Thousands of public school students in Monterey County do not have permanent homes. “12,959 public school students were homeless in the 2023-2024 school year, nearly 17.4% of the total population,” noted Dr. Donna Smith, Program Coordinator, Homeless Children and Youth Services Program, Monterey County Office of Education (MCOE).

When a group of concerned citizens learned of this challenging situation back in March 2022, they created a grassroots organization called Housing for Kids. They began researching the issue and later that year formed the Housing for Kids Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County. They began making presentations to public service organizations.

The group has three priorities: to raise awareness of the problem, to provide help in attaining affordable housing for local public school students and their families and to create partnerships that support those in the field serving affected youth. In addition to making grants, the Fund supports a part-time position at MCOE to help qualified homeless students in the county school system access services.

“Housing for Kids came to the CFMC because we didn’t want the heavy lift (of creating a separate nonprofit). We wanted to make an impact as quickly as possible,” said co-founder, Karen Osborne.

When a request comes to a school’s homeless coordinator, each family’s situation is evaluated and a recommendation for assistance is made to Housing for Kids. A check is then issued from the fund directly to the landlord. MCOE tracks data on the program to evaluate the success of their efforts. Housing for Kids’ goal is to lower the number of students without homes in Monterey County public schools and inspire the entire community to take on this challenge together.

Housing for Kids is participating in Monterey County Gives! and donations through December 31, 2024 will be leveraged at mcgives.com/H4K. Learn more throughout the year at housingkids.com.