LAUSD Opens Housing Complex to Combat Rising Student Homelessness
Sun King Apartments opens to 26 families struggling to afford housing in Los Angeles with specialized programs and assistance.
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As homeless student in LA Unified schools, a 26-unit housing complex for unhoused families was opened last month.
It took five years for the project to be completed 鈥 a timeline that did not go unmentioned by representatives of the organizations involved.
鈥淥nce we know better, we need to do better,鈥 said LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho. 鈥淎nd this time we need to do better and faster. Sun King is evidence that the impossible can be turned into the inevitable.鈥
Carvalho called the partnership 鈥渁 first of its kind, a difficult partnership. We have learned, and that learning should result in more projects delivered in a shorter period of time.鈥
Sun King Apartments, located in the San Fernando Valley just half a mile from Fernangeles Elementary School, was created through a partnership between LAUSD, and .
Services for homeless families have become more important than ever as LA Unified reported a in student homelessness from the previous school year. As of 2023鈥2024, there were 15,000 students reported homeless in the district.
鈥淚t was around 2019鈥hen Many Mansions approached us,鈥 said Celina Alvarez, executive director at Housing Works. 鈥淭here’s so many hoops and hurdles and paperwork and financing and service provision鈥t takes quite a while.鈥
Alvarez said the increase in homelessness is due to two things: rent increases and inadequate trauma services.
鈥淧eople are getting displaced rapidly and in high numbers,鈥 said Alvarez, 鈥淎 lot of children are coming from households where parents don’t have the knowledge or resources readily available to understand what their rights are in terms of tenant rights.鈥
The new apartments were especially good news for Annika, a homeless mother who has been living in unstable conditions for years with her daughter Faith and partner, Angel.
鈥淭he years of being homeless moving from couches to park benches to shelters have caused a decline in our emotional, mental, and spiritual health,鈥 said Annika. 鈥淜nowing that we will have a permanent home, we were able to start thinking about what the future truly holds for us.鈥
The housing complex includes gated parking, an outdoor area and kitchen, a laundry room, and a community garden. The complex will also have direct services for students such as tutoring, school supplies, summer classes and family gatherings.
This is not the first time LAUSD has partnered with developers to provide housing to teachers and students. In 2017, Los Angeles Unified partnered with , using vacant land just north of Gardena High School Campus to build Sage Park Apartments, a 90-unit complex.
Combined with a lack of mental health services for young people living in poverty it is difficult for students to get the help they need.
鈥淭here’s people with a lot of unresolved trauma, untreated mental illness. And sometimes they’re coping with illicit substances because they’re easier to access than mental health treatment, 鈥 said Alvarez.
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