What would you do if your child wasn’t able to play? Play is imperative to development, but for many homeless children in the United States, playtime is one of the many things that are not accessible. When we think of solutions to the nation’s housing crisis, we often don’t think beyond providing houses for those without. But there’s so much more to consider — such as creating safe environments where kids can have fun.
Jamila Larson works tirelessly to improve the quality of life for both homeless children and their families. Larson is executive director and co-founder of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, a nonprofit where Washington, D.C.’s homeless children find safe and fun places to play. The Playtime Project was founded in 2003 by Larson and Regina Kline, who both believe play is essential to children’s physical, emotional, and cognitive growth. The Playtime Project also provides toys, open space, snacks, and activities for children at the emergency shelter and transitional housing sites. The goal is to help kids learn and heal through play and engagement, allowing them to build healthy relationships with caring adults and other children.
Asmi Pareek (The Fem Word Teen Correspondent): Can you start by giving me a brief idea of the definition of homelessness?
Jamila Larson: Sure. To be homeless, of course, states and the federal government have their own technical definition. But for our purposes, what it really means is not having a stable place of residence. So you might be living doubled or tripled up with a family member in a situation that's not sustainable. You may not be on the lease and could be kicked out at any time. It doesn't always mean you're sleeping under a bridge. It might mean that you are in an unstable housing situation and meet the legal definition of homelessness. It's an overcrowded, unsustainable condition that can't be permanent.
A: Could you describe The Playtime Project and its mission?
J: The Playtime Project sets out to create child-friendly spaces in family homeless settings. We really stock them with toys and books and supplies. Most importantly, [we provide] trained and screened volunteers who facilitate play opportunities for children in these temporary family housing situations.
A: Where are the majority of the children housed in your organization? Where do they stay?
J: Given the fact that it's hard to find children who are precariously housed or all over the city, we focus on serving the children in those concentrated settings like homeless shelters and transitional housing programs. In any given year in the district, there are about 5,000 school-aged children experiencing homelessness according to the legal definition, and many more who aren't reported as homeless. We focus on serving those children who come in to shelter, which represents a portion of that number. We find our families in a variety of temporary housing settings, but they all have one thing in common: they can't stay in those settings permanently, and they're all looking for affordable housing.
A: You said you help people who also live in hotels?
J: Yes.
A: Can you describe how it is for these children living in these hotels — their day to day lives, and how their situation affects them?
J: I appreciate that [Washington, D.C.] actually places homeless families in hotels, because in many other jurisdictions, when the homeless shelters are full, they don't place them. It's positive that we have kind of the overflow shelter program and the hotels, but it's not like what you and I would consider being on vacation with their families in a hotel. The average length of stay is nine months. Imagine living with your whole family in one room for nine months. Families, children, are coming home from school trying to get several buses along the New York Avenue corridor, which is not well served by public transportation, entering through the security checkpoint, and then going up to their room. In some of the hotels, there's a sign that says no playing on the premises. So there's pressure that families feel to keep kids quiet. There are also no playgrounds or programs for kids at any of the sites. But that's what we're working to change. We're at three of the largest hotels for families, and we bring our playtime programs to them two nights a week.
A: That's amazing. You talk about play. Why is play so important in the development of children?
J: That's such an important question because some people ask us, “well, if you want to end homelessness for families, why don't you focus on housing?” Obviously, we all know that the best way to end homelessness is to provide housing. But we can't wait. Child development can't wait for us to solve the affordable housing crisis. There are developmental milestones that need to happen every day. There are homework assignments that are due every day. There are little babies who need to learn how to walk. There are little babies who need spaces to crawl, and we owe it to them to provide those safe spaces for children to be children today. So play is incredibly important for all children, but it's something that children in homeless settings don't always have access to.
A: Wow. I have never thought of that before.
