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Making sure her kids stay in the same school all year is the least of Samantha Camarillo's worries.

The 26-year-old Bryan resident and her three children moved five times into different motels last year because Camarillo, who did not graduate from high school, doesn't make enough money at her part-time job to afford an apartment.

Camarillo moved into a trailer in Bryan with her sister in September. She said her kids, who are 7, 5 and 3, finally have a place to call home -- if only temporarily.

"I've really noticed a change," she said. "They can finally look around and say, 'That's my bed,' or, 'That's my room.'"

Camarillo said it would have been impossible to keep her two oldest children in school if it weren't for a liaison who works with a program in Bryan schools that targets homeless kids.

"She helped me find different motels to stay in, helped me find a house. If we needed diapers for my baby, she gave me diapers, food, clothes, trolley tickets to take my baby to the doctor," Camarillo said. "They have made things a whole lot easier. They're kind of watching out for me."

Like hundreds of local families, Camarillo is still in a tenuous situation. If she can't find a second job, she probably won't be able to afford the trailer when her sister moves out.

Both Bryan and College Station schools are required by law to make every effort to find homeless kids and make sure they remain in school.

There is no official count of how many homeless children live in Bryan-College Station, and the numbers change frequently. The Bryan and College Station school districts have enrolled 406 children considered homeless since the beginning of the school year. School districts consider children homeless if they live in a motel, a park or a car or with a relative because of a loss of housing or are in foster care. Most of those students live with at least one parent or a guardian.

Texas ranks among the top states in the nation for homeless children, with more than 337,000 kids living with at least one parent or caregiver in a non-permanent housing situation, according to a study released last month by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

Local officials who work to help homeless kids say it's impossible to address homelessness among children without helping their parents first.

"Once parents can regain their equilibrium, then the children will follow that," Project Unity founder and President Jeannie McGuire said.

But officials agree that the problem is rooted in a lack of affordable housing. That's where social service agencies are scrambling to close the gap for families with children that are either living on the edge or already homeless.

Schools

College Station schools' director of special programs, Robin Oberg, said the district's program focuses on keeping those students in the same school all year. As part of that effort, she said, the schools provide transportation, school supplies and tutoring.

The district picks up a lot of kids from Bryan, she said. But when it comes to addressing the issues that cause these kids to be homeless, Oberg said, College Station isn't equipped to find housing for students.

"We don't address the issue of homelessness," she said. "We don't have the resources."

College Station's program is paid for through federal funds allocated to districts to care for low-income students.

This year, Oberg said, the district will spend more than $8,000 caring for homeless kids. There are currently 84 students enrolled who are classified as homeless.

Bryan's program is much larger than College Station's, with more than three times the number of students.

Bryan schools this year will spend more than $100,000 for the 322 children in Project Hope, the district's program for homeless kids.

That money comes through a grant from the Texas Homeless Education Office. But next year, Bryan schools' special program director, Mary Walraven, said, that grant will be reduced to $42,000 per year because of a change in the agency's allocation formula.

Both school districts were allocated federal money this year for disaster aid because of Hurricane Ike.

Bryan schools will receive $72,000, which must be spent by September 2010. Walraven said it was a relief when officials learned of the grant less than two weeks ago. Otherwise, she said, the district would have had to eliminate its full-time homeless liaison.

In addition to providing transportation and school supplies, Bryan's program has a food pantry for families and a contract with the local Boys and Girls Club to provide enrichment activities and employs a full-time social worker who helps families find permanent housing.

District Homeless Education Coordinator Sara Williams said she worked with local shelters to make sure their residents' kids stay in the same school.

"That's really important because research says the kids will lose four to six months of instruction every time they move," she said.

The majority of homeless students in College Station's program are in elementary school. Bryan officials said they have around 15 to 20 homeless students in every grade.

"The most common situation we see is a mother and children with no housing who end up staying with relatives or in motels or in the shelter," Williams said.

With or without money, Bryan schools' Outreach Coordinator Amy Hamilton-Foster said, districts are required to provide services to help keep homeless kids in school.

Families in crisis

The Bridge, the homeless shelter in downtown Bryan operated by Twin City Mission, has only one small room for families and cannot accept single moms with teenage boys, according to Twin City Director of Marketing Ron Crozier.

Crozier said the shelter rarely sees more than a few kids at a time because of the lack of space.

When kids stay at The Bridge, Crozier said, caseworkers make sure they have transportation, school supplies and adequate clothing that doesn't identify them as homeless.

"It's our aim to make sure these kids aren't singled out as homeless," he said. "We don't want the school bus pulling up to the shelter at the beginning and end of every day, because then every kid on that bus identifies them as homeless."

