2,600 Tarrant County Children Lived In Motels Last Year, Report Reveals

Arlington TX

24 May, 2022

5:33 PM

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By Sandra Sadek, Fort Worth Report May 23, 2022 The number of children in Tarrant County living in motels and hotels is on the rise because of increasing rent costs, high occupancy rates for apartments and decreased access to child care. The Center for Transforming Lives recently released a report to raise awareness about families living in motels and their lack of access to resources, severely impacting the ability to break the cycle of homelessness. Dubbed the "hidden homeless," 2,600 children were living in motels during the 2020-21 school year in Tarrant County, the coalition said, using available information from the Texas Education Agency. About half of those children are younger than 6. Just five years ago, that number was half of that at 1,110 children. The data for the 2020-21 school year is probably low because of COVID-19's impact on school enrollment, Center for Transforming Lives CEO Carol Klocek said. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.