Livermore Gets State Grant To Help Homeless Students, Their Families

LIVERMORE, CA — The City of Livermore has received a $581,000 grant from the State of California's Family Homelessness Challenge Grant program to help homeless students and their families with bridge housing, supportive services and housing navigation, the city has announced.

According to the city, the program will involve re-housing homeless Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District (LVJUSD) students and their families in temporary housing. The Livermore Housing Authority also will provide the families with the robust support needed to navigate the multi-year process of accessing permanent housing.

"In order to access learning in a meaningful and successful way, students require their basic needs to be met," said Darrel Avilla, LVJUSD's director of Student Services. "Stable and secure housing is one of those needs. We are elated to know that our students will be the beneficiaries of this grant thanks to our partnership with the City of Livermore and the Livermore Housing Authority."

The City of Livermore said it submitted its grant application in April to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH). A total of 32 applications were received for the program, requesting a total of $55 million, according to those familiar with the program.

In the end, 10 applications were approved to receive $17 million in funds. The City of Livermore said it expects the funds to become available this fall, and that the program will launch around that time.

"I am thankful for this opportunity to house students in our community," said Livermore Mayor Bob Woerner. "This project builds upon years of partnership between the city, the Livermore Housing Authority and the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District to serve our low-income families. I appreciate these partnerships that are essential to ensuring we provide our most vulnerable community members with the services and resources they need."

According to the Livermore Housing Authority, the agency will leverage additional housing resources like the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program to help participating families permanently exit homelessness.

"The Livermore Housing Authority has had the amazing privilege over the last two years to build a great relationship with the City of Livermore and strategize on ways to provide high-quality affordable housing to those in need," said D'Jon Paul Scott-Miller, executive director of Livermore Housing Authority.

Scott-Miller continued: "Having this latest joint venture shape and evolve is not only exciting to witness but fulfilling to know that youths and their families are going to have stable housing that is all their own."

Livermore is one of two Bay Area communities to receive grants from the Family Homelessness Challenge Grant fund. Oakland also will receive $2 million from the state as part of the program.

"This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. With these grants, communities throughout the state are stepping up with their own solutions and best practices — cutting through red tape to effectively and efficiently eliminate family homelessness," said Gov. Gavin Newsom. "Success leaves clues, and through this process we are not only rewarding programs that work, we are also supporting systems that are innovative, and accelerate efforts to address the challenges of family homelessness at the local level."