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way they’re going to finish high school,” said Kathi Sheffel, the Fairfax schools’ homeless liaison. “This support for just a couple of years makes the difference be- tween a person being either chronically homeless or a produc- tive member of society.” Fairfax’s program was in its


infancy when Brewer’s rapid de- scent into homelessness began last fall. Just over a year ago, he tore the


eviction notice off the door and walked inside his nearly empty home.He tried to stay composed, tried to start packing his belong- ings in a garbage bag. He picked up his Xbox, a toy that until then had symbolized precisely noth- ing. Not privilege or normality. Just a toy. “I was always a spoiled kid,” he said. Brewer dropped the Xbox on


the floor of his empty home, letting it shatter. In that moment, “I was angry


and confused,” he said. “I could tell that my life was about to change.” Then he finished packing the


bag and headed out the door. For the first time since the


Education Department started counting earlier this decade, there are nearly a million home- less students in theUnited States, according to government statis- tics.Most drift with their families among motels, shelters and rela- tives’ homes. But experts say a growing fraction are completely on their own. It’s a problem that has pene-


trated some of the Washington area’s well-heeled communities. There are 439 homeless students in Loudoun County, 170 of whom are unaccompanied. Prince George’s County counts 2,000 homeless students, at least 80 of whom are on their own. In the District, 950 students


were homeless students in 2009. D.C. officials could not be reached to provide more recent data. The statistics from each school


system reflect only homeless teens who have managed to con- tinue their studies despite a lack of permanent shelter. Those who have dropped out are not includ- ed in these counts. A 2001 federal law requires


every district to have a homeless liaison and directs about $60 million annually to programsaid- ing homeless students. But the federal dollars cannot be spenton housing, which means many un- accompanied students have ac- cess to tutors and transportation —but no stable shelter. In Fairfax, they stay on friends’ couches, in cars or under stadium bleachers. Providing housing for such students has long been the responsibility of the federal De- partment of Housing and Urban Development. But that agency has a much narrower definition of homelessness than the Educa- tion Department has. The result is that children such


as Landis Brewer fall into that semantic gap. By the Education


Department’s definition, he was homeless and needed help to avoid chronic poverty. But once Brewer left the Reston bus stop for a succession of friends’ couch- es, he did not meet HUD’s defini- tion, making him ineligible for federal housing assistance even as his situation unraveled. The vast majority of unaccom-


panied homeless students spend time “doubled up” with friends or relatives. HUD considers stu- dents homeless if they sleep in shelters or on the streets. “HUD has neither the appetite


nor the capacity to house this population” that is precariously coping through the aid of others, said Neil Donovan, executive di-


rector of the National Coalition for theHomeless. “Because of the federal require-


ments, we’ve had to wait until they’re sleeping in their car be- fore we can help them,” said Ju- dith Dittman, director of Alterna- tive House, a Dunn Loring-based nonprofit group that has relied largely onHUDfunding for more than a decade and has recently partnered with Fairfax schools to house unaccompanied students. With a surge in the homeless


student population, school sys- temsandcommunity groupshave turned to temporary federal funds, in some cases redefining the school’s role as a welfare provider, both on and off campus.


ALEXANDRA GARCIA/THE WASHINGTON POST Once homeless—he slept for a while at a bus stop in Reston—Landis Brewer now lives in a “host home” in Vienna.


Interagency Council on Home- lessness.


Aside from their lack of hous-


ing, Fairfax’s unaccompanied homeless students have little in common. Some, like Brewer, are products of broken marriages and the rocky economy. Others watched as their parents were deported, or aged out of the fos- ter-care system, or fled homes where violence and substance abuse sabotaged their studies. Government welfare programs


dividetheminto twogroups, with titles as unadorned as the lives they describe: throwaways and runaways. Loida Gramajo, 19, came to the


ALEXANDRA GARCIA/THE WASHINGTON POST Gege Abdul-Letif of Fairfax’sHomeless Youth Initiative helps Brewer lay plans for college. In Bethel, Wash., a house


owned by the school district has become a group home for home- less students. In Berks County, Pa., the district partnered with a Catholic community group to place students in host homes. In Maplewood, Mo., the school dis- trict bought a four-bedroom house for homeless students. And in Fairfax, the Homeless


Youth Initiative’s program of rent subsidies to the system’s most vulnerable students has garnered attention from federal officials. “These are the kinds of programs we’re looking to as models as we try to provide for this popula- tion,” said Barbara Poppe, execu- tive director of the government’s


