# @pressherald on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C606LXLN4Jg
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/19492071-pressherald-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/bc54a171cc.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-05-11T11:35:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Portland Press Herald (@portlandpressherald) — https://gondola.cc/portlandpressherald

## Caption

Every morning after waking up in their Kennebunk motel room, Melissa Whitmore loads her two kids into the car and drives them 20 minutes north to school in Biddeford.⁠
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Nothing about the situation is ideal – a family of four in a single hotel room, the stress of looking for an apartment in the midst of a housing crisis, the daily drive – but Whitmore knows it would be even worse if they hadn’t been able to rent the room after being evicted from an apartment.⁠
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“I can’t imagine living in a vehicle,” said Whitmore, who recently gave birth to her third child. Soon, five people will be living in the small, bare bones room.⁠
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Her older kids – a daughter in seventh grade and a son in kindergarten – are among more than 100 homeless students in Biddeford schools this year. Some students sleep in motels, shelters, minivans and tents.⁠
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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 400% increase in the number of homeless students in the Biddeford and Saco school districts and even more children are expected to become homeless this month as winter rentals end to make way for summer tourists.⁠
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Read more about what the assistant superintendent describes as a growing crisis through the link in our bio. Photo by @bribeezi

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 389
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- **Comments:** 6

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Portland Press Herald | @portlandpressherald | https://gondola.cc/portlandpressherald | Newspaper |
| Erica Nitschke | @enitschke | https://gondola.cc/enitschke | Assistant Editor |

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