Fresno City College is ensuring students after housing assistance program ends

FRESNO, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – Fresno City College’s housing assistance program has come to an end.

The program was called Housing Opportunities Promote Education or HOPE; it was a pilot program so the college always knew that it would conclude.

In total, the program served nearly 320 students. However, FCC anticipates they will be receiving more money to continue housing assistance, they just don’t know how much or when.

“We know that it’s reduced, and we know that is reduced by a lot, so the goal will be now to kind of reorganize the way that we’re doing things,” said FCC President Dr. Robert Pimentel.

When the college receives the grant, they do not intend to bring back the HOPE program.

“The HOPE project had a lot of other services attached to it that we probably won’t be able to provide anymore, and we don’t want our students to be confused with that,” Pimentel said.

Instead, the new program will be placed under the basic needs program.

“That covers a lot of different things on campus, like food, mental health, physical health, several different areas,” Pimentel said.

The grant comes from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.

In January of 2021, students were placed into housing. The grant was a total of $2.1 million and was received in the span of three years.

“This is all temporary housing because it is strictly for students that are completely homeless and are looking for a place to stay,” Pimentel added.

Because the campus does not have housing, the college works with community partners, who then find a place for students to stay.

“The students paid for the rent off of their financial aid awards and then we help offset some of the cost through the grant,” Pimentel said.

The program is currently assisting 24 students and while the funds came to an end on June 30, 2024, FCC will ensure that no student will wind up on the street.

“Our partners are looking at ways to keep them in their housing until they find something different, but we were never going to evict students, that was never the case,” Pimentel said.

Starting last January, because they knew funds were dwindling, the college started reducing the number of students placed into housing.

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