United States from Guatemala with her boyfriend four years ago. Soon after they crossed the bor- der, he started beating her and keeping her from attending school, she said. When the abuse continued after she gave birth to her daughter, Gramajo called the police. Her boyfriend fled toGuatema-


la, leaving Gramajo, then 17, effec- tively homeless in Falls Church, with no choice but to work full- time to support her child. In serving students as dispa-


rate as Gramajo and Brewer, the Homeless Youth Initiative — a partnership between Fairfax schools and Alternative House — has limited options. Most of the students use a $450 monthly rental subsidy funded by the fed- eral stimulus package to stay in apartments they find on Craigs- list. That approach worked for Gr-


amajo, whose subsidy helps pay for an apartment in Falls Church. She attends the Bryant Alterna-


EZ SU


KLMNO


MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010 School districts struggling to help homeless students


tive School in Alexandria full time and works part time at a cleaning service to pay her portion of the rent. For Brewer, the housing situa-


tion was more complicated. The freedom of living in an apartment with no supervision proved to be too much. Alcohol and other dis- tractions complicated his hous- ing placement. “I wasn’t ready for that kind of freedom. I realize that now,” said Brewer, who is in his fifth and final year in high school after recovering from last year’s dis- ruptions. “We’re still trying to figure out


how to respond to this challeng- ing population,” said Dittman, Alternative House’s director. “People are often afraid to host them, and in many cases they’re not ready to live alone responsi- bly. It’s a delicate balance.” Still, the initiative is helping.


For students like Brewer, who need both housing and emotional support, the program is persis- tent. When a spare room in an apartment does not suffice, a host home — like the one Brewer has since moved into — might do the trick. “It’s not just about helping


them pay their rent,” said Kristen Sorenson, a social worker with the program. “They call us when they get their report cards and when they want to share good news. This is their support net- work.” The payoff is easily visible, offi-


cials say: The majority of the program’s graduates — some of whom once seemed destined to drop out of high school — have gone on to college. But the tools now at the pro-


gram’s disposal — tools that didn’t exist twoyears ago—might vanish as quickly as they emerged. With stimulus funding either spent or due to expire soon, Fairfax’s program is already de- pendent on a mix of grants with uncertain prospects for renewal. And as funding for these pro-


grams dries up, experts say, the need will not.HUDis broadening its definition of homelessness, but school systems’ ability to con- nect students with local housing programs remains in doubt. Brewer, one of the first students identified by the program, could be one of the last to graduate under its guidance. Brewer is already looking be-


yond graduation day. He has adapted comfortably to life in a well-kept Vienna home — and to thewatchful eye of his host moth- er, Patty Holley, whom he simply calls “Mom.” But he’s looking forward to


leaving Vienna for college next fall. Before that will come a win- ter and spring of frenzied prepa- ration. He has to stay in shape to impress Division II football coaches. He’s been busy studying for college entrance exams and preparing a pile of applications. Luckily,he’s already written his


college essay: a narrative that begins not long after an Xbox shatters in an empty Reston home.


sieffk@washpost.com Colombian leader surprises many by parting with Uribe’s ways santos from A1


distrust him. In particular, Santos’s decision


to heal the long rift between Colombia and Venezuela has won support from the Obama administration, which sees it as playing to the United States’ benefit. The approach effectively left Chavez with little case to be made that Washington planned to use Colombia as a platform to invade his country, an argument that Chavez once frequently used to whip up his followers.


The diplomat Santos is “doing something


that’s absolutely fantastic,’’Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambas- sador to Bogota, said of Santos. “He’s taking Colombia into the 21st century diplomatically. He’s gone out there to engagewith the Brazilians and all the others.” Santos has good relationswith


both parties on Capitol Hill, and no U.S. lawmakers have criti- cized his approach. But Republi- cans who work on Latin Ameri- can policy have disparaged the Obama administration for being too soft on Chavez. “They think he should bemore


confrontational and slap Chavez down,” Frechette said. Buoyed by an approval rating


topping 70 percent, the Santos administration is pushing legis- lative initiatives to compensate victims of Colombia’s decades- long internal conflict, including those targeted by the state’s secu- rity forces. Officials are also working to return to poor farm-


ers up to 10million acres of land stolen by corrupt politicians and local warlords. One bill winding its way through the country’s legislature would use mining royalties to help fund public education. Rafael Pardo, a former senator


who ran against Santos for the presidency, said Uribe would not have pursued those policies. A tough conservative who


looked to Washington for fund- ing and guidance, Uribe worked tirelessly over his eight years as president to weaken a guerrilla group once thought invincible. But his policies were seen as favoring the elites, particularly wealthy landowners. His admin- istration was also tarnished by scandals, the details of which continue to surface, and he left office with Colombia largely iso- lated in the region. “Santos came from the Uribe


administration, but he is execut- ing a government completely different in style and in content,” Pardo said.


