K-12 student homelessness has increased by 10% since 2020 in California, raising concerns among education analysts about whether the millions of dollars allocated to address homelessness are fixing the issue.

The homelessness crisis also continues to raise concerns for California residents. Nationwide, homelessness has risen almost 30% since 2020. A new report by three University of California, Los Angeles professors, titled State of Crisis 2026: A Deepening Crisis of Students Experiencing Homelessness Across California, found that nearly 300,000 K-12 students in California are experiencing homelessness.

School districts in Monterey, Mendocino and San Mateo counties were among those with the highest rates of K-12 students experiencing homelessness during the 2024-25 school year.

The Center Square reached out to school districts where 30% to 40% of students were identified as experiencing homelessness for comment but did not receive a response.

“These numbers are particularly concerning given the extensive evidence documenting the harmful effects of housing instability on children’s development, health and educational outcomes,” Grace Kim, a research analyst at the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools and the lead author of the report, said in a statement.

In the 2026-27 California budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a $116 million allocation to support K-12 students experiencing homelessness. The state has allocated almost $25 billion toward addressing homelessness since 2019.

The Center Square reached out to the governor's office for a comment but did not receive a response.

In an interview with The Center Square, Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pasadena, Calif.-based Pacific Research Institute, was skeptical that the state's spending is addressing the underlying causes of homelessness, since many of these state-run programs go into a black hole.

“No matter how much money you pour into the homelessness sector, it's not really dealing with the causation factors that are actually going to change the outcomes for these students,” Izumi told The Center Square.

The UCLA report's recommendations include prioritizing targeted regional interventions using new state investments in areas with high rates of student homelessness; adopting and strengthening federal policy protections for homeless students; establishing a dedicated funding stream for districts statewide; and monitoring and addressing racial disparities among homeless students, among other recommendations.

Izumi questioned whether the report's recommendations address what he considers the primary causes of homelessness: substance abuse.

“The recommendations don't really address those core causative problems,” Izumi said. Rather, he said, they cater to the cultural and racial response to minority students, since the report notes that a majority of K-12 students experiencing homelessness are Black and Native American.

K-12 students experiencing homelessness continue to lag behind their housed peers across educational outcomes examined, including chronic absenteeism, suspension rates, academic proficiency, graduation rates and college-going rates, according to the report.

“California is setting these kids up for failure,” Izumi said. Since California and many other states have de-emphasized phonics-based learning, students in K-12 education are not getting the education they need to be successful, he added.

The Center Square reached out to all three authors of the report for a comment, but did not receive a response.