Nowhere to go: Idaho’s Homeless Families and Youth
Idaho Homeless Enrollment by District Poverty Level
This map shows the correlation of poverty to homelessness in the state of Idaho. Statewide, approximately 47% of students qualify for free and/or reduced price lunches. National data trends show that approximately 10% of students qualifying for free and or reduced price lunch may be living in homeless situations.
On average the percentage of students living in McKinney-Vento eligible situations is 2.5% of our total student population.
In Idaho, we have students who have been identified as homeless living throughout the state in both urban and rural areas - though our more urban areas have a larger total number.
Five-year Historical Graph
This graph illustrates the number of unduplicated homeless students throughout the state of Idaho from 2016-2021 School Years (SY):
- SY 2016-2017: 7,791 homeless youth
- SY 2017-2018: 8,368 homeless youth
- SY 2018-2019: 8,086 homeless youth
- SY 2019-2020: 7,835 homeless youth
- SY 2020-2021: 7,347 homeless youth
Additional statistics:
- Represents approximately 2.4% of all Idaho students
- 263 of the identified students moved and were served by multiple districts/charters
- Eight Year District Historical Data (Numbers include duplicated students that may have moved or attended school in more than one district.)
Homeless - Where are they Staying?
This pie chart shows the percentages of homeless students based on where they were living during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years:
- 6000 were doubled-up with friends or family (79%)
- 402 were living in Shelters or Transitional Housing (5%)
- 673 were living in hotels/motels (9%)
- 526 were unsheltered living in cars, campers with no service, or substandard situations (7%)
Information comes from the district reported numbers.
Unaccompanied Homeless Youth
An Unaccompanied Homeless Youth is an individual who meets the McKinney-Vento definition of lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate living situation AND is also not in the physical custody of his/her parent or guardian.
This map shows the percentage of identified Homeless Children/Youth in Idaho who are considered Unaccompanied Homeless Youth by color. The darker the area the higher percentage of students who are navigating homelessness on their own.
