alone. Last school year 619 students in Roanoke City experienced homelessness in one way or another.
“It’s really important that we do individualize that because every story is different. Every family and every student has experienced different things along their journey,” Assistant Superintendent of Student Success and Support Services Dr. Hayley poland
Dr. Hayley Poland is the Assistant Superintendent of Student Success and Support Services and works directly with these families.
“What are some of the challenges you see?” Coleman asked.
“One of our biggest challenges is actually finding our students,” Poland said.
Poland tells 10 News at risk students and families have to be re-identified every year in order to qualify for assistance.
The McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act makes sure rights are protected for these children.
“We try to remove the adult issues from our children,” Poland said.
But experiencing homelessness isn’t just living on the streets - in fact, the McKinney-Vento Act encompasses anyone living in temporary or inadequate housing, like motels, shelters, or even living with friends or family because of housing loss.
“If they are struggling, so if they are doubled up, if they are living in a shelter if they are in transitional housing,” Poland said.
Bohmer experienced this firsthand.
“We didn’t really have places to stay sometimes, so we’d just couch surf sometimes, like with my aunt in her basement,” he said.
He says he took on these ‘adult issues’, and it hurt him in terms of his education.
“Do the bare minimum to make sure my grades were good, and then go worry about whatever else was going on. School was just an afterthought honestly,” Bohmer said.
Poland tells us they’re working to change this, by providing food, clean clothes, and more.
“Maybe they are able to go home with food. Just kind of those things that we can remove, and then it’s no longer a worry for a child,” Poland said.
One of the biggest ways they help is making sure students are able to stay in the same school, even if they’re bouncing from place to place.
“Having the stability of not having to change school five, six times can be really big for students,” Coleman said.
“Especially if they’ve experienced trauma. And experiencing homelessness, that is a traumatic experience for students, so if we can keep, they don’t have to keep retelling their story and learning new people that can support and be another trusted adult for them outside of their home,” Poland said.
Bohmer is now on the other side and says the support he received in school was critical and changed the way he looks at any situation.
“It really inspired me to make the best out of any hand I’m dealt in life, to play the best hand that I can,” he said.
If you are a student or have children experiencing homelessness in Roanoke City, contact Roanoke City Public Schools for help.
More information on their resources can be found here.