One of the biggest problems Royal has encountered is that many families do not know where to find the services they need. Royal estimates that there are over 260 unsheltered students in BUSD out of the total 9,800, a number she called “low.” Another area she works in is creating broader solutions, which involve partnering with the City of Berkeley and local organizations to help unsheltered families. It is Royal’s job to direct families to accessible resources, and in some cases even stable housing, but she often cannot directly help them. Both BUSD and BHS have an array of successful programs that support unsheltered and low-income students in multiple ways, but it is nearly impossible for those programs to address the larger problems students face, such as the pandemic and housing market.Īs BUSD’s McKinney-Vento Coordinator and Homeless Outreach Program for Education (HOPE) counselor, Melody Royal is doing everything she can in the face of these seemingly insurmountable challenges. With all schools in Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) currently operating online, unsheltered students are struggling to find the connections and support they used to access at school. “All of those things we’re not getting on Zoom.” … It’s the hugs, it’s seeing people screaming, it’s watching two thousand kids try to leave at lunch, it’s this normalcy that we all have, it’s having your best friend tell you that you look cute in your new hoodie,” said Berkeley High School (BHS) intervention counselor Jasdeep Malhi. “A lot of people use school as an escape from their lives. But what happens when school is no longer a place you can go? For some students - especially those with unstable home lives and housing situations - school can be a kind of alternate home, a place where they can find emotional, and sometimes even financial support from counselors or teachers.
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