When the Old Will No Longer Do - School and Community Practices for Student Homelessness Amid COVID-19

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen

Qualitative case study using 29 semistructured interviews and supplemental data examines how COVID-19 reshaped school and community practices related to student and family homelessness in Houston, Texas. Organizational embeddedness helps explain how resource constraints, safety concerns, and evolving needs altered existing approaches. Providers faced difficulty meeting the depth of COVID-19-driven need, yet also adopted innovations. Adaptations formed a continuum from pausing or stopping practices to developing new ones from scratch, with implications for theory, research, policy, and practice.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Article Overview

Purpose and Methods

Key Findings and Implications

Literature Review

Challenges of Student Homelessness

Collaborative Action

Pandemic Impacts on Student Homelessness

AERA Open January-December 2021, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1–16 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584211064305 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2021. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) When the Old Will No Longer Do: School and Community Practices for Student Homelessness Amid COVID-19 Alexandra E. Pavlakis J. Kessa Roberts Meredith P. Richards Southern Methodist University In this qualitative case study, we employ 29 semistructured interviews and an array of supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices around student and family homelessness in Houston, Texas. Drawing on Small’s notion of organizational embeddedness, we find that COVID-19 fundamentally altered school and community practices, as educators and providers faced resource constraints, new concerns about safety, and evolving student and family needs. Providers struggled to meet the depth of need stemming from COVID-19; however, they also embraced innovation in adapting their practices to the pandemic era. We find that this adaptation occurred along a continuum, ranging from pausing or stopping existing practices to developing new practices from scratch. We conclude with implications for theory, research, policy, and practice. Keywords: community relations, COVID-19, family, poverty, qualitative case study, school, student homelessness While COVID-19 has affected nearly all aspects of education, it presents unique challenges for students experiencing homelessness and the school and community providers that serve them. Prior to the pandemic, students experiencing homelessness faced adverse educational outcomes (Miller, 2011a; Pavlakis, 2018a, 2018b) . Now, they must also confront barriers such as sheltering in place without stable housing; attending school virtually with limited technology and/or connectivity; and accessing food and other basic necessities while social distancing (Pavlakis et al., 2020; SchoolHouse Connection, 2020a; U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness [USICH], 2020) . School and community providers may now be tasked with serving even more students experiencing homelessness (Kauer, 2020; SchoolHouse Connection, 2020b), meeting additional academic and nonacademic needs (Stewart, 2020), and adapting their existing practices to ensure everyone’s health and safety (Hallett & Skrla, 2017; USICH, 2020) . This qualitative case study draws from semistructured interviews and supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices around student and family homelessness. Situating our work in Small’s (2009) organizational embeddedness perspective, we reveal that many school and community practices were fundamentally altered in response to resource constraints, safety concerns, evolving student needs, and other considerations related to COVID-19 . We outline a continuum of practice adaptation—from pausing or stopping existing practices to developing new practices from scratch—and consider the potential implications for stakeholders’ interactions. Overall, while school and community providers struggled to meet the depth of need stemming from the pandemic, they also exhibited considerable creativity in adapting practices to the new reality. Literature Review Below, we review three literature strands: (1) the challenges of student homelessness prior to the pandemic,(2) how cross-sector collaborative action supports student homelessness, and (3) the impact of the pandemic on student homelessness. Challenges of Student Homelessness National data suggest there were over 1.5 million students experiencing homelessness prior to the pandemic, a number which likely underestimates the severity of the problem due to under-identification (National Center for Homeless Education, 2020) . Homelessness disproportionately affects communi

FAQs

What research method does the study use to understand COVID-19’s impact?

The study uses 29 semistructured interviews and an array of supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices related to homelessness.

How did COVID-19 change school and community practices, according to the findings?

COVID-19 fundamentally altered practices as educators and providers faced resource constraints, new safety concerns, and evolving student and family needs.

What does the study say about how providers adapted their practices?

Adaptation occurred along a continuum, ranging from pausing or stopping existing practices to developing new practices from scratch.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by McQueen