Saugus shelling out cash again for homeless students

SAUGUS – A financial problem that plagued the school during the last housing crisis is back again but Superintendent Keith Manville said it’s not as expensive-yet.In 2003 the School Department was hit hard when it had to pay $150,000 to bus homeless students housed by the state in motels along Route 1 back to their home districts.The state moved the last of the homeless families out of the motels in 2004 but recently it has started to put them back again.”It’s not like it was before,” Manville said. “They’re only there until a bed opens up elsewhere.”The situation stems from a state law that gives homeless students placed outside their normal school district the option to go back to school in the community in which they landed or be bused back home. If the students opt to go to their hometown school, the School Departments of both communities are required to split the cost of the busing.Manville said thus far the homeless situation has cost the town about $14,000. He was quick to add that also includes Saugus students who may have been placed in another district but asked to be bused back to town.Unfortunately for the School Department Manville also said the $14,000 had not been included in the budget.While that is costly enough for a budget that has taken a $1.3 million hit over the last year, it is not as bad as it was a few years ago.The Department of Transition began placing homeless families in hotels in 1999. Over five years the DTA utilized 97 motels across the state to house homeless families to the tune of more than $50 million. In 2003 Saugus found itself home to dozens of homeless families and the School Department was forced to pay upwards of $150,000 to transport them.In 2004 then Gov. Mitt Romney succeeded in moving all the homeless families out of the motels. Manville believes the fact they are slowly filling back up again is linked to the foreclosure crisis that has hit the area. Many families losing their homes due to the subprime mortgage disaster and have nowhere else to turn but to the state for help.Like Saugus, Peabody was also hit hard during the housing crunch that lead to families being housed in Route 1 motels. At its peak Peabody paid $400,000 to transport homeless students back to their respective districts.Mayor Michael Bonfanti was thrilled in 2005 when the motel program was finally put out of commission because he largely believed the program lacked dignity and was not cost effective.Neither Bonfanti nor Superintendent C. Milton Burnett could be reached for comment on the new practice of reopening the motels.