Adapting to the times Some political analysts say the


changes spring from a back- ground markedly different from Uribe’s. While the former president


comes from Colombia’s conser- vative and influential ranching class, Santos is from a Bogota elite often at odds with rural landowners. After spending much of his life studying and working overseas, he heldminis- terial posts in successive govern- ments, displaying what analysts


have called a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the current politicalmood. “You know, politics is an art,”


said Fabian Sanabria of Bogota’s National University. “It is know- ing how to navigate, knowing how to change when you have to change. He knows that.” As defense minister until last


year, Santos ordered unprece- dentedly ambitious blows against Colombia’s biggest guer- rilla organization, including the 2008 aerial bombardment of a jungle camp across the border in Ecuador. That strike killed a top guerrilla chief but triggered a diplomatic crisis that embroiled much of the continent. Now, as president, Santos has


shown a softer, gentler side, pressing to reestablish diplomat- ic relations with Ecuador, whose president was furious over the bombing. Santos has handed over secret computer files that Colombian commandos had seized fromthe rebels; Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, had requested the files to help his government investigate the strike. “JuanManuel Santos has been


a welcome surprise,” Correa told a Colombian television inter- viewer during a recent visit to Bogota. “I think he is a person with great human warmth.”


The shift on Chavez The biggest diplomatic priori-


ty, though, has been to reestab- lish relations with Venezuela. That task fell to a respected career diplomat, Maria Angela


shelved the base agreement. There is also a new outlook


towardWashington, where some lawmakers were surprised when Santos approved the extradition to Venezuela of a suspected co- caine trafficker, Walid Makled, even though U.S. prosecutors had also requested his extradi- tion. Santos said hewants amore active partnership with Wash- ington on issues including trade and resolving regional diplomat- ic spats. “We want to enhance our


JORGE SILVA/REUTERS


Colombian President JuanManuel Santos, left, and hisVenezuelan counterpart,Hugo Chavez, talk at a summit inGeorgetown, Guyana.


Holguin, who had resigned as Uribe’s ambassador to theUnited Nations, citing political med- dling in the diplomatic service. “Wewere in theworst possible


situation with Chavez,” Santos said in one of the two interviews with The Post. “No communica- tion, no relations, no trade, and we were starting to talk about war, which is for me inconceiv- able.” Santos recounted how in his


days as a journalist — he is a scion of a newspaper family here — he had criticized Chavez’s approach to democracy. And as defense minister, he filtered in- telligence information that seemed to show Venezuelan sup- port for the guerrillas in Colom- bia. Indeed, with concern swirling


in Bogota about a possible mili- tary threat from Venezuela, San- tos had also lobbied the United States for a security guarantee similar to that enjoyed by Israel and spearheaded a defense agreement thatwould have given the United States access to Co- lombian military bases, which rankled many Latin American leaders. “Now I am not a journalist.


Now I am not the minister of defense. I am the president of Colombia,” Santos said. “I decid- ed to forget what we had told each other — because it went both ways — and start a new relation.” In the end, the Obama admin-


istration never offered the guar- antees that Colombia wanted, and Santos appears to have


agenda, get out of the traditional points of the agenda that were only concentrated on drug traf- ficking and the fight against terrorism,” Santos said. Adam Isacson, an analyst at


the Washington Office on Latin America, a group that tracks U.S. policy in the region, said the Santos and Obama administra- tions have new priorities that alter the long collaboration be- tween Bogota andWashington. Mexico, with its drug-related


crisis spiraling out of control, may requiremore long-termU.S. attention and funding, Isacson said. He added that Colombia and the United States also say they need to place a greater priority on forging economic and diplomatic ties with the leading regional power, Brazil. “I don’t see the two countries


saying no to each other on many things,” Isacson said. “But I think, in general, both countries are going to be diversifying their relations in the region.” foreroj@washpost.com


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