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Shayla Rutherford, 9, does her homework while siblings Hunter and Desiree play in the family's room at the Thomas Jefferson Motor Lodge.
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Shayla Rutherford catches a bus to her elementary school in Stafford County outside the Fredericksburg motel she and her family call home.
Hunter, 12, and his mom, Melissa Rutherford-Gipson, |
Shayla Rutherford can picture her dream room: wall-to-wall Hannah Montana.
The 9-year-old would cover every inch of her space with images of the pop princess--wallpaper, sheets, lamp, radio, shelf, canopy.
"Hannah Montana everything," she said with a nod as she ran out of breath and merchandise ideas.
For now, Shayla sleeps in mismatched striped and floral sheets--donated by Stafford County public schools--on the top bunk of a red metal bed.
Underneath, her mom, dad and baby sister share a pull-out futon. Older brother Hunter, 12, sleeps on an air mattress on the floor of the single motel room that serves as home to Shayla and her family.
The five live at the Thomas Jefferson Motor Lodge, not far from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. Driving down U.S. 1, motorists could easily miss the past-its-prime motor court with about a dozen rooms.
Drivers would probably not notice Shayla, Hunter or any of the motel's other children playing football on a grassy patch in front of the Dumpster, riding skateboards in the parking lot or eating Popsicles on the front stoop.
National homeless advocate Jeremy Rosen in Washington calls kids like Shayla "the hidden homeless."
Shayla doesn't consider herself homeless. The school system counts her as such, though.
She and Hunter are among nearly 400 schoolchildren tallied in a recent one-day count of the homeless.
Lisa Von Dohlen, director of social work for Stafford County schools, warns that such counts do not paint an accurate picture and that there are more homeless children in the area.
It's impossible to know just how many of the children live in motels. But Barbara Duffield, policy director of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth in Washington, said that nationally, of all students counted as homeless, 56 percent are living with family members or friends and 7 percent are in motels.
If schools find these kids, Duffield said, they can offer services: allowing students to stay in one school even when families move, free breakfasts and lunches, academic help, counseling and more.
Otherwise, "They tend to be really invisible in communities, and the life experience can be really devastating for them," she said. "And the reverse of that is if they get help, they can do really well because they're really resilient."
For Shayla, motel life comes with advantages--playmates in the same building, and being closer to her siblings.
Still, she said, "It would be cool to have a house. It would be cool if we lived in a mansion and if we had a maid, so my mom wouldn't have to be in the kitchen or clean."
But even a townhouse or apartment would be difficult for her parents to swing. Both work--Melissa Rutherford-Gipson pulls long shifts at a Waffle House in Dumfries and her husband, Jarrett Gipson, is a part-time handyman looking for an additional job.
The couple pay about $250 a week in rent, more than they would pay for an apartment. But they haven't been able to save up for security and utility deposits, and they have credit problems.
The family has lived in the area for a few years and moved to a motel in December 2006, two days before Christmas and shortly after the couple split up. Rutherford-Gipson never dreamed the arrangement would be long-term.
But she hadn't worked and didn't have day care for baby Desiree, and soon she and the children found themselves evicted.
In the meantime she and Gipson reconciled, but the family wasn't able to find space at the Thurman Brisben Center, the region's family homeless shelter.
So the family bounced from motel to motel, from Stafford to Fredericksburg.
Because of the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which requires that homeless students be kept in the same school even if they move, Hunter and Shayla remain in Stafford schools.
School is one of the few constants the children had in the past year. Staying in the same school helped Hunter get on the honor roll and qualify for advanced classes, Rutherford-Gipson said.
Shayla struggles academically, especially in math. She gets tutoring at school, and says it's important to her to try her best every day.
Doing homework in a motel isn't hard, Shayla said. She usually spreads out her books and papers at a small table, while the TV--rented by the week and sitting on a plastic milk crate--plays Nickelodeon or Disney shows.
Other kids pop in and out, and Shayla's own siblings run through the room while she studies.
"It's a small space for a family of five, but we manage pretty well," Rutherford-Gipson said. "We may do for a while here, but it is rough."
Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
Email: aumble@freelancestar.com
Nine years ago, The Free Lance-Star looked at families living in motels. Two reporters and a photographer found more than two dozen families living in older motels scattered throughout the area. Area housing experts said families wind up staying long-term in single rooms because of a lack of affordable housing, credit issues and other financial problems. Since 1999, area officials have formed at least three task forces to address affordable housing. At numerous meetings on homelessness, agency directors talk about the dire need for transitional housing. Hope House, the area's only transitional shelter, serves women and children and always has a waiting list. There is no transitional housing for men or families that include men. The Fredericksburg chapter of the Salvation Army received funding to start a transitional housing program for single men last year, but delayed the program when it couldn't find a place to house it. The region's homeless shelter, the Thurman Brisben Center, takes singles and families for 90 days, but often has waiting lists for families and single men. The lack of services turns many families to motel life, where they can keep a roof over their heads but can't save up enough for security deposits, utility fees and other costs for an apartment or rental home. Recently, those who work with the area's homeless discovered that the Fredericksburg area has the lowest state ranking among similar regions. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also ranks communities, and gave Fredericksburg a low ranking partly because of the lack of beds for the homeless. The area lost more than $100,000 in HUD grants in part because of that low ranking. --Amy Flowers Umble |
The U.S. Department of Education counts Shayla and Hunter Rutherford as homeless. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development does not. That's because the two agencies have different definitions of homelessness. "We want to know--are you housed or not?" said Brian Sullivan, HUD spokesman. HUD counts only people in shelters or on the streets as homeless. The DOE also counts those in motels and "doubled up," or living with friends and family. But does the discrepancy matter? Absolutely, said Jeremy Rosen, executive director of the National Policy and Advocacy Council for Homelessness, based in Washington. His group supports two federal bills that would expand HUD's definition of homelessness to include people in motels or living with friends or relatives. The dual definitions lead to confusion, he said. For example, the area homeless coalition tallied Hunter and Shayla in its annual homeless count. HUD requires localities receiving federal money to count the homeless every two years. The area counts them and sends the results to HUD--but under HUD's rules, at least 200 of those included in the annual count are not homeless. Also, Rosen said, if families like Shayla and Hunter's were counted as homeless, they could receive HUD services such as transitional housing. The argument is more academic in an area like Fredericksburg, where there is no HUD-funded transitional housing. But bridging the definition gap would just be the logical thing to do, Rosen said. "We don't think it makes sense for one agency to say a child is homeless and for another agency to say that child isn't homeless," he said. --Amy Flowers Umble |
TODAY: Schoolchildren living in motels are considered homeless by Department of Education. TOMORROW: Finding a way out of temporary housing is difficult here. |
