New Mexico announces $7.8M to help students facing homelessness

New Mexico will spend $7.8 million during this school year on a program aimed at helping students facing housing instability.

The Family Stabilization Program, managed by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, allows families to receive help through their children’s schools with rent and utilities assistance, as well as vehicle repairs and other emergencies. 

The program was piloted last school year in the Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe public school districts with $4.9 million and served 487 families and 1,240 students, according to a DWS news release. 

The new funding will include four districts in San Juan County: Farmington Municipal Schools, Aztec Municipal Schools, Bloomfield School District and Central Consolidated School District, following data that showed 8% of San Juan County’s student population experience housing instability.

Farmington Municipal Schools and Central Consolidated School District will each receive $750,000; Bloomfield School District, will receive $400,000; and Aztec Municipal Schools will receive $300,000. 

Last school year, Farmington Municipal Schools had 655 students identified as facing housing instability under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which guarantees rights and services to pre K-12 students experiencing homelessness. Paul Pavlik, the McKinney-Vento homeless liaison for Farmington Municipal Schools, told Source NM the funding couldn’t have come at a better time after the devastating flooding that hit the area last month.

“I think the fact that this funding came when it did aligns so well with our need,” Pavlik said. Of the seven families the school district has helped so far, Pavlik said, three were directly impacted by flooding. “I have a feeling that the next 10 out of 12 families will be flood-related,” he added.

Melodee Velasquez, Bloomfield School District’s school and family liaison, told Source she is also seeing a rise in students needing help following the flooding, and called the allotted $300,000 program funds “life changing for some” of the 315 McKinney-Vento students identified in data from the last school year. 

According to the state’s news release, Aztec Municipal Schools aims to use its allotted $300,000 to serve 30 students’ families. Source NM has a pending request to Aztec Municipal Schools for more information.

Central Consolidated School District had 516 McKinney-Vento students out of more than 4,000 enrolled last school year. In an emailed statement, the district’s spokesperson Jerrod Noble told Source NM that “remote infrastructure and economic hardship create daily challenges for many of our families.”  The district intends to use its $750,000 to directly assist students’ families in covering basic living costs, utilities and emergency housing. 

“When a family’s home is stable, students can attend school consistently and focus on learning,” Noble said.