Housing & Homelessness

More than one million K-12 students in America are homeless today. Whether that means sleeping in a shelter or crashing on a family friend’s couch, homelessness has disastrous consequences for every aspect of a child’s life – health, nutrition, education. In fact, every time a child is forced to move, it has the same impact on educational progress as missing a month of school. But federal agencies don’t even have a uniform definition of “homeless” for children. First Focus advocates an honest assessment of the family homelessness problem in America and a renewed federal commitment to ensure that no American spends his or her childhood homeless.

Resources


Let’s ensure no child in the U.S. goes hungry and that every child has a safe and stable place to live

| November 15, 2022 |

This week marks Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, a time for action toward the goal of ensuring that no child in the U.S. goes


Comment on proposed changes to the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey

| May 18, 2022 |

First Focus on Children submitted the following comment to the Office of Management and Budget to stress the need for long-term access to frequent


Watch: A Conversation on Child & Youth Homelessness

| March 24, 2022 |

Child and youth homelessness has been on the rise even before the pandemic. Pre-COVID, an estimated 1-in-41 school-age children were homeless, while young children — those under


What’s at stake for kids if Congress doesn’t pass Build Back Better

| December 22, 2021 |

As negotiations have stalled and the fate of the Build Back Better Act hangs in the balance, children stand to lose access to monthly


What Congress can do about hunger & homelessness this holiday season

| November 22, 2021 |

Heading into Thanksgiving, the negative economic reverberations of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be strongest for families with children who were already struggling to


Fact Sheet: LIFT the BAR Act

| September 8, 2021 |

Children of immigrants and immigrant children make up one-quarter of all U.S. kids and represent the fastest growing group of children in America. Despite


Biden & Congress must support the nearly 4 million families with children facing housing instability

| July 22, 2021 |

Housing should be a fundamental right for all children and families in the United States — not a privilege. Yet, the economic and public


Letter: The first — and next — 100 days

| May 4, 2021 |

First Focus on Children sent the following letter to President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris congratulating them on the achievements of their


Fact Sheet: The REAL impact of COVID-19 on kids

| April 22, 2021 |

Way back at the beginning of this pandemic, a narrative took hold that kids are not affected. Now, more than a year in, it


Statement: Rule change gives 55,000 children a lifeline

| April 9, 2021 |

The Biden Administration has withdrawn a Trump-era rule that would have forced 25,000 mixed-status immigrant families from their homes, including 55,000 children. Bruce Lesley, president