City of Niles officials are in the process of evaluating what is believed to be a rise in the number of local individuals, families and children identified as being homeless or lacking permanent housing.

According to Linda Freeze, homeless liaison for Niles Community Schools, 55 NCS students have been identified as homeless as of last week. That number is expected to reach 100 by the end of the school year, Freeze said.

The Niles Police Department has also reported to the city an increase in the number of people lacking permanent housing.

“We aren’t certain how severe it is, but 50 kids to me creates a problem,” said Sanya Phillips, the city’s Community Development Block Grant administrator. “How can we expect those kids to learn and progress when they have to worry about where they will stay? From my perspective we have an issue.”

Phillips will be working with organizations across Berrien County over the next several months to administer a program designed to track and evaluate the homelessness situation in Niles and the rest of the county.

On Monday, the Niles City Council paved the way for Phillips to do this work by approving a sub-contractor agreement between the city and the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.

“We feel this will give us a better opportunity to understand the breadth of the problem,” said Phillips, adding that, from there, they can determine what type of interventions could be done to help the situation.

Freeze, who has worked as the homeless liaison coordinator for NCS for four years, said the district is required by the state to identify homeless students. Doing so can be difficult, she said, because families and students don’t freely offer up that information. If often takes all school year, she said, to find them.

What is considered a homeless student?

Freeze said the district’s definition is broad, including students living on the street, in temporary housing, in transitional housing or with relatives or friends. A homeless student is also one whose family has been displaced by fire or flood or one awaiting placement in foster care.

Freeze said the state has found that, on average, 10 percent of a district’s free and reduce meals population can be defined as homeless. The district has around 1,500 students on free and reduced.

Last year, 80 students were identified as homeless at NCS. In 2012-13 it was 73, in 2011-12 it was 32 and in 2010-11 it was 39.

Freeze said the statistics don’t necessarily mean the number of homeless students is on the rise because the district has recently improved its ability to identify them.

“I don’t think we have more, but I think we are getting better (at identifying them),” she said.

Once a homeless student is identified, Freeze said the district is required by law to provide him or her transportation to school and free and reduced meals.

Currently, not many options are available in Niles for people considered homeless or lacking permanent housing. The closest shelter accommodations are in Benton Harbor and South Bend, Indiana.

However, Phillips said there is a network of non-profit organizations within the city devoted to helping people in these situations, such as Ferry Street Resource Center and the Niles Salvation Army.

Niles has also allocated $5,000 in its annual CDBG action plan toward supporting one or two homeless persons/families.