Number of CMS students identified as homeless is rising. What’s behind the increase?
The number of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students experiencing homelessness approached 6,000 last school year, district data show. Homelessness rose in surrounding districts, too.
The number of students identified as homeless in CMS rose to 5,704 during the 2024-25 school year, the latest available data. That was up from 5,447 the previous year. And in 2020, the number in CMS was 3,011, according to district data, though data collection and reporting may have been disrupted in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Still, the number of CMS students identified as homeless during the 2021-22 school year was 4,206. That means the district saw a 35.6% increase between then and the 2024-25 school year.
Meanwhile, total enrollment in CMS has remained relatively stagnant over the past five school years, so the difference can’t be chalked up to a higher overall student population. Homeless students accounted for approximately 4% of the district’s total 141,000 students last school year.
Numbers of students experiencing homelessness in neighboring school districts vary but are generally higher than prior years around the region. So, what’s behind it?
The trend may be due to an uptick in homelessness, but officials from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction say it’s also due to better identification of N.C. students experiencing homelessness.
“The number of children and youth identified as homeless in NC public schools has been on a steady incline in the last five years, partly due to COVID and to the natural disasters we have experienced, such as Hurricane Helene,” Lisa Phillips, who oversees the state’s Education of Homeless Children & Youth program, said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “Additionally, there has been an increase in knowledge, understanding and implementation at the local level about identifying, enrolling and serving homeless children and youth.”
NCDPI used some of its COVID funding to increase staffing in Phillips’ office, which she said led to more training and awareness of homeless students within individual school districts around the state.
Homelessness in Mecklenburg County
Kenny Robinson runs Freedom Fighting Missionaries, a local organization focused on assisting formerly incarcerated individuals. Over the last 18 months, Robinson has turned his focus to helping homeless students and families in CMS.
He said the increase in homeless students in CMS is part of a larger cost-of-living crisis.
“It’s primarily due to rising rental costs, lack of available resources and eviction prevention and lack of sustainable employment,” Robinson said. “$20 an hour is not what it was five years ago, and definitely not what it was 10 years ago.”
Between June 2022 and June 2024, the county’s homeless population rose by nearly 15%, according to the data from the county’s housing and homelessness dashboard. In the later part of 2025, however, homelessness in the county has decreased.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles identified housing, particularly for those who are currently homeless, as a top priority prior to her reelection last week.
“We need to always think about housing, especially now with the unhoused,” she said during the Sarah Stevenson Tuesday Forum on Sept. 30. “At one time, we were doing better about this, but I think that we just lost our way, and we have to find a way to do this again.”
McKinney-Vento
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law originally passed in 1987 aimed at ensuring students in pre-K through 12th grade have the same access to public education as other students. It requires schools to remove barriers to attendance and success for students experiencing homelessness.
Part of what the law does is provide funding to states through the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program.
Since many students experiencing homelessness are “doubled up” – living with another family or sleeping on a family member’s couch, for example – Robinson said people in the greater community are unaware of the issue.
“When we think of homelessness, our thought goes to a panhandler or somebody who’s experiencing chronic homelessness that you see, but because you can’t see these children, it’s not in your mind that this is such an issue,” he said. “These children are invisible.”
In May, the Trump administration put forward a budget proposal that would eliminate funding for the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program entirely, instead replacing it with a block grant that schools could choose to use for homeless students. Congress has so far rejected the plan, with both House and Senate appropriations committees voting to maintain funding at its current level.
Surrounding counties
Suburban districts also saw an increase in their number of homeless students in recent years, though they also were likely affected by the increased resources at NCDPI focused on identifying and reaching homeless students.
Gaston County Schools reported 923 identified homeless students last school year, up 28.7% from the prior year and 58.6% from the 2021-22 school year.
Union County Public Schools reported 444 homeless students during the 2024-25 school year – a 27.8% increase over the 2022-23 school year but a slight decrease from the 2023-24 school year.
The latest data available from Cabarrus County Schools is from the 2023-24 school year, when the district’s number of homeless students reached a 10-year high of 833, after rising steadily for three consecutive years.
Iredell-Statesville Schools reported 563 McKinney-Vento students last school year, an increase of 69.1% from the 2022-23 school year.
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
