City officials Monday announced a new pilot program to assist homeless families with school-aged children living in three motels along the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor in Van Nuys and North Hills.
The $770,000 “Kids First” program is a collaborative effort led by Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez and including the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, the Los Angeles Unified School District and three local nonprofit groups.
The program will give educational, life-needs and housing assistance throughout the LAUSD school year to 51 homeless families with 101 school-aged children living in three motels.
About 60 of those children live in the Hyland Motel at 7041 Sepulveda Blvd., where Martinez held a news conference Monday to announce the pilot program, which also involves families living in the Midtown Inn and Palm Tree motels.
“Homeless children living temporarily in motels have major challenges in all facets of their lives: education, healthcare, housing and food access,” Martinez said. “This program is designed as a safety net to assist them in real time, identify specific areas of need with a focus on education and housing. We want to help these school-aged children succeed in and out of school and end the cycle of intergenerational poverty they and their families so often find themselves in.”
The program involves nonprofits LA Family Housing, North Valley Caring Services and New Economics for Women, representing a working group that will meet regularly and closely monitor the progress and needs of the students and their families for a full school year.