Rochester is listed as having the highest amount of homeless children in the state, outside the New York City, during the 2012-2013 school year. That’s from are report by the state Education Department in the Student Information Repository System.
The 1,820 displaced students are what the state calls "doubled up." That means their temporarily living situation is can be with a friend, relative or a place not one owned or maintained by a parent.
"That’s one of things that makes homelessness a little bit difficult to capture," says Sara Cole, The vice president of Youth Development for the YMCA of Greater Rochester. She says they see a lot of of "doubled up" situations. "Because it doesn't really match up with the movie idea that it’s [homelessness is] somebody living on a street. Often it's about families being doubled or tripled up, often in really small, spaces - apartments. We can also call those families invisibly homeless."
Those "invisible" families Cole says are hard to statistically track. She says that means there could be more homeless children in our area than documented.
Cole says the Y has increased its efforts to provide more food accessibility to young people.
Syracuse ranked second behind Rochester for the highest population of child homelessness.