Simple fixes by Congress could help 250,000 homeless children with disabilities

When people think of individuals experiencing homelessness, they do not typically think of children. The more common image is that of adults living on the streets in major cities. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Education reports there are nearly 1.3 million homeless students in the United States.

The Education Department’s data are gathered from schools around the country as part of the requirements of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Homeless children and youth can be unsheltered, living in hotels, motels, or shelters, or “doubling up” in some other household because their family lost access to housing.  

A primary purpose of the McKinney-Vento Act is to ensure homeless children have the same access to educational programs and services that other students do. One of the main mechanisms to achieve that goal is the requirement that each school district must have a dedicated “Local Homeless Education Liaison.”

These liaison positions are so important that Congress actually wrote their specific job duties into the law. First and foremost, the liaisons must ensure that school officials identify homeless students and guarantee that these students receive educational services for which they are eligible. The liaison must also ensure children, youth, and families receive referrals “to health care, dental, mental health, substance abuse, housing, and other appropriate services.”

While the referral requirements for services are helpful, they contain a loophole that Congress can fix with a simple tweak to the McKinney-Vento Act. Specifically, Congress needs to also require referrals for income-support to the Social Security Administration (SSA) in cases in which the homeless child or youth has a disability.

The reason? Nearly 250,000 of these homeless children and youth are disabled — and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, run by SSA, provides benefits to poor families with disabled children. Those SSI benefits may well be the difference between a family improving its housing and financial situation or living on the streets.

SSA routinely enters into data sharing agreements with state and federal agencies, and Congress could require SSA to develop formal data sharing arrangements with states and localities to identify and conduct outreach to those potentially eligible for SSI. SchoolHouse Connection, an organization that provides technical assistance on the McKinney-Vento Act, publishes contact information for all state coordinators and Local Homeless Education Liaisons in the country.

This would fit with SSA’s recent initiatives for SSI outreach called “People Helping Others,” where the agency tries to connect with state, local, and community leaders to proactively assist poor families with SSI applications.

Indeed, much like “Local Homeless Education Liaison” positions created by the McKinney-Vento Act, SSA has recently created “Vulnerable Population Liaisons” among its field staff that are tasked with outreach and processing of SSI applications. A tweak in the McKinney-Vento Act is simply a formal way to ensure referrals are made, recorded, and processed among liaisons who may not always interact with each other.

Congress has recently taken note of the startling decline in SSI applications and awards for children and youth. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the influential Senate Finance Committee, raised concerns about SSI recently in a letter to Acting Social Security Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi. The Senator noted that the “number of SSI youth applications fell by 45 percent and the number of awards fell by 37 percent” over a recent 10-year period. 

Sen. Wyden also pointed out to Acting Commissioner Kijakazi that SSI outreach is required by law and that current outreach efforts by SSA to some populations, such as the homeless, do not have a focus on children or youth. A tweak to McKinney-Vento would directly address both of the issues raised by Sen. Wyden.

It is important to emphasize that outreach works. When SSA closed its field offices during the first two years of the COVID pandemic, SSI awards to the elderly collapsed. In response, SSA decided to mail outreach notices to low-income elderly individuals. The result? A sharp increase in the number of SSI awards. Since the outreach began, the number of monthly awards to the elderly has approximately doubled over pandemic lows and is consistently at or above pre-pandemic levels.

SSA has promised to conduct similar outreach to low-income disabled adults in their system. Reaching low-income families with disabled children, however, does not have an easy solution because many of these families are not in SSA’s data and address system and cannot be easily reached through the U.S. mail.

A tweak in the McKinney-Vento Act would help solve this outreach problem, as a quarter of a million disabled homeless children and youth could be connected to SSA via a formal referral system.

In addition to referrals, Congress may want to modify SSI policy for McKinney-Vento children and youth. The McKinney-Vento Act uses a definition of childhood disability rooted in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). While this is not the same definition that SSA uses for SSI, Congress could legislate that SSA consider homeless children and youth covered by IDEA to be presumptively eligible for SSI on a temporary basis.

This would allow for homeless children to receive immediate benefits until SSA can formally determine whether the disability meets SSA’s standards. 

Only recently has race and ethnicity data been collected for McKinney-Vento children and youth; the findings are, unfortunately, not surprising: Blacks and Hispanics disproportionately make up the homeless youth population.

However, the data also point the way to an opportunity. The Biden administration has, in words, emphasized improved public service by federal agencies and greater consideration of the difficulties that underserved and minority populations experience with access to federal programs. A tweak to the McKinney-Vento Act would match action with those sentiments.

While conservatives tend to emphasize a limited role for government, there is certainly scope within this philosophy for governmental action to help Americans facing dire situations. Almost all political leaders would agree disabled children and youth facing homelessness should get help. By making some tweaks to existing law, policymakers could ensure that the most vulnerable segment of American society gets the help it needs.

David A. Weaver, Ph.D., is an economist and retired federal employee who has authored a number of studies on the Social Security program. His views do not reflect the views of any federal agency.