An estimated 15,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are homeless, deprived of the necessities every human should bear — food, clothes, and shelter — and many can’t access the education vital to their success. On March 25, LAUSD opened the Sun King apartments complex to house homeless LAUSD families in Los Angeles’ Sun Valley neighborhood. Other California school districts should follow suit, including here in Orange County, where the homelessness crisis has threatened the educational success of thousands of students.
The need for housing in Sun Valley was dire, yet permanent housing is far from the only necessity homeless students need. In data from the California Department of Education, homeless students had a 40.6% chronic absence rate, compared to 24.3% of their non-homeless counterparts in the 2022-23 school year. The Sun King Apartment endows homeless students, at higher risk of falling behind, with individualized educational support, from 1-1 instruction to comprehensive tutoring. The apartment complex properly supports resident students with access to free school supplies, tutoring, and summer classes. LAUSD addresses the educational disparities exacerbated by homelessness with a strong student support system all districts should adopt.
While some California districts have taken constructive measures in navigating the crisis, affected youth and families remain largely overlooked. In LAUSD, there are still thousands unhoused in the district’s 26 cities. Nevertheless, the facility is a step forward in supporting homeless students that other districts must adopt. Orange County alone has over 28,000 homeless students — some living in motels, temporary shelters, or on streets — yet local neighborhood pushback has barred them from obtaining permanent housing.
“We’ve tried to build shelters in Anaheim and Santa Ana, but there’s always groups, especially businesses, that are opposing it because they don’t want homelessness addressed in their neighborhoods. They say ‘find someplace else,’ but if it’s not here, where?” AUHSD Director of Mental Health and Wellness Dr. Adela Cruz said.
Cruz is the district liaison who oversees the McKinney-Vento Assistance Program at AUHSD. Under federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act protects the educational rights of homeless students, ensuring access to free school meals, transportation, and healthcare services. While McKinney-Vento programs offer transformative support services for students, districts must take a step further and innovate secure solutions to student homelessness as the Sun King Apartments had.
Despite being the nation’s wealthiest, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, 4.1% of its youth population experience the grim realities of homelessness. There is an imperative urgency to ensure every Californian student has a roof over their head and is not left behind. Districts must expand their support for homeless students to eliminate student homelessness throughout California.
