To address student homelessness, Edmonds district helps build housing

LYNNWOOD - Could a partnership between a school district and developer to build housing for homeless families be a model for removing one of the biggest barriers those students face?

Officials in the Edmonds School District and Housing Hope, an Everett-based affordable housing builder, are hoping a 52-unit development underway near Cedar Valley Community School could offer some answers - or at least broaden the conversation about how to improve students' education and futures through early interventions.

The Edmonds project is unique in a couple of ways: It's specifically for families whose children attend Edmonds schools and are considered homeless under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act because they don't have a fixed place to sleep at night. That includes students who are living on the street; in cars, shelters or motels; or doubled up with family members or strangers. About 820 of Edmonds' students met the criteria last year.

It's also likely the first project in the state that falls under a 2020 law allowing districts to lease or rent out surplus property for affordable housing.

Homeless students often face significant hurdles getting to and from school. They tend to have lower test scores and graduation rates and higher dropout and absenteeism rates than peers who are not homeless.

Across Washington state, nearly 3% of students are homeless, lower than the previous school year, according to state data collected in October.

Edmonds and Housing Hope officials said predictable housing, along with on-site social support, such as access to healthcare and coaches, could address some of the challenges homeless students face and improve their and their families' long-term stability and well-being.

Children can't learn if their basic needs aren't being met, said Greg Schwab, an assistant superintendent.

"This is an opportunity to do something about a population in our district that was struggling academically," he said.

"It'll be more than just a place to live," he added. "It's helping families get back on their feet again."

Districts and local governments across the country have been trying a variety of emergency and longer-term approaches to provide stability for homeless students.

In Minneapolis, for example, a partnership by the city, Hennepin County and school district, called Stable Homes Stable Schools, provides short- and medium-term rental assistance to families.

"Schools are often overlooked in conversations about homelessness, and yet, I would argue that they know the most about family and youth homelessness," said Barbara Duffield, the executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that focuses on children and young people experiencing homelessness.

Duffield said the Edmonds and Housing Hope project could be a potential model for districts, governments and nonprofits.

"That kind of stability could be so important for longer-term economic mobility and really breaking cycles of homelessness," Duffield said.

Kathryn Opina, Housing Hope's CEO, said that's central to the nonprofit organization's ethos: intervening to help families facing situational homelessness - instances caused by an event, such as unemployment or a health issue.

"We are trying to get to the root cause of homelessness in this model," she said.

The majority of families who qualified for the McKinney-Vento program in Edmonds last year were doubled up with others, and they most frequently cited economic hardships, including moving and rental costs, as factors, according to Francisco Gonzalez Robles, the district's homeless, foster care and migrant coordinator.

Support beyond housing

Fred Safstrom, Housing Hope's former CEO, and Duane Leonard, former CEO of the Housing Authority of Snohomish County, met with Schwab in October 2020, after initial "what if" conversations.

Safstrom had attempted something similar earlier in Everett, where Housing Hope and the school district negotiated a lease to build affordable housing on a playing field. But the project died in the City Council amid opposition to adding a cluster of single-family homes and town homes to the predominantly single-family area.

In Edmonds, Schwab gave Safstrom and Leonard a list of unused properties, along with their pluses and minuses, and invited them to look around to see what they liked. The two sides inked a $1-a-year, 75-year lease, effective in 2022, on a practice baseball field in a commercial area, near Highway 99. It's a short ride to the light rail station and adjacent to an elementary school.

The location could significantly cut commuting time and boost attendance, Gonzalez Robles said. That, in turn, could improve in-school relationships and students' participation in extracurricular programs, he said. Some students come from as far as Monroe, nearly 25 miles away, he said.

The $38 million project is underwritten by an array of sources, including low-income tax credits and grants and direct appropriations from the state and federal governments.

The complex, known as Scriber Place, will have a mix of units, from one bedrooms to four bedrooms, that can accommodate larger multigenerational families and are rare in affordable housing developments. It's expected to be finished next year. The school district will identify families who qualify, while Housing Hope will verify their incomes. Families will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis.

It will have a playground and an on-site medical clinic. A family support coach will work with each family to understand their experiences while they were homeless and on their housing and financial goals. That could include assistance completing résumés, finding jobs, accessing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program assistance, commonly known as food stamps, and finding permanent housing.

Our whole purpose is to help people achieve their own goals," said Rachel Downes, Housing Hope's chief strategic officer.

Half of the units will be for families who make less than 30% of the area median income and the other half for those who make up to 50%, or $82,200 for a family of four in 2026.

Families will pay no more than 30% of their income in rent, and the Housing Authority of Snohomish County will issue project-based Section 8 vouchers to cover the rest. (The vouchers are also a key part of the financing.) Families must be enrolled in Edmonds school district for two years to apply, but continued enrollment is not required to maintain residency.

Opina said there will be a case study to track the program's effects.

Schools have gotten criticism for stepping into social services, but officials say instability outside school affects students' in-school performance.

"The educators at the school district have to work with every child, no matter how they show up," Leonard said. "And if they are showing up not ready to learn, then that is a social problem."

Each side remains in its lane, Safstrom said.

"Just like a nonprofit would be ill-advised to get involved in what the school does, the school district would be ill-advised to get involved in what the nonprofit does," he said. "But when you put the two together, you have each of them aligned with their core mission and their core strengths and achieving outcomes that would not be possible without that partnership."

Schwab said he doesn't know whether it's a district's responsibility to build housing, but it's the right thing to do.

"Until somebody else does, I guess we're it," he said.

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