Collaboration
Student Support
Housing Agency and School District Collaborations to Serve Homeless and Highly Mobile Students
“Housing plays a central role in the lives of families; it is the largest single cost for most families, and its location determines a parent’s access to employment and a child’s access to education”. Lack of affordable housing is a principal cause of homelessness. A housing agency and school district that collaborate to offer affordable housing choices along with family services may reduce the frequency of family moves. This, in turn, allows children the opportunity to enjoy school stability—possibly for the first time in their lives. Increasingly, housing authorities and school districts are partnering to serve homeless and highly mobile children and families to accomplish these worthwhile goals. We examined a few of those projects in order to give housing agencies an idea of the results they could expect when they choose to participate in such a collaboration.