From Charity to Equity-Race, Homelessness, and Urban Schools

Students experiencing homelessness often face overwhelming obstacles that limit both their access to education and their prospects for success in life. The McKinney-Vento Act (1987) was created to ensure that schools provide services that support students in unstable housing situations but, unfortunately, effective implementation of important provisions continues to be elusive. In addition, adults charged with McKinney-Vento implementation in schools voice frustration with overload and lack of support or consistent resources. Through interviews with youth experiencing homelessness, Aviles de Bradley introduces readers to their remarkable resilience under fire and their determination to thrive despite the systemic inequities they encounter daily. The book also explores how poor people of color experience and interface with social institutions, namely schools, and uncovers important connections between homelessness and racism using a Critical Race Theory framework. Readers are challenged to see McKinney-Vento implementation not as charity, but as an issue of legislated social justice and to work towards educational equity for students experiencing homelessness.