ST PAUL, Minn. — The city of St. Paul plans to use $3 million to offer rental assistance to families in need, through the Families First Housing Pilot program, launched Tuesday.
"We want to make it clear that we want to remove the stigma of our families in need asking for help," said St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent, Joe Gothard.
"We have students in St. Paul that in one school year switch schools three, four, five times in a school year because that's how often their families are moving," said Mayor Melvin Carter.
The program is a partnership with both the city and the school district to provide a $300 monthly rent supplement to 250 families in need, for up to three years.
"We know that in St. Paul Public Schools more than 1,000 students experience some level of homelessness," said Gothard.
The Families First Pilot is being tested in seven St. Paul schools which include: Benjamin E. Mays IB World School, Dayton's Bluff Achievement Plus, Jackson, John A. Johnson Achievement Plus, Maxfield, St. Paul City School, and Saint Paul Music Academy.
To qualify, families must have an income at or below $30,000 a year, and pay 40% of that income in rent.
"If that family is spending more than thirty percent, forty percent, half of their monthly income on rent we know that that family is maybe one step two steps out of crisis," said Mayor Carter.
City leaders say families can't apply for the program, they'll have to be referred to it through the Project Reach Program at each school or by a teacher.
If they're approved, resources will be made available to them within 20 days.
"Our goal is to make this as accessible as possible so families on free, families on other types of public assistance can have automatic eligibility proven and once families are in the program they stay in the program," said Mayor Carter.
School district officials said the goal is for this to serve as a long term investment not just in housing but in educational stability for the next generation of the city.