J: Yeah. I can tell you the story of how I first discovered this problem here in D.C. I moved here to work for the Children's Defense Fund, which was my dream. I wanted to create systemic change for children, but there are no children at the Children's Defense Fund. I learned that there is a large shelter around the corner called the CCNV shelter near Union Station. I took a tour and really wasn't prepared for what I saw. I saw half-dressed children languishing in the halls, rows of metal bunk beds, sheets for doors, a smoky TV lounge, no screens in the windows, and not a single toy in sight. I asked the woman giving me a tour, “doesn't anyone ever donate toys?” I thought my colleagues and I would do a holiday toy drive. “Yeah sometimes,” she said, “but we keep them locked in a closet so the kids don't make a mess.”
That's how this very simple idea started. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child declared play a human right. As a social worker and therapist, I know that children heal from trauma through play. I also know that my own kids, as well as every typical kid throughout the world, have a yearning to play. That's the best way that children learn. To literally meet children, in our nation's capital, who do not have access to play was shocking to me. It has been an extraordinary education for me just to see how much further we have to go as a city to really value child development.
A: That's so amazing that you actually saw this problem. A lot of people will go to these places and not notice how much lack of play affects children. Could you talk a little bit about the impact that homelessness has on girls in particular?
J: In my time as a school social worker, I met a lot of families who are living in these overcrowded conditions, which can really present a safety risk for people — girls in particular. Sexual abuse disproportionately affects girls. I have met many children who revealed to me sexual abuse that happened when they're sleeping on the couch and an uncle or godfather or next-door neighbor came [in]. Homelessness really presents a safety issue.
I've also noticed firsthand the really shocking correlation between child sex trafficking and family homelessness. [When I was a school social worker,] there was a girl whom I knew that had a history of being a victim of childhood sexual abuse by teenagers in her neighborhood. I was trying to get her help. This particular child and her family moved into D.C. General, which was the largest family shelter in D.C. One day, I showed up at D.C. General and saw missing kid posters with her face on them throughout the shelter. It's shocking because you never expect to recognize a kid that you know on a missing child poster. I called her mom and she said, “I mean she's run away in the past, but her friends have always been able to tell me where she is. I don't know where she is. Her friends say she was gonna go be a model in Vegas or somewhere, but I can't find her. Nobody knows where she is. I'm really scared. The police are not returning my calls.”
I asked her if I could file a report with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. She had never heard of them before, but she said yes. I tried calling the police, [but they] also did not return my call. This was five years ago, and it was completely shocking because usually as a social worker, I get more respect from institutions than parents do. This parent took leave from her work, borrowed her aunt's car, and was following every lead. I was trying to be as supportive as I could, and it was absolutely terrifying. Finally, we got a call from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The girl was found in a hotel room in Los Angeles, a suspected victim of child sex trafficking. It was completely shocking to me that this could happen to someone I knew. The more I've learned about child sex trafficking, however, the more I know [now] that there's a high correlation between kids who run away from home [and kids who are trafficked].
A: About a hundred million people around the world are homeless. In the U.S., almost 40% of those who are homeless or women. Why do you think that is?
J: That's such a great question. I mean, obviously we know there's a high correlation between domestic violence and homelessness, and often that's really under reported. Also, I think in the family — in the case of the families that we know — there's a lot of history of intergenerational trauma that women experience when they're children. Having children also really impacts your earning potential and your earning power. I think that a big part of it is children make women homeless in a way that they don't make men homeless. I think that's one of the huge concerns I have: that people aren't talking enough about children and families, and how do we lift up and support families. Women are certainly a huge cornerstone of that.
A: It must be hard working on homelessness, especially child homelessness. Can you take us on a journey of your career path and what shaped it?
J: I grew up in rural Wisconsin. My family really tried to instill in us the value of service. When I rode the school bus, there were some kids [on the route] who lived in a trailer. When they got on the bus, they smelled like cigarette smoke, their jackets were torn and burnt, and their hair was unkempt. All the kids on the bus would make fun of how they smelled, and start picking fights with them. As a child, I was observing this pattern happen day in and day out. I decided to bring some books to see if I could sit and read with them and try to preempt some of this cycle that was happening. And it really worked. It made me feel like, “gosh, that's something I can do,” as a kid. Even though I kind of longed to make a bigger impact in an urban area, “bloom where you're planted” is kind of what my family had instilled in me. I tried to do what I could where I was.
