Five Maine school districts will share $2 million in state funding to prevent student homelessness.
The funds allocated through MaineHousing can be used to hire homeless prevention specialists or provide direct financial assistance to help families.
MaineHousing's Scott Thistle said this is one time funding but he hopes it might have a lasting effect.
"We want this to help prevent homelessness for students. But the other part of this is we're hoping that we learn as much as we can from this to maybe help inform policies to prevent future student homelessness," Thistle said.
Thistle says 11 applications were submitted, but the agency selected five based on demand for this type of housing assistance.
"We felt like equity was important in that the funding was distributed through throughout Maine, so that would impact students in both rural and city school districts," Thistle said.
Thistle says the funding could help as many as 1,700 students and families in rural Aroostook County, Bath, Biddeford, Lewiston and Portland.
