When disaster strikes, schools become vital places of safety for communities. Drawing on research from Hurricane Harvey and recent events in Texas, this blog explores how educational leaders can respond to crises while addressing the ongoing challenge of student homelessness. The insights offered are both timely and practical, with a clear call to action for leaders everywhere.
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“We’re a frontline when it came to the response.”
As we, academics from Texas, presented our research on natural disaster at BELMAS in July, Texas was struck again by tragedy as the Gaudalupe River experienced flooding that killed over 120 people – including elementary-aged children. This storm was a sobering reminder of how natural disasters, exacerbated by human decisions, are increasingly shaping the currents that educational leaders must navigate.
Due to climate change, such disasters will increase in both severity and frequency (NASA, 2022), and educational leaders must serve as frontline responders. Schools provide stability, time for families to address recovery, and a venue for the distribution of resources and referrals (Barrett et al., 2012; Simmons & Douglas, 2018).
Natural disasters are catastrophic for kids, particularly low-income students of colour (Jaycox et al., 2010; Simmons & Douglas, 2018). While some children may become homeless from disasters, others live through it while already homeless. There are over 1.2 million students identified as homeless in the U.S., likely a gross underestimate (National Center for Homeless Education, 2023).
Our mixed-methods work aimed to understand how one of the biggest natural disasters– Hurricane Harvey – impacted student homelessness. Hurricane Harvey, which hit Houston, Texas, in August 2017, was the second most expensive storm in U.S. history. Over a million students were affected. Schools were damaged, temporarily closed, or relocated. The Category 4 hurricane destroyed 25% of local affordable housing, creating new and longer stints of homelessness (Mooney, 2018; National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2019).
Based on our work, using student-level district data as well as interviews with educational leaders, community providers, and parents experiencing homelessness, we offer insights for leaders:
Preparation is a Privilege
While preparation for disasters is key, it is often a luxury. Many could prepare for Harvey, but the most vulnerable couldn’t. Low-income communities were less able to stockpile food in preparation, while many individuals, even if ordered to evacuate, lacked the money, time, or physical mobility to leave. The inability to prepare has steep costs, leading to increased risk of becoming homeless, loss of valuable possessions, and mortality. As educational leader Jay noted, “we may be in the same storm, but we are not all in the same boat.”
The ‘Honeymoon’ Phase of Disasters Can Be Short-Lived
As the storm immediately captured media attention, a “Houston strong” ethos emerged, and donations flooded into Houston. Empathy was high for those who lost homes, and there was, at least temporarily, an increased awareness of the importance of the school district’s non-academic supports.
However, these supports quickly dried up as the nation lost interest and glaring inequities re-emerged. Those who were homeless before the storm, who may not have lost their home but, as housing provider Cleo noted, the “couch they were surfing on flooded,” were often the most underserved. In the words of Gracie, a community leader, they were even “marginalized within the shelters themselves.”
Everyone Deserves Support
Unlike families in poverty who are evicted, families who lose their homes from natural disasters were often viewed as more “deserving” of public support. Our quantitative analyses suggest that the students who became homeless due to Harvey did better in school than other students experiencing homelessness (Richards et al., 2024a & b). While we can’t be sure exactly why, we should not discount the role that additional resources, such as donations and federal emergency assistance, may play in helping these families – the types of supports that are not always available to people who become homeless because of poverty.
Bringing it Together
During Harvey, there were clear injustices in preparation and recovery by social class, housing status, and cause of homelessness. Our findings suggest it is important for leaders to consider how crisis resources and policy changes may be applied to benefit all students experiencing homelessness, irrespective of the role the disaster played in their housing instability.
A Call to Action
The next storm is not just a possibility; it is an inevitability. While vulnerability and scale differ, natural disasters and homelessness are global issues (NASA, 2022; Hart, 2025; Villabos, 2010). Our research is a call for educational leadership preparation programs to integrate training on homelessness and crisis management that acknowledges the realities of disasters aligned with local contexts.
We also call on educational leaders to build grassroots collaborations with non-profits to distribute disaster preparedness kits or trainings on accessing recovery resources (Pavlakis et al., 2025). We encourage leaders to ensure outreach and communication plans before, during, and after disaster are multi-faceted and thoughtful; consider using not only the phone and email but also social media, community meetings, and flyers in public places, to reach and best support families experiencing homelessness.
Acknowledgements
The research reported in this article was made possible in part by a grant from the Spencer Foundation (No. 202100012). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Spencer Foundation. Research was also supported in part by grants from the Moody Foundation. AIR, and the Southern Methodist University Research Council.
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Hart, A. (2025, Feb 27). Record child homelessness and soaring rough sleeping figures: The June Spending review must deliver more social homes. Shelter England. https://england.shelter.org.uk/what_we_do/updates_insights_and_impact/record_child_homelessness_and_soaring_rough_sleeping_figures
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Mooney, C. (2018, January 8). Hurricane Harvey was the year’s costliest U.S. disaster at $125 billion in damages. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy environment/wp/2018/01/08/hurricanes-wildfires-made-2017-the-most-costly-u-s-disaster-year on-record/
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Pavlakis, A.E., Roberts, J.K., Richards, M.P., Hernandez, M.J. (2025). Mothering in Double Crisis: Pandemic Parenting While Homeless. Journal of Family Studies.
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Richards, M. P., Phillips, C., Pavlakis, A. E., & Roberts, J. K. (2024). Weathering the Storm II: The Educational Impacts of Hurricane Harvey. Houston Education Research Consortium, Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
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