The News Tribune - Rent vouchers aim to bolster = McCarver families (print)

Kits=20 Merryman

< Back to Regular Story=20 Page =20

Rent vouchers aim to bolster McCarver = families

KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; STAFF WRITER

Last updated: April 23rd, 2011 12:17 AM = (PDT)

Dollar Kamandala will tell you how your home life affects your = schoolwork.=20

She=92s 10 and a fourth-grader at McCarver Elementary School. Her = widowed=20 mother and five brothers and sisters live in half of a big, = no-longer-grand home=20 on Tacoma=92s Hilltop.

=93A lot of things are messed up in it,=94 she said. =93When you open = the fridge,=20 water pours out. There are spiders and bugs. Sometimes the lights cut = off when=20 we are reading a book or doing our homework.=94

The house is drafty, and they get sick a lot, said her sister Anna, = 12, so=20 they miss school.

=93I want to keep my grades up and move on to high school,=94 Anna = said. =93I don=92t=20 want to be sick all the time.=94

She spent her youngest years in Sudan and in refugee camps in Uganda = and=20 Kenya. Academically, she is second in her class at Jason Lee Middle = School.

Hard work and good grades, she believes, will get her into college = and=20 through medical school and into a career as a pediatrician.

The Kamandalas get $850 a month in income and owe $600 for rent and = about=20 $350 for utilities in the winter, said their mom, Mary Kamandala, so = they get=20 behind on bills. There=92s no money for Internet, phone or television. = She=92s=20 studying at Tacoma Community House to improve her job skills.

They are the kind of family, either homeless or at risk of being so, = that=20 stands to make the most of an innovative collaboration that will start = at=20 McCarver in the fall.

The Tacoma Housing Authority, the Tacoma School District and the Bill = and=20 Melinda Gates Foundation are cooperating in an effort that, as far as = any of=20 them know, is the first of its kind in the nation.

The Tacoma Housing Authority will give housing vouchers to 50 = McCarver=20 families to get them into safe and stable homes in the neighborhood so = the kids=20 can stay in the same school for years.

That, said McCarver Principal Scott Rich, will have a huge impact on = the=20 school. Fifty to 60 of its families are homeless, he said.

In the 2005-06 school year, student turnover was 170 percent. Last = year it=20 was 120 percent, primarily because families became homeless.

About one-third of the school=92s students stay for years, Rich said, = but the=20 kids in the seats around them are always changing.

Those kids can=92t build relationships with teachers. They lose their = friends.=20 They have no sense of being a valuable part of the school. Their grades = suffer.=20

So does the neighborhood, destabilized by constant turnover that = leads to=20 blight and crime.

Families that earn a place in the program will find a rental home, = pay about=20 40 percent of their income on rent and depend on the voucher to pay the = rest.=20 That averages about $500 a month per family.

Most of the families in the initiative will have children entering=20 kindergarten or first grade and will stay with the program as long as = those=20 children go to McCarver.

They will also make a commitment to McCarver, the housing authority = and their=20 children.

=93They will get these vouchers on terms,=94 THA Executive Director = Michael Mirra=20 said Thursday at a launch event at the school.

They will have to keep their child, or children, at McCarver, and be = involved=20 in their education. They will work with THA resources on their own job = and=20 financial growth, Mirra said.

If they don=92t keep their bargain, they lose the voucher.

=93We want our families to succeed as parents, students and wage = earners,=94=20 Mirra said. =93We want their time with us to be transformative and = temporary.=94

The Gates Foundation=92s investment will test that. It is granting = the housing=20 authority $150,000 a year for three years. Some of that will pay to = track the=20 program=92s success.

Kollin Min, the foundation=92s Pacific Northwest program officer, = sees a=20 promising new model.

If the tracking shows kids=92 school performance rising and families = getting=20 off assistance and into jobs, the foundation will help spread the word = about a=20 new, Dollar-saving initiative, born in Tacoma.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677 kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com = blog.thenewstribune.com/st= reet=20

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