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The city of Livermore is working toward establishing a program to provide bridge housing, supportive services and housing navigation to homeless students and their families.
The effort is a partnership between the city, Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District (LVJUSD) and the Livermore Housing Authority. The proposed program will help rehouse students attending Livermore schools and aim to provide their families with the housing stability and support needed to navigate the process of accessing permanent housing, according to city officials.
“I am thankful for this opportunity to house students in our community,” said 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.”
Funding for the program will come from the $581,000 award the city received through the state’s Family Homelessness Challenge Grant program. Livermore and Oakland are the two Bay Area cities out of a total of 10 California communities to receive awards, which are provided through the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.
City officials said the need for this particular type of housing in Livermore emerged from conversations with the school district and nonprofit service providers regarding the unique challenges faced by families experiencing homelessness. The collaboration with the Livermore Housing Authority will leverage additional housing resources like the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.
“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. 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,” said D’Jon Paul Scott-Miller, executive director of the housing authority.
The city of Livermore submitted its Family Homelessness Challenge Grant application in April and the awards were announced in late June. The city expects the grant funds to become available by this fall and that the program will launch soon after that.
“In order to access learning in a meaningful and successful way, students require their basic needs to be met. 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,” said former LVJUSD student services director Darrel Avilla — who retired from the district on June 30, nearly a week after the grant awards were announced.
