Nonprofit partners with County Office of Ed to fund a position supporting homeless students.

Finding and keeping a home can be challenging for families in Monterey County. According to the Monterey County Office of Education, almost 13,000 students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade are experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

For the past couple years, MCOE has successfully run a program to aid families facing homelessness with funds from United Way, providing funds to families to pay rental deposits. The program is sunsetting, but a similar program is on the way, thanks to a $50,000 donation from the Housing for Kids Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County. Housing for Kids has been a partner to Monterey Peninsula Unified School District on initiatives to end homelessness, and is now expanding its scope.

“We plan to have this be an ongoing program,” says Sandra Leader, a founding member of the Housing for Kids Fund.

The funds will cover the pay for a part-time worker to run the program at MCOE and will provide qualifying families with money for a deposit, or those behind on payments for one month’s rent to help keep them housed. The program could start as early as November and is funded for the current 2024-25 school year.

MCOE works with homeless liaisons in 24 school districts and eight charter schools across the county. The county office receives referrals from them of families in need.

“We’re like their safety net,” says Donna Smith, MCOE’s program coordinator for Homeless Children and Youth Services Program. “This provides another way of supporting those students so they can focus on school.”