As families across Los Angeles prepare for the start of a new school year, children should be looking forward to meeting their teachers, reconnecting with friends, and filled with excitement about what the year ahead will bring. But for some children, the back-to-school experience depends on something much more basic—where they call home.

For families that are experiencing homelessness, this time of year brings a different set of emotions—will they have enough money for school supplies or groceries? What will happen if they have to move during the school year? How will they get their kids to school safely every morning? These families, who often live in temporary shelters, in RVs and cars, or tents in and around Skid Row want what every parent wants for their children: to have the best start to the school year as possible in a safe and supportive environment.

This time of year is also when schools see the reality of how Los Angeles responds to and supports unhoused families. While organizations like LAHSA and the public discourse are focused on annual homeless counts, schools witness the everyday impact that housing instability has on children and families. We see its effects on daily attendance, learning, mental health, and family well-being. We also see the incredible strength and commitment that parents make every day to create as stable of an environment as possible for their children, despite the innumerable challenges they are faced with daily.

At Para Los Niños, our mission is to support children, youth, and their families to thrive. Across all our programs and in our schools, this increasingly means providing services beyond a quality education; it also means helping families navigate a complex and disconnected system that is not designed with them (unhoused families) in mind. At Para Los Niños Middle School in downtown Los Angeles, 18% of students experienced homelessness in the 2025-2026 academic year. Just three years ago, it was only 6%, compared to LAUSD’s total unhoused student population for the 2023-2024 academic year, 3.3%.

Our schools have become places where families develop deep relationships with staff who provide mental health services, access to food, case management, housing resources, and other critical supports that help them achieve stability. To be clear, all schools are not set up—financially or otherwise—to provide this level of support and we cannot solve family homelessness on our own.

When we talk about homelessness in Los Angeles, the conversation usually starts and ends with what we see on the street. People tend to assume homelessness is a result of substance abuse, mental health issues, or poor life choices. It is easier to imagine this as an individual issue or a moral failing rather than a societal one that requires deeper understanding and a multilateral approach.

As a result, most of our homelessness infrastructure is built around single adults, not families. There are currently no publicly funded or operated shelters for families in Skid Row, which often pushes families to informal arrangements or crowded into spaces never meant for housing. A shelter with a strict two-person occupancy limit won’t take in a mother with three kids. A motel voucher capped at two people per room forces a family to split up or turn it down. Waitlists for supportive housing that don’t account for a school calendar can mean choosing between a placement and pulling a child out of class mid-year. The overwhelming majority of money that has been and continues to be raised through property tax measures goes toward building single resident units – not homes for families. Unhoused families need a support system that is coordinated and recognizes their unique needs, one that focuses on keeping families together long-term.

Solutions also need to include investments in preventative measures that keep families on the margins housed, such as eviction prevention, rental subsidies, and direct financial assistance as well as partnerships across services that lead to more comprehensive and permanent housing options.

It starts with the courage to prioritize the needs of families.

So, while there continues to be much dialogue about homelessness across Los Angeles, what we still are not hearing are systematic solutions for families to find the support they need to access stable, permanent housing. Until there is alignment about what families really need to thrive, schools will continue to be the places where too many children carry something far heavier than backpacks with them.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

• Share this Blog – Make unhoused families more visible. Connect with PLN on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

• Policy & Advocacy – Connect with your city council member and county supervisor. Find your reps!

• Give Directly to Families – Donate to Para Los Niños Emergency Support Fund.