When Twin City Mission opens its new homeless shelter this summer, Crozier said, it will have seven family rooms.

The only program that currently provides temporary housing for families is Family Promise. Crozier said Twin City officials often refer families to the program, which targets adults with children who may live with relatives or in a motel.

Family Promise, which opened its doors in October, has served five families -- 19 adults and children.

Five doesn't sound like a lot, Director Aimee Meyers said, but the program is designed to find permanent, stable housing for families in difficult situations, which is not a fast process. Program coordinators aim to keep families for no longer than 90 days, but Meyers said that's not always feasible.

Nine churches that have agreed to partner with Family Promise house the families for a week and provide three meals a day. Meyers also provides intensive case management, child care and basic needs such as clothing or an apartment deposit.

Family Promise and Twin City Mission work closely with school districts to make sure kids don't fall through the cracks.

Meyers said Bryan schools' homeless outreach has been extremely helpful. Kids enrolled in Bryan schools can go to the Boys and Girls Club for free, while Family Promise must seek donations to send College Station students to the after-school programs.

Meyers said the families she works with face "horrendous" barriers.

"You know in your head what the barriers are, but you don't know how hard it is until you're in the situation. It's not that easy," she said, explaining that housing options are limited for people who work full-time, minimum-wage jobs. "We don't have enough options in this town. That's the problem."

Seeking long-term solutions

The problem, said McGuire of Project Unity, is that there is no rental assistance for families that are homeless.

At The Bridge, Crozier said, case managers typically refer people who need permanent homes to two places: Twin City Mission rental assistance or the Brazos Valley Council of Governments' housing-assistance program.

There are usually a few openings for shelter clients with Twin City's program, Crozier said, but the Council of Governments' program is full and won't reopen for at least eight months.

"We have over 2,000 people on the waiting list," local Council of Governments Assistant Executive Director Michael Parks said.

The local federally funded program can legally provide rental assistance to 1,901 families per month but has only enough money to pay for about 1,600 per month.

Through the housing choice voucher program, low-income families pay rent on a sliding scale and the agency covers the remainder. Families generally wait between six and 18 months to receive aid, officials said.

The agency receives $9.5 million per year and is helping to provide housing for 1,522 families, according to COG Executive Director Tom Wilkinson.

"This is a safety net," Wilkinson said. "Many of these people, if they didn't have this program, they would be living in substandard property or under bridges. They can't afford to pay the market rent, but all of them are paying something."

Parks said that when the waiting list closes, officials are legally required to keep it closed for 12 months because of the number of people waiting for housing.

People on the waiting list, not all of whom will qualify for aid, are being served, but Parks said no new names will be added until November.

McGuire said Project Unity caseworkers typically refer clients to the Council of Governments as a first option.

Now that the waiting list is closed, she said, they have nowhere to go.

"It might be two years before someone walking into our door today could get into that program," she said. "It's really not a reliable option."

No housing programs are available specifically for families with kids, she said.

But Project Unity pours most of its resources into preventing homelessness through case management and utility assistance.

Of the 68 Brazos Valley families served through the Texas Families Together and Safe program in January, McGuire said, the majority were single mothers with children younger than 12. About half of the adults had not completed high school. Ten families lived in doubled-up situations with other people.

For the first time, McGuire said, she's encouraging families in tough situations to move in with relatives rather than seeking housing assistance.

"You can imagine how that affects a child going to school when they're sleeping on the floor at their cousins' house," she said. "There's an expectation that these kids have enough to eat and are being taken care of so they'll be ready to learn when they come to school the next day."

Crozier said The Bridge's officials were also struggling to find places to refer people who need rental assistance.

"When people come to us, we tell them you may have to find other avenues or whatever it takes until there's a time when assistance is available," he said.

Pulling together

The Brazos Valley Homeless Coalition, made up of 40 agencies from Brazos Valley counties, has met quarterly for the past 15 years to address the issue of chronic homelessness.

As local needs have increased, Crozier said, the agencies have pulled together to tackle the issues head-on.

"There's a tremendous amount of collaboration right now. There's two directions we can go: You can ask to have your load lighter or have shoulders broadened to carry more," he said. "All these agencies are asking for their shoulders to be broadened to do more."

McGuire said the number of families with kids that are on the edge of becoming homeless hasn't decreased. And officials agree that more families are asking for help, because of both Hurricane Ike and the economy.

But Williams said the work the school districts do for kids is effective.

"I think with support, we've seen our kiddos do pretty well," she said. "I think they're on par with other students as far as grades, especially when they stay in the same school and have that stability, consistency and continuity."