SUNBURY, Pa. — All seven members of Alexis Toro-Smith and Levert Smith’s family awaken at 6 a.m. each weekday inside the room they share at Haven Ministry.

Four of their five children take turns getting ready for school in an adjoining bathroom as the youngest, 3-year-old Jalynn, watches “The Goonies” on a small television set.

“We’ve seen that movie a lot,” said Toro-Smith, laying with her husband on one of three beds pressed against a wall. Getting children off to school each day can be one of the most stressful parts of a parent’s day, but it’s just one of many for the Smiths, who moved into the Sunbury shelter a month ago.

They are among the more than 20,000 “hidden” homeless in Pennsylvania who are able to find shelter, either in transitional housing, on a friend’s couch or in a vehicle, but not a permanent place to make a home.

“We need to get out of this situation,” said Smith, surveying the room with two shuttered windows, a five-tier shelf containing a TV, movies, toys and games, and laundry baskets filled with folded clothing. “It’s stressful.”

But it’s better than their previous living arrangement, said his 11-year-old son, Alex.

After relocating to Sunbury area from Harrisburg three months ago, the family spent about 60 days living in the home of a friend and her own brood of six children until they wore out their welcome.

Without jobs or money, the Smiths went to the shelter in January.

Toro-Smith has since found a job working the overnight shift at a convenience store in Hummels Wharf, and Levert Smith continues to search for one.

“We need money to get our own place,” she said.

The children, meanwhile, are making the best of a difficult situation.

“They’re not really worried,” Toro-Smith said. “They’re with their parents and know that we’ve got them.”

Data under-reported

The U.S. Department of Education estimates three percent of U.S. school children are homeless, with the number reaching a record level of 1.36 million students in 2013-14. Many believe the homeless are vastly under-reported because they often move in with friends or relatives, keeping a roof over their heads but never staying in one place for long.

“They’re couch-hoppers, not sitting in front of store fronts,” said Christy Zeigler, executive director of the eight-room Haven Ministry which served 111 adults and 35 children last year.

Some families with children don’t reach out for services for fear they’ll lose their kids or won’t be able to keep them in the same school district.

The McKinney-Vento Act, established by Congress in 1987 to keep homeless children and youth enrolled in school, provides funding for support and referral services, including free lunch, reading intervention and transportation to allow students to stay in their school of origin.

The number of homeless children and youth in Pennsylvania nearly doubled since the national recession, rising from 11,756 in 2007-08 to 22,765 in 2013-14, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Troubled by the declining reading and math scores of Pennsylvania homeless students in grades 3-8, The People’s Emergency Center, a nonprofit homeless service provider founded in West Philadelphia in 1972, is calling on Congress to release more than the $33 million it has approved to address youth homeless.

It’s not easy to spot a homeless child and Shikellamy School District has worked aggressively to identify its homeless student population by asking the right questions of parents and students, said attendance officer/homeless liaison Lewis Dellegrotti.

“Homelessness is not the person living under a bridge,” he said.

While none of the nearly 40 district students identified as homeless this year are living on the streets, they also don’t have a permanent address, High School Principal Mike Egan said.

Many live in a camper parked at a campsite, he said. Others are staying in a shelter or “doubled up” at a friend or relative’s home.

Working as a school leader has opened Egan’s eyes to this stark reality.

“I grew up here and didn’t realize how much of a city Sunbury is,” Egan said. “It puts academics in perspective. For some, it’s not the priority. Survival and where their next meal is coming from is their priority.”

The need is evident in the weekend lunch program that provides free meals every weekend to more than 500 children in the district. Similar weekend food programs are offered in Snyder, Montour and Union county school districts.

Dellegrotti said the economy and 2011 flood has had a major impact on displacing families and putting children in precarious living situations, but he’s proud of the district’s efforts to keep the homeless in class and attendance rate at 92 percent.

‘I cried with him’

Brad Farrow, a Shikellamy High School junior, is one of them.

He’s been living in a room at a hotel since leaving Haven Ministry in December, where he sought refuge after walking out of the home he shared with his mother and stepfather following a disagreement.

“Unfortunately, no family member could take me in. I was at the shelter for Thanksgiving,” he said, admitting he was surprised not to be invited back home. “I figured they were mad and would let me back later on.”

Once it sank in that he was out on his own, Farrow wept.

“You could have filled a small pool with my tears,” he said. “It was hard.”

He was comforted by Zeigler, who has taken in several 18-year-olds in the past year who have been kicked out of the house after a parent decided they were no longer their responsibility.

“I cried with him,” she said.

Aided by a Northumberland County caseworker and supported by his late father’s death benefits, Farrow left the shelter in early December and moved into a room at the hotel where he’s working to get his life on track.

“The boredom and loneliness is hard. I miss the family dog, Cara, running up and tackling me,” he said.

Life was different for Farrow before he became homeless.

He was wrestling on the high school team, serving as a junior volunteer firefighter in Northumberland and working a part-time job at a restaurant on the Strip in Hummels Wharf.

Now homeless and lacking transportation, the teen quit his job because he had no transportation and left the fire company because he no longer lives in the community.

Farrow has lost some things, but not his positive outlook.

“He still has hope,” said Tracy Supsic, the mother of Farrow’s friend who invited the teen to spend Christmas day with the family.

Describing Farrow as a “very friendly, nice kid with a warm smile,” Supsic, a social worker at Line Mountain School District, is amazed at his preservations.

“I don’t know any kid in his situation who would still be in school,” she said.

Farrow is one of the first to arrive each day, said Egan.

While committed to his studies, he says his living situation has affected his schoolwork and he’s no longer eligible to wrestle.

“My grades have plummeted because my mind has been in a lot of different directions, but the teachers are helpful,” Farrow said.

A second chance

Vince Ancona’s high school grades also faltered when he found himself out on the street in his senior year after coming out as homosexual to his working-class parents.

“They told me I had a choice: Not be gay, or leave,” the Philadelphia native said. “I felt so betrayed and hurt by my family.”

At 17, his choice was to leave and move into a friend’s car.

“It turned into a series of living in friends’ houses, shelters and on park benches,” said Ancona, who sporadically attended his senior year of high school while on his own.

A mostly straight-A student before leaving his parents’ home, Ancona had no idea if he had accrued enough credits to graduate and didn’t attend the commencement ceremony because he was so anxious and embarrassed about where he had ended up.

He stayed on the streets for two years, at times eating only Pop-Tarts and experiencing chaos that left him yearning for stability.

“I saw some real screwed up stuff,” Ancona said. “People getting hit in the face with brass knuckles and people selling drugs under a bridge. I attended the funeral of a friend who died of AIDS.”

He eventually got a telemarketing job and did well. Friends prodded him to go to college, but he was too scared and ashamed to tell them he didn’t even know if he was eligible.

“It was my dirty secret. Ironically, it was my father who gave me the courage to call the high school and find out if I had a diploma,” said Ancona, who discovered after reconciling with his parents that he had enough credits to graduate.

“Parental support and structure is so important,” he said. “If you don’t have it, you can get so derailed.”

Ancona enrolled in Community College of Philadelphia and graduated valedictorian of his class, leading him to successfully receive a Community College scholarship to Bucknell University.

A clinical psychology major and published poet, Ancona will graduate in May and now looks back at the time when he was homeless in a new perspective.

Gone is the feeling of shame and regret.

“I learned how to survive and take advantage of resources,” Ancona said. “It taught me to take risks.”

Marcia Moore is a reporter for The Daily Item in Sunbury, Pa.