A non-profit program that assists high school students who are homeless and without parents or guardians will begin operations at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Grove Hall. The YouthHarbors, which was launched six years ago at Malden High, connects eligible students with housing and support through graduation.

It’s a resource that is increasingly needed by students at the Burke, according to Lindsa McIntyre, the school’s headmaster.

“Homelessness is an epidemic in the public school classroom,” said McIntyre. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary education there are 6,000 homeless and alone high school students in the state.

YouthHarbors will begin operating at The Burke School in January and already two students are eager to enroll in the program,” said McIntyre.

“We are dealing with it more and more and we were always struggling to find resources,” said Mcintyre. “When someone is 17 or 18 there is nothing for them besides adult shelters which have a ‘survive if you can’ culture.”

Danielle Ferrier, executive director of Rediscovery, a homelessness prevention non profit organization, created YouthHarbors.

“Six years ago a Malden High School counselor contacted me stating that he had 22 homeless and alone students enrolled,” said Ferrier. “The school was working really hard to find them resources but these kids are too old for child services and ineligible for state services for adults. So using some federal stimulus money, and by making some adjustments to our existing programs, we stabilized those students housing situations and the program began.”

With the addition of the Burke school the privately funded program will operate in six different schools in the Commonwealth.

“Housing and food security is our top priority,” said Ferrier. “YouthHarbors is as much a drop-out prevention programs as it is a housing program. It is about creating a stable environment for them so that they can meet the social expectations.”

“These kids cannot not focus on learning if they are concerned about where there going to sleep and what they are going to eat. The students who are homeless and still get to school demonstrate a large commitment to graduating,” said Ferrier.

YouthHarbors does not partner with any shelters but instead attempts to house students with extended family or friends that can support them.

“We house about 80 percent of our students with extended family who can support them,” said Ferrier. “About 20 percent of the time the student has to pay rent and about 1 percent of the time we have to help the student find a market rate apartment. We provide food, and basic necessities as well and assist with finding part time employment.”

Linsly Seide is one of the students who has been assisted by the initiative. Seide came from Haiti to live with is father in Malden in the middle of his high school career. Last year, Seide and his father had a falling out and Seide found himself homeless. He met with the outreach worker for YouthHarbors at his school. They were able to find him housing at his sister’s home.

Due to overcrowding, he was forced to leave there as well but found affordable housing and a part time job with the help of YouthHarbors, which also subsides his rent.

Now 21, Seide will graduate at the end of the school year. He plans to further his education and is also considering enlisting in the military.

“I can’t thank YouthHarbors enough,” Seide said. “I do not know where I would be without them. They have given me really everything I could need.”

YouthHarbors is funded by donors, foundation and corporations. The program is designed to work closely with the school community.

“Our local chamber of commerce partners with us,” said Ferrier. “Local banks partner with us, city officials support our goods drives, families and friends take in youth. It looks a little different in each community, they support us in their own ways, but they all support us and it is phenomenal.”

Still, the program has not grown as fast as Ferrier would like. It gets no state or federal funding.

“Not having sustainable funding limits the amount of money we can use to subsidize housing,” said Ferrier. “It also reduces the amenities we can provide for like transportation costs. There is no question of need in the high schools. I have six schools on my wait list, but I can not open a new site until I am sure I can support the site. If I had sustainable funding I could open more sites faster.”

In years of operation, Youth Harbors has served 221 students and 94 percent of them have stable housing, and 97 percent of them have graduated or are on track to graduate, according to Ferrier.

“I think economically and as a society we should support these students and recognize that without stable housing they just don’t have a base from which to function,” she said.