A lifeline or 'dystopian'?: Schools open parking lots for homeless students and families

Fortify Life takes a holistic approach to addressing homelessness and also provides emergency and long-term stays in a renovated motel for people experiencing homelessness. Long-term guests participate in a micropayment program that teaches them how to budget and become financially self-sufficient. Since 2021, Fortify Life has helped 179 families with emergency or transitional housing.

The Surge Project and EmpowerED Birmingham uplift local youth by providing mentorships, tutoring, healthcare resources, workforce development programs and educational opportunities in various fields. In the program's 2023 pilot partnership with the National Training Institute for Healthcare technicians, 32 of the 40 participants graduated with a phlebotomy or EKG certification, and 19 of them were local high school students.

Maryland allocates extra funding to community schools, which are designed to provide social services and resources such as family centers, clothing closets, mentorship programs, and community partnerships. In one community high school, the addition of resources for teen parents has helped lower absences and increase college-admission rates.

Community Transitional School, a nonprofit school serving students experiencing poverty and homelessness, emphasizes peer support, personalized learning, and holistic services to help reduce stigma and help students succeed academically.

Michael D. Fox elementary school is a community school, a school that coordinates with nonprofits, businesses, and other organizations to offer on-site services for families, such as a food and clothes pantry, a physician assistant, and a dental hygienist.

The Dream Center is providing a free schoolroom in Nashville for the children of single parents to stay on track for school. The nonprofit, which is run and staffed by volunteers, provides free meals to 32 students throughout the day, and helps them complete their daily lessons, all while following Covid-19 protocols.

For people like Jasmine Smith, a single mother of two who lost her job after her broken and unfixable car thwarted her commute, one's options to provide for themselves and their families are few and far between. However, through Pathway of Hope, a national Salvation Army initiative that’s supported thousands in finding housing and financial stability, Smith was given financial resources, housing assistance, emotional support, a sense of self-sufficiency, and the will to continue her education.

New Orleans implemented an extraordinary 10-year plan that engaged unprecedented cross-sector collaboration between government, non-profit, and private entities to provide housing and housing services to the city's homeless veterans. The city's success in providing homes for every single veteran formerly on their streets motivated cities across the nation to tackle the crises using similar means, leading to a 1/3 decline veteran homelessness since 2010.

The Boys' Club of New York addresses the mental health crisis among at-risk boys by providing structured programming, peer mentorship from alumni staff, and a culture of belonging across three clubhouses and roughly 2,500 members.

To help address the rate of unhoused people living on the street, the city of Denver created “tiger teams” of multidisciplinary experts, built tiny home villages, and purchased hotels to be used as temporary shelters. Over two years, the number of unsheltered people living outdoors dropped by roughly 45 percent.