We must protect Michigan's children against rising homelessness
The Ending Homelessness in Michigan 2023 Annual Report counts the total number of people the state's homeless response system serves during the entire year. The national 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report is based on point-in-time (PIT) counts, which states conduct over a single night during the winter. The Schoolhouse Connections Data Profiles examine homelessness among children and youth during the school year.
Homelessness is devastating for kids by making it difficult for them to attend school and do their best. The chronic absenteeism rate for students experiencing homelessness is twice the rate for the state as a whole. Despite substantial improvements in Michigan's high school graduation rates over the past decade, unhoused students have been left out. Just 58%graduated on-time in 2023.
To make matters worse, President Donald Trump has proposed putting unhoused people in internment camps and jailing those who don't comply. At the same time, just a few short weeks into his second term, he's illegally sabotaging supports for struggling families, raising the costs of living with new tariffs, rescinded guidance protecting sensitive places like shelters and schools from immigration enforcement, and pushing other policies that will drive homelessness even higher.
After falling steadily following the Great Recession, homelessness increased again during the first Trump administration. It fell dramatically in Michigan during the first two years of the pandemic as emergency rental assistance, protections against eviction, and enhanced safety net programs helped families maintain economic security.
With the end of those measures, the state reports that more than 33,000 people in Michigan were literally homeless in 2023–an increase of 2%over 2022. ('Literally homeless' means a person lives in a shelter or a place not meant for human habitation.) Similarly, the national report shows that Michigan's 2024 PIT count grew by 9%.
Eclipsing both of those increases, homelessness among Michigan's schoolchildren rose by an alarming 15%. Nearly 33,000 pre K-12 students and another 10,000 kids age 3 and younger didn't have a safe, stable home during the 2022-2023 school year.
Children receiving special education were overrepresented, following a larger pattern of disproportionate homelessness among people with disabilities. This disparity reflects the higher costs of living for households that include disabled people, combined with school and workplace discrimination that limits opportunity for disabled kids and adults.
The reports show the continued impacts of racial injustice as well. Due to ongoing discrimination in education, employment and housing, Black and Indigenous people–including children–continue to experience homelessness disproportionately.
The reports also contain troubling findings about the impact in rural communities, where homelessness is less common but shelter access is limited–particularly for families with children. Rural kids are overrepresented among Michigan's unhoused students.
Homelessness affects children in every community. Fortunately, we know what works: increasing the housing supply; the Housing First approach (which recognizes that people need stable housing before they can address other needs); robust rental assistance; and strong tenant rights.
The Michigan League for Public Policy will continue fighting for these affordable housing solutions and more fundamental economic measures to improve families' security, such as maintaining critical safety net services, increasing the minimum wage, and expanding guaranteed basic income programs.
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