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Homeless for the holidays First Presbyterian Church in Ashland offers homeless people a place to sleep during the cold weather. Donated sleeping bags and blankets are available for sleeping on the floor. Daily Tidings file photo Monday Dec 26, 2016 at 12:22 PM Dec 26, 2016 at 12:22 PM Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings @Joe_Zavala99 Jack Frost nipping at your nose may sound romantic to those who know where they’re going to be laying down their head on any given night. But to the some 100 Ashland children in grades kindergarten through 12 who are homeless — and especially those for whom the winter months represent not a spirit of giving but rather a daily struggle for survival — Mr. Frost and the Grim Reaper are one in the same. As the Maslow Project case manager primarily responsible for Ashland School District, Cheyenne Nichols works closely with the youngest members of the local homeless population and sees that struggle up close on a daily basis. From her “mini-Maslow” satellite in Ashland High School’s main office, Nichols does her best to make sure those students who have no place to call home at least have what they need to continue their education. “Every time I start with a family, my goal is to always just make sure that they’re getting all their basic needs met,” said Nichols, who’s been with Maslow for three years. “We’re called Maslow Project because we base our work off of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and we all believe everybody deserves access to basic needs. And housing is, of course, something that everybody needs or they wouldn’t be working with me. “The first place to start is how can we get you food and clothing and hygiene supplies or school supplies, and just get some of those basic needs met. It’s very hard to work towards greater goals unless you have those basic needs.” Based on the state’s most recent homeless student report, released Nov. 22 by the Oregon Department of Education, the Maslow Project’s mission to “offer every homeless child and youth the probability of success and the opportunity for a better life” is more important than ever. According to the ODE’s findings, Oregon’s population of homeless students increased for the third year in a row to a record 21,340 students during the 2015-16 school year. That represents 3.7 percent of the public school K-12 population, and another 1,929 children in pre-kindergarten programs were also homeless, defined by the federal government as lacking a “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.” According to the report, Ashland has 92 K-12 students who fit that definition, or 3.19 percent of its total enrollment. The ODE’s breakdown adds to the story — 59 are “doubled up,” or living with other families, 22 are “unaccompanied,” 17 are classified as unsheltered, 10 are sheltered and six are living in a motel or hotel. “Most of what we see here is a large number of families that are doubled up with other families based on financial hardship,” Nichols said. “And a lot of times it’s a whole family in one room or lots of kids are sharing beds or on the couch or on the floor. And then certainly we have those families that are camping or living in their car. And sometimes we have a number of families living in trailers or in substandard living situations, so anything that doesn’t have your kind of regular running water, sewer, heat, those standard basics of a home." Every family Nichols works with has its own backstory and challenges unique to itself. One family, for instance, which includes a mom, her son and nephew, had been camping and sleeping out of her car until somebody recently gifted them an old bus that’s been repurposed into an RV. The makeshift mobile home has no running water or working bathroom, but its small propane heater has made the cold nights bearable. In other words, it beats a tent. “A lot of times when people think of homeless youth, they think of teenagers or runaways,” Nichols said. “I certainly work with a number of high school students, but we’re not really serving runaways. It’s really families that are homeless together.” Nichols describes two primary forms of poverty that befall her clients: generational poverty and situational poverty. Once families get stuck in a cycle of poverty it’s very difficult to escape, she said, and homelessness is a direct result. On the other hand, situational homelessness strikes unexpectedly and is something, thanks in part to the local housing crisis, that Nichols has seen a lot this year. Most of the families Nichols is working with currently, however, have been clients for two to three years as they’ve struggled to maintain stability. “The students, they’ll need extra support, so I’m there to meet with them in the schools,” she said. “My goal is really to reduce barriers so that kids can be successful in school and have equal opportunity. I’m very passionate about making sure that everybody has what they need to be successful and feel good about themselves and their lives. I love making connections and I think connecting with them in a positive way so that they have positive people in their lives, knowing that there’s additional support there, I think that that makes a difference in them becoming self-sufficient and independent.” Her office at AHS includes a food pantry, a clothing closet and hygiene supplies. Supplying the essentials to the students that need it most is crucial, and the numbers prove as much. According to Nichols, 100 percent of her AHS clients so far have graduated. “I’m really working with the school so that everybody kind of knows and is just, again, able to wraparound that student and make sure they have what they need,” she said. “And that it’s all client focused. Our client always stays at the heart of what we do. We’re really here to meet them where they’re at and with whatever their needs are, whatever their goals are. I’m not deciding what their goals should be, I’m just here to support them in that process.” For more information or to speak with Nichols about a possible case, she can be reached at 541-200-9995. The Maslow Project main office in Medford can be reached at 541-608-6868. To donate specifically to the family in the bus, write “Family No. 1” in the check’s memo field. Joe Zavala is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Zavala99.