Students are one vulnerable group sometimes forgotten in the homeless crisis.
They were not considered in the recent San Diego Regional Task Force on Homelessness Point-in-Time count.
And San Diego's ban on homeless camps will impact children in different ways.
Zulema Guardado and her son, Maximilian, 7, are trying to survive without a permanent home. Unhoused and only employed part-time, they eat and sleep at Father Joe’s Villages as much as possible.
They share a lot of love and learning.
“We work on communication skills. We work on habits, and we work on how to have proper values,” Guardado said.
Maximilian is one of the estimated more than 11,000 students who are homeless across San Diego. Those numbers come from families reporting their situation to schools that then report the data to the state.
“I tell him that every day I fight for him, I’m Wonder Woman. I tell him that when things get hard, I take my sword and bang it on the cement," Guardado said.
While San Diego City Council's approval of a ban on unsafe camping targets adults, it impacts young students, too.
Alliance San Diego is an organization of social justice that fights for the rights of homeless families to survive wherever they can.
“(They often survive) closest to the place where they feel safest which is going to be a school," Erin Tsurumoto Grassi, Alliance San Diego's policy director. "So, while they’re complaining about students having to walk through homeless encampments, they’re not thinking about that some of these students actually live in those encampments."
One-third of the students at Perkins K-8 school in Barrio Logan are unhoused. That trauma is made worse by crime caused in nearby homeless camps. There was a murder last month, and vandalism to school property.
Fernando Hernandez is the principal who supports the city’s ban.
"We understand our student's needs and their backgrounds a lot better. So, our student's emotional trauma must be addressed now and not later in life," Hernandez said.
Zulema Guardado is hopeful for the future.
“I know I can achieve my dream and I can take me and Max out of the slums," she said.
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The San Diego City Council passed the Unsafe Camping Ordinance after a marathon session on Tuesday. The public camping ban is the latest effort city of San Diego leaders have taken on the rise in homelessness in the city. -
KPBS Midday Edition looks at how a controversial new policy could have a major impact on the issue locally.
