housing stability – Fresno Unified and the teachers union philanthropy funded apartments plus wraparound support for 20 homeless families—improving attendance and school stability.
Veronica Sanchez spent years in hotel rooms with five children, worrying each day whether they’d be able to come back to the same door after school.
That instability is now largely gone.. Since April 2025. her family has lived in a furnished three-bedroom apartment at Crossroads Village through a two-year pilot supported by Fresno Unified School District and the teachers union’s philanthropic arm.. The program places families in subsidized housing while district staff and partners provide services intended to keep students enrolled. supported. and—crucially—housed.
Turning housing into an education lever
Fresno Unified’s approach starts with a straightforward premise: homelessness isn’t just an emergency—it’s a learning barrier.. Across California. districts have tried different tactics. from using parts of school facilities as temporary shelters to coordinating with city voucher programs.. Fresno’s latest approach takes a different route.. Instead of relying only on short-term shelter stays or referrals. the district helps pay into already-subsidized housing and couples it with ongoing support.
For Sanchez, the change is personal and daily.. Before moving into Crossroads Village. hotel staff sometimes knocked about payment. rooms were occasionally switched to cheaper rates. and her children—still school-age—asked constant questions about whether their home would still exist when school let out.
Families in the pilot receive support services from apartment staff, district departments, and community organizations.. In Sanchez’s case, that includes mental health classes offered through the housing complex, plus district-provided job and skills training.. The message is meant to land with both parents and students: housing stability is a foundation. but support is what helps families stay stable.
How the pilot is structured
The program is designed for 20 Fresno Unified families, including 38 students.. It is funded for two years, with the district and the teachers union each contributing more than $156,000.. Units at Crossroads Village range from two- to three-bedroom apartments. with rent determined by income and layered public and private subsidies.
The district funded a portion of units through internal offices connected to community schools and prevention and intervention work. while the teachers union philanthropy covered additional units.. Families contribute to rent when possible. but the program reduces the hardest part of homelessness: the constant calculation of whether there will be a safe. legal place to live next month.
Because housing programs often turn families away for reasons that can be out of their control. acceptance matters as much as availability.. Sanchez said her homelessness began after an eviction in 2018 and then a job loss. followed by difficulty finding housing—complicated by the fact that evictions can remain on records for years.. The housing partnership and wraparound model were built to handle those real-life obstacles rather than treat them as afterthoughts.
Wraparound support, not just a lease
Housing stability alone rarely solves everything, especially when families carry trauma, stress, and interrupted access to health care and transportation.. Fresno Unified’s prevention and intervention director described the problem clearly: families often cycle in and out of homelessness—stable one year. homeless again the next.. The pilot aims to interrupt that cycle.
That’s why the program pairs housing with practical and school-linked supports.. Apartment staff work with district personnel to encourage attendance and address issues before they become crises.. When students are absent, staff remind them to return to school.. When lease violations occur, district and complex teams work with families to help them stay housed.. For some students and parents. that may include mediation around challenging behavior; for others. it may mean making sure that mental health needs are met.
Sanchez’s children show how the model can affect daily school life.. She described how. while living in hotels. her kids were often late. struggled with sleep due to noise from neighboring rooms. and relied on multiple city buses to get to school.. Since moving into Crossroads Village, her children have maintained the 90% attendance rate required for the program.
The district also requires participation.. Parents in the program attend monthly classes hosted by the district. covering topics such as positive discipline. navigating the school system. and practical pathways like credit recovery and job development.. There are also components aimed at immediate family stability—skills that can help parents manage accounts and employment expectations while keeping children engaged with school.
What’s changing for students and parents
District staff reported improvements tied to the program, including fewer behavior issues and suspensions, along with increased attendance and higher grades. Still, support remains necessary because “trauma doesn’t heal overnight,” as the district’s student support director put it.
In Sanchez’s home, the effects have extended beyond academics.. She said her children became quieter while living in hotels—an understandable reaction to chronic instability. crowded spaces. and the stress of uncertainty.. In contrast. after she moved into Crossroads Village. her then-high school senior daughter stopped wanting to quit school to help financially.. That student later graduated and began working as a nursing assistant.. Another child is on track to graduate. and Sanchez said the younger children have “opened up more” with more routine and safety.
For parents, the program is also a re-entry plan. Sanchez is working toward expunging a criminal record so she can pursue a role as a teacher’s aide with Fresno Unified. In the meantime, she’s enrolling in an introduction-to-the-workforce class at Fresno Adult School.
Why Fresno’s model could spread—and what it still faces
The pilot’s early outcomes suggest it’s doing more than meeting a housing need. It appears to be creating the conditions where students can attend consistently and parents can participate in their children’s education without everything competing for survival time.
But there are hurdles.. The district is also navigating a budget deficit. and the pilot’s two-year timeline raises a practical question: what happens after the funding window ends?. The program could extend if more families begin contributing to their own rent than expected. potentially reducing costs and shifting demand.. Yet sustainability will likely depend on whether the district can absorb the ongoing staffing and services required to keep the model running.
Still. the idea is compelling for other districts because it reframes homelessness as an education issue that demands coordination—not only emergency response.. As one housing operator described it. success isn’t limited to what a student does inside a classroom; it’s shaped by what happens when they wake up. how their parents are managing health care and work. and whether the family has enough stability to focus on school.
With homelessness remaining a persistent barrier in many communities, Fresno’s experiment is a reminder that school systems can widen their lens—treating housing and support as part of the learning ecosystem, not separate from it.
5 ways to make reading click for teens
Online gambling bill targets California teens—what AB 2617 would change