The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and its ConnectHome partners provided 367 computers and Sprint hotspot devices to K-12 households residing at the Nickerson Gardens, Pico/Las Casitas and Ramona Gardens public housing developments. The effort is part of a national initiative by HUD and the White House to bridge the digital divide among low-income households living in public housing communities across the nation. HACLA is part of 28 communities participating in ConnectHome.
HACLA partnered with Sprint to provide free internet service for four years to eligible K-12 households. Over 500 public housing households have registered to take advantage of this program. Thanks to HACLA’s partners, including the Mayor’s office and the City’s program OurCycleLA, Youth Policy Institute, and Human I.T., residents are receiving computers, connectivity devices and digital literacy training as well as technical support.
"This program is going to make a big difference. When we get home we can do homework then eat dinner, and don't have to get home, cook dinner, then go somewhere like the library to do homework," said Carla Ramirez of Pico Gardens at mother of two school age children.
Rashema Pace of Nickerson Gardens attended the digital literacy session with her 16-year old son shared, "I'm so excited. It means a lot to have this program because when you go to other places you can only do your work for an hour so if you want to look for a job you only have a certain amount of time. So I got a job offer last week and everything was closed and I was so nervous because I didn't have a computer. So it means a lot because this [having a computer] gives a lot of avenues."
At the launch of the series of ConnectHome Digital Literacy Session and Device Deployment, participating families of Ramona Gardens visited community organization booths to see how navigating the internet offers access to education, employment, health and civic engagement resources and opportunities. Onsite representatives from PBS SoCal Kids, City of Los Angeles LAJobs, Soledad Enrichment Action and League of Women Voters demonstrated the use of online tools across these respective fields.
HACLA will continue to implement this program at Gonzaque, Avalon and Rancho San Pedro housing communities to ensure equity in access and help our youth compete in this global society.
ConnectHome is the next step in President Obama’s continued efforts to expand high speed broadband to all Americans and builds on his ConnectED initiative that is on track to connect 99 percent of K-12 students to high-speed Internet in their classrooms and libraries. ConnectHome will help ensure that these students still have access to high-speed Internet once they are home.