FOLSOM, Calif. — The Homeless Assistance Resource Team (HART) of Folsom plans to launch a student housing program in partnership with Folsom Lake College (FLC) and Oak Hills Church in 2025.
On Saturday, HART will host a fundraiser from 12-7 p.m. at the Folsom Community Center for the project, which once fully paid for will offer beds for five select female FLC students on the Oak Hills Church grounds, according to Liz Ekenstedt, the nonprofit’s president.
The program will operate on church grounds without religious or political affiliation, she said. Participants can decide if they want solely HART’s assistance or help from the church, too.
The nonprofit said it reduced homelessness in Folsom by roughly 13 people in the last year, and part of that was through three trailers currently on the church’s property, Ekenstedt said. They are part of HART’s transitional housing program established in November 2018, but they are getting old.
As of November 2024, HART said its transitional housing program operates with seven beds: the three at Oak Hills Church and four at Bidwell Studios, an apartment building in Folsom. After this student housing project is completed, HART will operate nine beds in Folsom.
“It doesn't sound like very much, except for the three trailers have to go,” Ekenstedt said. “They're going to make it through one more winter. And, so, it's basically, ‘What are we going to do? Are we going to just put in three new trailers, or five new trailers? Or, do we want to do something that's much nicer and long-lasting?’”
The new FLC student housing program will see the existing trailers removed and replaced with one five-unit building with a restroom in each dwelling, she said. They could open at the earliest in six to nine months — or spring or summer 2025.
Ekenstedt said part of improving an existing program is knowing that it’s been repeatedly successful since 2018; most clients reportedly graduate from the program within a year. Once the community sees how the program goes this time around, Ekenstedt said she hopes it can be duplicated.
“Folsom is a community that is so committed to doing what will work, and this is something that I've been humbled and extraordinarily impressed by in my year and a half as president of this board,” she said. “They truly will do, will get behind, (and) want to give back in huge ways to address any type of solution.”
In July, FLC told ABC10 the amount of students reporting housing insecurity was highest in its recorded history during the 2023-24 school year. Approximately 73 out of roughly 10,100 students — less than 1% of the student population — self-reported experiencing homelessness, but school officials said they believe the number wasn’t an accurate representation as there is stigma around the subject. It is likely higher.