I decided that social work really had that social justice mandate that I was looking for, and gave me the kind of versatility to have a rewarding career. After I went to college, I hopped on a Greyhound bus to come to Washington, D.C. to work with Marian Wright Edelman [at the Children’s Defense Fund]. After I really got to know D.C. from the federal government side, I discovered D.C. the city. I also discovered the very real needs that children have — [children who] are often neglected because so many people come to D.C. to build their careers and to serve the country or maybe the world. There's really a dearth of people, I think, paying enough attention to the children in D.C., and that's what I've been blessed to do over the past fifteen years through Playtime.
A: What was the defining moment for you when you realized Playtime was going to be your life's work?
J: I think it was after I started volunteering. Playtime was started by a group of us women who were simply volunteering to fill a need that we discovered. Soon, we realized that it was more than one shelter, one neighborhood. It was really a bigger problem that D.C. had in not providing for children and family shelters. I decided I wanted to do this full time, but I couldn't find a job that would let me do what I needed to do when I needed to do it. I think the biggest “aha” moment for me was realizing that you don't have to wait for it to be your job. I just kept at it, even though it was really daunting because then I was running Playtime on the side of a full-time job, [and] I was burning out of both honestly. Finally, I realized that Playtime was in a position where we could afford to hire staff. We hired a part-time program manager. 12 years ago, I was blessed to join Playtime full-time to make it into my life's work. It's been a really great learning opportunity for me to realize you don't have to wait for money to start something. We did it without any money at all. Just kind of a vision and people that were committed to that vision. And that's been a real blessing.
A: I read somewhere that you said it's stressful to be in poverty, and for children it's especially stressful. It gets to the point where they can't focus in school. When working on the project, did you ever feel stressed, like you're fighting an uphill battle?
J: Yes, absolutely. And I think what you'll hear many people in the [social work] field say is that the work with the children and families is — we wouldn't call it the easy part, but it's the most meaningful part of our work. The hardest part is fighting systems. Fighting bureaucracies. We got in this work for the privilege of working with children and families, and that's what makes it meaningful. But what's been so stressful is just running up against these barriers that the system puts in our place. We're dealing with one of those right now. The hotel contracts with all these for-profit hotel corporations that are forcing us to ration play because even though these spaces are fully rented out by the city, the use of the particular room that we're using for Playtime, they want to try to make money off it. They were trying to charge us money for it even though they're getting 5.5 million dollars, in one case, for a year of full occupancy at this hotel. So it's very frustrating. We want to serve more children at this site, but we're not able to without using this empty room for more nights. That’s an example of something that is just so irrational that we're trying to fight, and it's so complex to try to figure out what's the best kind of strategy to win this fight. That's been really frustrating to see that adults in power have really been our biggest barriers to serving more children.
A: You'd think that they would have the children's interests at heart.
J: Certainly. And that's been a struggle that we face daily.
A: When is one time in particular you felt powerful throughout your whole life?
J: I'm a parent to two kids. I have a two- and seven-year-old. Parents don't feel very powerful very often when you're negotiating with a two- and a seven-year-old. But last night my two-year-old was sick. She had a fever, and that's a scary thing when you're trying to figure out what to do as a parent. I often think of our families when I'm faced with those crises. Under the best of circumstances, I think, “gosh, what would I do if I [were] a single parent?” What would I do if I couldn't hop in my car and go down to the store and get some medicine, which I ended up doing. Then all those judgment calls that you have to make. But we're blessed. I'm blessed to have resources, a home, a co-parent to help make these decisions, and a car. I don't know what our families who are living in hotels do in the middle of the night when that's happening. They have to make some really tough judgment calls, and figure out what to do. In many cases their options are limited. But to get back to your question, I felt powerful when I was able to get that medicine for my daughter and give it to her. I think being a parent really helps me respect the journey that our families are going through on a whole different level. Because if you don't have the power to make your child feel better, that's just one more example of how you are powerless as a parent.
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