Homeless kids flood shelters and schools

By Clay Carey and Christina E. Sanchez • THE TENNESSEAN • February 22, 2009

LEBANON — Imani Granger wiggled in her seat as she waited for her kindergarten teacher's attention.

The assignment: Draw something you like to do. Imani drew a pair of dress-wearing stick figures — herself and her mother sitting at a table with two plates of food in front of them.

Mom is smiling over what looks to be a plate of chicken. Imani's stick figure is grimacing at the squiggly lines on her plate. "I'm eating worms," she said, laughing.

In real life, Imani isn't eating worms. But the kindergartner isn't dining out much, either.

Imani Granger, age 6, is one of at least 2,200 homeless children in the Nashville area. Wilson, Sumner and Williamson counties recently counted more students without a stable address in the first seven months of school than they did all of last year. Combined, those districts have more than 350 homeless students, up from a total of 262 the previous school year. Click here for a breakdown by county of homless students.

Many of the newly homeless are victims of the economy, thrust into an unfamiliar world because of housing foreclosures and high unemployment rates. And with the increase comes the challenge to schools and social service agencies to educate and house shell-shocked children sleeping in different beds and, sometimes, attending different schools.

Imani's family shares a room about half the size of a one-car garage at a shelter for women and children in Lebanon. The bulk of their floor space is taken up by a metal-framed bunk bed — Imani and her brother Andrew, 5, share the top bunk; mother Nicole Lee and her baby boy, David, sleep on the bottom.