1/5/2024 0 Comments Atomic coffee makerParents who lack education are more likely to be impoverished. She has also been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, is often in pain and is awaiting surgery.Īdvocates for the homeless say education is one of the most powerful tools in breaking a cycle that otherwise can last for generations. But when her husband, Eugenia’s father, died in 2021, it sent her into a tailspin that she is only beginning to pull out of. She’s since earned a GED and found work as a certified nursing assistant. At age 13, she moved in with a boyfriend by 15, she was pregnant. When Delgado was in fourth grade, her younger siblings were taken into state custody, a fate she only avoided because she was already living with her grandmother. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. When asked what her favorite subject is, she mumbles, “Nothing.” The seventh grader, who’s skinny with long dark hair, is reluctant to talk much about her last year, except to say it was “boring,” with a shy smile. The McKinney-Vento program serves kids who couch surf and “double up” - multiple families living under one roof - as well as students living in shelters, motels, vehicles and substandard housing.Įugenia has experienced nearly every one of these scenarios. But she suspects many more students haven’t yet been identified. The Albuquerque Public Schools district has identified about 5.2 percent of its 70,447 students as homeless, according to Cristal Wilson, director of the McKinney-Vento program for APS. Andrea Delgado in the pickup truck that she and her family used to live in. For a while, their Chihuahua, Frijole, kept them company, but even that became too much and a cousin soon took him in. The two frequently heard gunshots they assumed that any possession left in the truck bed would be stolen. Delgado slept in the front, with Eugenia in the back seat on a pile of blankets and bags. Delgado figures she probably missed up to five months of school altogether.Īfter spending almost a year with the relative, Eugenia returned to her mother, who was living in a Chevy pickup truck next to a park in a fringy Northeast Albuquerque neighborhood. On the days that she actually went, she frequently called her mother soon after the first bell rang, pleading to be picked up and taken out. Eugenia slept on a couch at a relative’s house and often refused to go to school or even answer the door when her mother arrived to take her. She and Eugenia (her daughter’s middle name) had bounced around ever since losing their apartment a couple of years ago, even spending three weeks living out of a truck this past summer during the hottest days of the year. The mother and daughter were among 47 families living in the Family Housing Navigation Center - the one-time hotel that the city of Albuquerque now leases as a homeless shelter for parents and children.įor Delgado, 38, the center was a godsend. On a recent morning, a busy thoroughfare near the Albuquerque International Sunport was a classic neighborhood picture of young mothers pushing strollers, exuberant elementary-age kids, and sleepy teenagers, all emerging from an airport hotel-turned-homeless shelter on their way to school.Īndrea Delgado stood on the sidewalk, watching from afar to avoid a preteen eye roll, as her 12-year-old daughter crossed the street to wait for the school bus.
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