NewsChannel5.com | Nashville News, Weather & SportsWilson Co. Meeting Addresses Issue Of Homeless Students

Wilson Co. Meeting Addresses Issue Of Homeless Students

by Adam Ghassemi

LEBANON, Tenn. – Officials with Wilson County Schools say hundreds of students in the district not only have little to eat when they go home, but they have place to go home to.

Liz Reese is the head of one of the only households 3 year-old Natalya Ballington has ever known.

Reese opened "Brooks House" six-years ago to give Wilson County women and children, like Natalya's mother, Rachell Ballington, a place to stay.

"It's made me realize and open my eyes that I need to work on myself before I can do anything to help my child," says Ballington.

Ballington is actually under a deadline. By the time little Natalya starts kindergarten she could become part of a growing problem unless Rachell gets them on their feet.

"People think ‘Wilson County' and they think we don't have a homeless problem, but we do. Some people were living from paycheck to paycheck. Now they're just living. No paycheck," says Reese.

It's why the Wilson County school district brought in author Stacey Bess to speak about her experience teaching homeless children.

The recession has made the problem so bad, 366 school children were homeless in the district last year alone. This year there could be even more.

"We have several high school students who literally couch surf and don't have a place to go from night to night," says Julie Harrison, the district's Federal Projects Supervisor.

Ballington now plans to go college and become a nurse, knowing the clock is ticking with her daughter's safety hanging in the balance.

"That's one more baby off the street. That's one more child out of the backseat of a car," says Reese.

Stacey Bess spoke Monday night and will again Tuesday morning. It's open to the public at Mt. Juliet High School from 9 to 11 a.m.

Brooks House has a waiting list of 63 families. When their ten rooms are full they help put people up in hotels or at other shelters.

Email: aghassemi@newschannel5.com