Fresno Housing Pilot Shows Attendance Gains for Students After One Year

A housing program run by Fresno Unified School District showed attendance improvements for more than half of the 64 students it served in its first year, according to results released in October.

The Crossroads Village Housing Pilot Program, located next to Fort Miller Middle School, houses 20 Fresno Unified families in 143 permanent units. More than half of the 64 students in the program improved their attendance, and two-thirds of students who had office discipline referrals in the fourth quarter of 2024-2025 had none in the same period of 2025-2026, according to a news release cited by Fresnoland.

“We know our students can’t thrive unless their basic needs are met, and stable housing is one of the foundations of success,” Superintendent Misty Her said in the release.

Fresno Unified and the Fresno Teachers Association each contributed more than $156,000 to the project. The program also involves Fresno County’s Department of Behavioral Health, UPholdings (a national affordable-housing firm), and the Central Valley Education Foundation, a nonprofit run by the teachers association.

Families at Crossroads Village can access on-site mental health care, case management, a food pantry, laundry facilities, and a pool. The program aims to reduce the time and transportation burdens that housing instability creates.

“When students face housing instability, teachers see the impact in the classroom through missed school, added stress, and difficulty focusing,” said FTA President Manuel Bonilla in the release. “This pilot program and the support provided at Crossroads gives families greater stability and helps students attend consistently, stay engaged, and arrive at school ready to learn.”

Fresno Unified has lost 4,000 students in the last decade and expects to lose nearly the same number in the next couple of years, driven by declining birth rates and families moving out of the district.

The Breakdown

• The program served 20 families and 64 students in its first year, housed in 143 units next to Fort Miller Middle School.
• More than half of the 64 students improved their attendance.
• Two-thirds of students who had office discipline referrals in the fourth quarter of 2024-2025 had none in the same quarter of 2025-2026.
• Fresno Unified and the Fresno Teachers Association each contributed more than $156,000 to the project.
• On-site services include mental health care, case management, a food pantry, laundry facilities, and a pool.

What This Means for You

Fresno Unified contributed more than $156,000 to this housing pilot. The program addresses housing instability, which teachers say causes missed school and difficulty focusing in class. The first-year numbers suggest it’s working for the families it reached.

The district has lost 4,000 students in the last decade and expects to lose nearly the same number in the next couple of years.

What to Watch

The material does not state how much the 143-unit housing development itself cost to build, who paid for it, or who owns it.

UPholdings is described as the affordable-housing firm involved, but the financial structure — whether the district is renting the units, whether UPholdings took on debt, whether other public money went into construction — is not explained.

That matters because the district’s $156,000 contribution could be a small piece of a much larger public subsidy, or it could be only for services while a private developer carries the housing cost.

The results are positive, but they cover 64 students in a district that has lost 4,000. Is this pilot scalable, or is it a boutique program that works only because it’s small and resource-rich?

If the district tried to house even 10 percent of its homeless or housing-insecure students this way, what would it cost, and what would have to be cut to pay for it?

The program bundles housing with mental health care, case management, food, laundry, and a pool. Which of those pieces actually drove the attendance and discipline gains?

The material doesn’t break that out. If stable housing alone is enough, the district might be paying for extras that don’t move the needle.

If the wraparound services are what matter, then replicating this means replicating all of it, not just the housing.

Finally, who benefits beyond the 20 families? UPholdings, as the housing developer, is positioned to profit if this model expands — more contracts, more units, more public partnerships.

The material does not state whether UPholdings has financial ties to any school board member, district official, or teachers association leader, or whether the selection process for the developer was competitive.

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