Fresno school district, teachers union get families housed

For seven years, Veronica Sanchez, her mother and her five school-age children lived in hotel rooms across Fresno. They had a place to sleep. But it wasn’t ideal. 

Hotel staff would knock on their door looking for payment. The family sometimes changed rooms for a cheaper rate. 

Packing their belongings before the school day, “They’d be like, ‘Mom, are we going to be here when we come back?’ ” Sanchez said. 

Since April 2025, Sanchez’s family has lived in a furnished, three-bedroom apartment in an affordable housing complex with a playground, basketball court and pool area.
The Sanchez household is one of 20 Fresno Unified School District families housed through a two-year pilot program funded by the school district and the teachers union philanthropy, which have each contributed more than $156,000. The families, including 38 students, receive support services from staff at the apartment complex, various district departments and community organizations.  
“This is what we needed,” Sanchez said.

Throughout the state, there is an awareness that homelessness is a barrier to learning and that schools could help address it. In San Francisco, a community school turned its gym into a temporary shelter. In Los Angeles Unified, the school district identifies families for the city’s housing voucher program. Fresno Unified helps families with short-term stays at motels or shelters.
The district’s latest approach is a bit different — contributing to the already-subsidized housing and providing support services to give families everything they need.

Eliminating instability

More than 675 students in Fresno Unified currently experience homelessness. 

The families may be doubled up, living with family members, or in a shelter or motel, said Abigail Arii, the director of student support services in the district’s prevention and intervention department. Families often cycle in and out of homelessness — stable one year, then homeless again the next — a pattern of instability the district wants to eliminate with the program. 

The effort reflects the changing mindset of how Fresno Unified addresses the socioeconomic, mental health and physical barriers that affect students’ ability to learn, said Darrin Person, the executive director of community schools, one of the departments providing support to families. Fresno Unified in 2023 established community schools, turning campuses into resource hubs for families. And the idea of providing housing assistance to further support families was a leading suggestion among educators in labor negotiations between the district and teachers union later that year. 

It was with the district and the teachers union financing that the families were able to move into Crossroads Village, a 143-unit affordable housing complex located near community schools and resource centers in Fresno. 

Fresno Unified and the philanthropic arm of the Fresno Teachers Association each funded 10 units for two years, both spending more than $77,000 each year.  The families contribute to the rent based on their income, if any. 

Many families needed a place that would accept them. 

Credit: Lasherica Thornton/ EdSource

For Sanchez, 43, her homelessness started with an eviction in 2018, then an eventual job loss. She failed to find housing. She was either wait-listed for low-income housing or turned away due to the eviction, which remains on one’s record for seven years. 

The Crossroads Village team works closely with Fresno Unified staff to help families and students. 

A Crossroads tenant support manager knocks on doors, reminding students who have been absent to go to school. The team also works with the district to address lease violations to ensure families can stay.

When a student was using drugs and another vandalized property at the complex, Crossroads team members and district staff talked with the families and identified support. 

“Our No. 1 goal is that they stay housed,” said Jessica Hoff Berzac, president of Upholdings, which owns and operates Crossroads Village as “supportive” housing, providing tenants with services they need to succeed. 

Supporting parents helps their children 

Fresno Unified directly supports parents and kids through a range of mental health services, including one-on-one counseling for students.

District staff regularly visit the apartments, delivering food in a wagon or dropping off gift cards for nearby businesses. 

Each month, parents are required to attend classes hosted by the district on topics such as positive discipline and navigating the school system. There are courses on credit recovery and opening a bank account, as well as job development and resume-building workshops. 

With support from district and community organizations, Sanchez is working to have her criminal record expunged so she can become a teacher’s aide in Fresno Unified. Meanwhile, she will start taking an introduction-to-the-workforce class at the Fresno Adult School in April.

Having housing and support are only the first steps

Most students in the program have had fewer behavior issues and suspensions as well as increased attendance and higher grades since last year, according to Arii, the district’s student support director. Some are still struggling because “trauma doesn’t heal overnight,” she said. 

Sanchez said that while living in hotels, her kids were often late to school. They barely slept at night because of the noise from other rooms. And in the morning, they took multiple city buses to get to school. 

Living at Crossroads has changed that. Her kids maintain the 90% school attendance rate required for the program. The housing stability and support have provided peace of mind for the family. Last year, after they moved into the complex, Sanchez’s then-high school senior, Jaylene, no longer wanted to quit school to help her mom financially.

Now 18, she graduated, moved out and is working as a nursing assistant. Kayla, 17, will graduate this year. And Sanchez’s younger children in middle and elementary school have opened up more. 

“My kids were very silent,” Sanchez said. 

Parents in the program must also attend parent-teacher conferences and participate in at least one school event each semester. 

“As you’re homeless, you don’t really get to take part in your child’s education like you’d like,” Sanchez said. 

Continuing the program 

More families than expected have been contributing to their own rent, which could extend the two-year pilot or expand the number of families served. Fresno Unified, however, is facing a budget deficit. 

Still, the program might be a model for other school districts trying to find ways to support students and families in need, says Crossroads Village owner Hoff Berzac. 

“It’s more than the student in the classroom,” Berzac said. “It’s where did the student wake up that day and what’s going on with the parents. What’s going on with their jobs and their health care, because you can’t be successful in school if those other pieces aren’t cared for.”

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