Nearly 500 Fayette County kids are homeless. There’s a way you can help

Valarie Honeycutt Spears, Beth Musgrave
·6 min read

With at least 453 Fayette County Public School students living in cars, motels and otherwise defined as homeless, school and city officials on Tuesday announced a campaign called “Give Kids A Home.”

The group wants to address the crisis of homelessness experienced by FCPS students and to release the detailed results of the Street Survey/Homelessness Count that was conducted on Aug. 30 by the community groups including the Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative, the Catholic Action Center and Street Voice Council.

“This is a growing crisis in our community that desires our attention,” said T.C. Johnson, director of Fayette County Public Schools McKinney-Vento Program. McKinney-Vento is a federal program.

“I cannot tell you all enough that we need to support our children and youth,” Johnson said. “... it’s our responsibility. And homelessness has no face because it’s them today, it could be us tonight because if a tornado or a fire or anything comes through, we all could be facing this crisis right now.”

By the end of the 2022-2023 school year, the number of homeless kids was 923, Johnson said.

The number of homeless kids in the current year should surpass 500 by Christmas and will likely top the 900 number by the end of the school year, Johnson said.

Of the 453 homeless students as of Aug. 30:

  • 335 were doubled up with other families

  • 44 were in hotels

  • 86 were in shelters and transitional housing

  • 18 were unsheltered

  • 19 were unaccompanied youth.

The program Johnson runs receives some federal funding but that funding can’t be used for deposits, application fees and rent, Johnson said.

The money raised will help the school system pay for rent and other services that federal homeless education funding can’t pay for.

Ginny Ramsey, of Catholic Action Center, said a similar effort to raise money for homeless Fayette County school students garnered more than $107,000 in 2016 and 2017.

Kentucky has one of the highest percentages of homeless kids in schools, according to National Center for Homeless Education, a group that tracks homeless kids in schools data.

In 2019-2020, the latest year data is available, approximately 3.1% of all kids in Kentucky public schools were homeless.

Only nine other states had higher percentages of homeless kids. Those states include California, Oklahoma, Oregon and West Virginia.

Donations will be collected by the 501(c)3 Divine Providence, Inc dba Catholic Action Center from Sept. 26 to Jan. 31, 2024.

All donations are tax deductible, Ramsey said.

The collected funds will be transferred in full to the McKinney-Vento Program for temporary or permanent housing assistance, or needs of the McKinney-Vento participants. There are no administrative fees.

Donations can be made through the Paypal Account or by check or money order mailed to Give Kids a Home, P.O. Box 324, Lexington, KY 40588.

How many people in Lexington are homeless?

A group involved with homeless services said more than 2,410 people were homeless in Fayette County on Aug. 30, the day the count took place.

That’s roughly three times the 815 homeless people a federally-mandated U.S. Housing and Urban Development count found in Fayette County earlier this year.

That’s largely because the city-led count every January doesn’t count some people who are homeless, said Ginny Ramsey, of Catholic Action Center, one of the groups that helped coordinate the August count.

“We wanted to provide a much broader look at homelessness and housing insecurity than is currently collected in our community,” said Laura Babbage, a board member of the Catholic Action Center.

Some of the people included in the Aug. 30 count who aren’t in the official city count include people in treatment, those in hospitals and people at the Fayette County Detention Center. The group also focused on people living in camps, which are traditionally difficult to count, Ramsey said.

Out of the 2,410, 398 people were unsheltered:

  • 338 living outside or in camps

  • 31 living in vehicles

  • 14 living in abandoned buildings

  • 15 living in other types of building.

The Catholic Action Center, the Central Kentucky Housing and Homeless Initiative and the Street Voice Council opted to do the count after several Lexington council members mentioned the lower-HUD number during previous requests for more funding for homeless services.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Linda Gorton pushed back on the discrepancy, saying there is “no direct comparison” between the city and Catholic Action Center counts.

“The Catholic Action Center count used different definitions of homelessness, and different methods in taking the count than the City uses with LexCount each year. However, no one disputes that there are people experiencing homelessness in Lexington, and that is a challenge, no matter the number,” Gorton said.

Gorton pointed to the city’s efforts to help unhoused people, like plans to open a temporary facility later this winter to shelter people and providing funds for the New Life Day Center. Other projects include investment in affordable housing, the statement said.

“We are deeply committed to working with all partners, including the schools, on tackling this issue, and appreciate the volunteers who share our commitment to this cause,” Gorton said.

Increase in funding for homeless prevention, intervention services

The council on Tuesday took its first step to up funding for homeless services.

Later on Tuesday, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee voted to nearly double the amount set aside for homeless prevention services.

The city currently sets aside $750,000 in a fund that is dedicated for such programs as street outreach to unhoused populations, winter housing programs and other initiatives. That funding has remained at $750,000 since 2014.

The council committee voted Tuesday to set aside .03% of the city’s general fund for homeless services. That would roughly double funding to $1.5 million. Earlier this year, the council agreed to double the amount set aside for affordable housing. The city had funded it at $2 million per year for nearly a decade. Under the new funding guidelines, it will be 1% of the previous year’s general fund revenues. That would double the amount to $4 million a year.

Several council members said Tuesday the increase in funding was necessary.

“We are severely under-funding our prevention and intervention efforts,” said Councilwoman Jennifer Reynolds, who said she has needed more outreach and intervention in neighborhoods she represents. Those street outreach efforts have been limited due to limited funding.

Jeff Herron, manager of the city’s Office of Homeless Prevention and Intervention, said the increase in funding could help pay for more street outreach. The city’s five-year plan to address homelessness also calls for more permanent supportive housing, or housing that includes other services such as social work oversight, which costs $2 million a year.

Because the city has funded prevention and intervention efforts at $750,000 for years, the need for permanent, supportive housing has not been met, Herron said.

Councilman Fred Brown was the only council member to vote against the move to up funding for homeless prevention and intervention efforts. He said he supported the effort the increase funding, just not the way it was done.

“It’s not that it’s not needed,” Brown said. But setting aside a certain percentage ties future mayors and councils to that funding amount.

“That’s not good sound, budgeting principle,” Brown said.

The increase in homeless prevention funding will go to the full council for a vote next month.