On November 26, 2007, the Cape Gazette in Delaware did a story on homeless students. In three to four months in the 2007-08 school year, there were 56 homeless students in the Cape Henlopen School District, said Mike Kelley, supervisor of curriculum and instruction, compared to 46 homeless students in the district for all of the 2006-07 school year.

School social worker Heidi Quillen said that there have been as many as 12 homeless students at Richard A. Shields Elementary School in Lewes this school year. "This is by far the most that I am aware of," she said. Quillen has been at the school since 1995.

Quillen said there are two factors that are common with every one of the homeless families. The parents are working, or have worked and had their hours cut back, and all are homeless because of the lack of affordable housing.

"They have low-paying jobs and when their hours get cut it only takes one bad month and they lose their housing," she said.

"Each situation is different but the real common denominator is that housing in the area is not affordable for those with very low incomes," she said.