It is a dark secret for many; there is a private shame that can often shroud people who are with-out a home.

For Gordon County, the amount of people who fit into that population is startling.

According to Amanda Schutz, social worker for Calhoun City Schools, number of homeless students comes to more than 10 percent of the overall population of county and city schools.

Last year 889 students in both school systems were identified as homeless.

“Our definition of a homeless student is a child who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate night time residence,” said Schutz.

With the increase in unemployment during the past two years those numbers have been on the rise. This year the Gordon County school system has identified between 307-315 homeless students so far, said Gordon schools social worker, Whitney Carnes.

While both Carnes and Schutz say those numbers are staggering, they only represent the cases that have been reported.

“One of the problems we run into is that parents are not telling us they’re homeless. We want to know because we want to help them,” Schutz said.

That help includes several measures such as ensuring continued school enrollment, medical care, clean clothing and meals.

But, Schutz says their hands are tied when it comes to a child’s living arrangements. The social services provided to students are funded through state and grant funds, and do not allot for housing.

“It all has to be education-related,” Schutz said.

Both school systems do, however, offer a program called Bridge, which provides emergency shel-ter by paying for homeless families to stay in a motel.

“It can also provide transitional housing to families who are relocated to permanent housing by subsidizing their rent for an extended period of time,” Schutz said.

The program has a caseworker 10 hours out of the week. According to Schulz, the worker assists families in the effort of becoming self-sufficient and find an affordable stable housing situation.

“Unfortunately because of the difficult economic times right now, we are having difficulty finding something ‘affordable’ because many of the families have no income because they can’t find jobs,” said Schutz.

Gordon County does not have a homeless shelter that serves families; many churches and civic organizations have worked to fill the gaps, placing families in temporary housing and providing assistance with food and clothing.

According to the Voluntary Action Center director, Lori Rosen, the number of families seeking assistance with meals has increased significantly. The VAC was seeing an average of 600 people a month, or 20 a day, she said, but in October those numbers jumped 33 percent to 900 people served.

“I see that as becoming the norm,” Rosen said.

Sheila Callaway, Director of Tallatoona Community Action Partnership echoed Rosen, saying the inquiries for housing assistance have more than doubled in the past few months.

While both Schutz and Carnes say no families have recently reported living in their cars, Rosen said that is a possibility. She said VAC is in need of food items that can be safely consumed by those living in their vehicles.

While the needs of these families are immediate, the solutions are not. Stacy Abernathy, chair of the Bridge homelessness advisory board, the first step is awareness.

“Raising awareness is the first step. Our county is being inundated with this issue and we need to be aware,” said Abernathy.