Fresno City College staff confirmed that the HOPE Program will still receive funding from the state, despite recent reports from other outlets.
According to the 2023 California Community Colleges report, the official name of the pilot program is the Homeless and Housing Insecurity Pilot Program.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office website says the program was created in 2019-2020. The report includes a letter from Gov. Gavin Newsom which explains what the pilot program is.
“The State Legislature appropriated $9 million of ongoing funding in 2019-2020 to provide housing services to students,” Newsom said, adding that those funds would be distributed to 14 California Community Colleges.
The FCC Public Information Officer, Kathy Bonilla, the FCC Public Information Officer said that initially, they were not sure as to whether or not funding would continue to be received from the State Legislature.
According to Bonilla, the programs’ staff regularly communicated the possibility of the end of state funding to students.
At the end of June, funding was expected to run out. However, the school had sourced more funding to cover student rents for an additional two months, according to Bonilla.
“We didn’t want to blindside them and say ‘this is it,’” Bonilla said. “We were making provisions so that they could get two additional months.”
Marketing Communications Director for FCC Cris Monahan-Bremmer, and Bonilla both stated that no students have been evicted.
Despite having been notified by the state that funding will continue for the foreseeable future, they still don’t have the money in their budget yet. This is due to processes and paperwork that must be completed before the money is given to the colleges, according to Bonilla.
“It’s in the works and the State Chancellor’s Office has informed us that we will be receiving those funds,” Bonilla said.
The pilot program has been a success across all 14 community colleges involved in the program, according to Bonilla and Monahan-Bremmer.
“Our job is to make sure that the students continue attending Fresno City College,” Bonilla said.
Students must maintain a 2.0 grade point average and be enrolled in at least nine units as well as have filed for FAFSA. Once these criteria are met, students are then referred to the community partners which place the students in housing.
The community partners responsible for placement of students include the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, The City of Fresno, West Care, and RH Community Builders.
“RH Community Builders actually own a lot of the properties and that will continue. There has been correspondence with those partners,” Monahan-Bremmer said.
At this time, all of the community partners previously involved with the program are still on board, according to Monahan-Bremmer and Bonilla.
“The HOPE Program has served over 300 students in over three years,” Monahan-Bremmer said. “This shows that the program is needed.”
Monahan-Bremmer said that the age group of highest percentage of students enrolled in the program were between 20 to 24-years-old. They make up 36% of those enrolled.
Students between the ages of 25-29-years-old make up 16% of those enrolled.
Majors among the students enrolled varied and those receiving General Education Transfer degrees to attend CSUs make up 11% of those enrolled.
“Fortunately, we were able to help that many students and we will continue to do that,” Monahan-Bremmer said.
