Hundreds of Vallejo students are homeless, with few shelter options

VALLEJO – Homelessness is widespread among Vallejo public school students, but a lack of shelter options for families and children can make it difficult for them to learn or show up to school.

Data from the Vallejo City Unified School District show that 714 of its 9,653 students, or more than one in every 14 students, were recorded as experiencing some form of homelessness at some point during last school year. Of those, 504 were recorded as not having housing of their own and instead living “doubled up” with friends or extended family, 111 lived in hotels or motels, 65 were unsheltered, and 34 lived in transitional shelters.

Every district school enrolled multiple homeless students last year, according to VCUSD data. Lincoln Elementary had the highest proportion of homeless students, as 18 out of its 70 students, or about 25%, were recorded as homeless. Vallejo High School had the highest total number of homeless students, as 104 of its 1,146 students were recorded as homeless.

Vallejo has scant shelter options for homeless residents, especially children.

“We don’t have a lot of shelters or resources for our minors in Solano County,” said Angela Kelley-Santos, the district liaison with homeless and foster students. “I’m not sure the reasoning behind it.”

Kelley-Santos said that she and other district leaders have talked with the city and the county about this problem, but so far little has changed. While shelters and low income housing developments have opened in recent years in Vallejo, they haven’t helped many children.

One woman, who asked not to be identified to protect her children’s privacy, has several children who attended Vallejo public schools last school year while homeless and said that was difficult for her kids. The family spent about five and a half years living on the street in a vehicle.

“It was hard,” she said. “They tried their best but I seen some struggles in them.”

Accessing showers was difficult for her family, and her kids missed days sometimes because she didn’t want to send her kids to school with poor hygiene. She also worried about her kids being taken away by Child Protective Services.

She told the Sun that she informed the school district that she and her family were homeless. When asked if the district offered services to help, she indicated that the district was kind but the services were minimal.

“They did one time put my daughters on a list for Christmas and they got gifts,” she said. “They also gave them nice backpacks.”

The woman said she and her children eventually secured temporary shelter in a hotel in Vallejo for a little over eight months with the aid of a nonprofit called The Uncuffed Project and the hotel’s management. The nonprofit paid for six months of shelter, and then the hotel management let her family stay extra time without charge while she secured housing through a federal voucher in Fairfield.

She said she was sad to leave Vallejo but happy to secure housing.

“I didn’t want to leave Vallejo because I have family members and good friends that live here,” the woman said. “But to be honest, Vallejo is not doing anything to help the homeless.”

Meanwhile, the number of district students recorded as homeless has increased each year over the last four years. In 2021-22, 139 students were recorded as homeless at some point during that school year, then 229 students in 2022-23 and 443 in 2023-24. 

Figures from the county’s biennial point in time count also showed an increasing number of people recorded as being homeless in Solano County, from 1,179 homeless people in 2022 to 1,725 in 2024, including 727 in Vallejo.

The point in time count takes a much narrower view of homelessness than the school district’s. It does not count those living doubled up or in hotels or motels as homeless. It also is a manual count taken largely by volunteers during one day, while the school district collects data throughout the school year and counts a student as being homeless even if they only report experiencing homelessness for a short period.

The 2024 point in time count report notes that the sharp increase from the 2022 count could be attributed in part to improvements in how the count was conducted, namely, an increase in volunteers in 2024.

VCUSD Director of School and Student Accountability Edison Kelly, said the district has also been improving how it identifies students who are homeless. He told the Sun that he and other district administrators discovered “during our research while developing strategies to improve attendance” that homelessness among its students had been frequently underreported. 

At the start of the 2023-24 school year, the district hired Kelley-Santos, who used to work as a teacher for the district, to her newly formed liaison role. The new staff position has allowed the district “to implement systems for more accurate identification and reporting,” Kelly said.

“This is what led to the increase in identified students,” Kelly said, “not necessarily a rise in homelessness, but a more intentional and focused effort to ensure no student experiencing housing instability was overlooked.”

Kelley-Santos said that her position was created because the district was underreporting homelessness and wanted to educate people as to who qualifies for district services and work to remove shame around it, so students and families will self report their status and seek services the district offers. 

“We’re putting more awareness out there and destigmatizing what comes along with being displaced,” Kelley-Santos said. “It’s not just those who live on the street, and there’s resources and people available to help.”

Kelley-Santos said the district has been more vocal at events, such as back-to-school nights, about the services it offers to homeless students. It’s also put up signs at schools, libraries, bargain stores, community centers, and clinics to spread the word. 

Once a student or a family member reports that they have been displaced, Kelley-Santos said that the district provides services such as tutoring, clothing, food, transportation, and school supplies. The district also works to connect students with social workers and other organizations that provide aid, such as VOICES Solano Youth Center, Watch Me Grow, and Boys & Girls Empowerment Group, according to Kelley-Santos.

But the most necessary resource, shelter, is scarce. Vallejo has expanded its shelter options through recent projects, but few allow children.

In the Blue Oak Landing housing project that opened in 2023, the demand has  far exceeded supply. When its application process started, it received 1,049 applicants for 51 units. 

Vallejo opened a 125-bed navigation center this year, but it doesn’t allow children. Another 47-unit housing project on Broadway, which has faced delays in opening, was scheduled to open by the end of August, although it hasn’t yet. It is unclear whether this new project will allow children. In an email, Vallejo Assistant to the City Manager Natalie Peterson said the project can accept children, although the project’s studio apartments can accommodate only two people per household. However, an application for state funding for the project submitted by the city states that it won’t allow children.

There’s only one other homeless shelter in Vallejo: The Solano Dream Center. Formerly known as The Christian Help Center, the shelter has operated for over 40 years. According to its executive administrator, Germaine Luciano, the shelter is often full, especially when it’s cold or rainy out. Luciano said the shelter currently has about 70 beds, and plans to expand soon to have 100 beds. Historically, Luciano said, the Solano Dream Center has accepted children, and several children are currently staying there. But that could change soon.

“We do have children that are here but we’re trying not to take any more because we’re not equipped to handle children,” Luciano said. “We’re trying to transition to an adult shelter.”

Luciano said that the site doesn’t have childcare and that, combined with the shelter’s requirement that individuals using the shelter get a job, can pose problems. Additionally, most of the shelter’s dorms are separated by gender, meaning if a parent or child are of different genders they can’t stay together.

While the school district has recorded hundreds of children experiencing homelessness in its schools, there are some children who don’t make it to school as their lack of housing poses barriers.

Corletta, who lives with her two boys in a car and a tent in Vallejo and asked the Sun to only use her first name, said that a representative from VCUSD visited them last year multiple times. She said the representative encouraged her to get her children to school, but that it wasn’t helpful, and that in order for them to attend school they need consistent shelter.

“We need a place to live,” Corletta said. “You can’t go to school dirty. You have to be able to go to sleep and everything that goes with it. You can’t just get up and go to school.”

Corletta said she and her family have been homeless for over five years. The Solano Dream Center has never been a shelter option for them, Corletta said, because her children are a different gender than her. 

Corletta said that she has been in contract with the county about getting housing. She’s optimistic that she qualifies for housing aid due to mental health issues and is planning on getting a mental health assessment soon. She thinks things will be much better for her children’s education once they get housed.

“Once we get our stable housing they’ll be in school,” Corletta said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct figures related to the county's point in time count.