For Demeka Artis and her three children, home was, for more than a year, bouncing from hotel to hotel and worrying about food and paying bills.

That pressure and insecurity has disappeared thanks to Richmond Public Schools’ Center for Families in Transition, or C-FIT, a new program helping Richmond students and their families find permanent housing and new hope.

In October 2019, Ms. Artis lost her cashier’s job at a fast food restaurant on Broad Street, which meant no major income for her family and eviction from their apartment in Woodland Crossing in South Side.

From then until May 2020, Ms. Artis said the family’s life was filled with strife as they moved from hotel to hotel around the city with the help of various Richmond human services programs. They didn’t have a stable place to call home.

Ms. Artis was on the verge of giving up her search for assistance in finding an affordable home for her family when she found C-FIT through a North Side church. The C-FIT program helped Ms. Artis find a three-bedroom apartment in Highland Park to call home, and assisted the family with furnishings for their new home and food support.

“We all have somewhere to live,” Ms. Artis said recently through a huge smile. “I have a key now, and I can go in and out of my own place. The weight on both shoulders has gone from 200 pounds to 75 or 50 pounds. Now I feel awesome.”

RPS’ program is designed to be a resource hub for and collaboration with families in transition. The program works in partnership with families, the schools and the community to connect homeless families and students with support services needed for success and stability. That includes clothing, school supplies and weekly grocery deliveries.

The program also supports families with the goal of ensuring all students graduate with a high school diploma.

By the end of 2021, RPS and the nonprofit Housing Families First hope to help 130 students and their families move from motel rooms or living in a car to stable housing.

Ms.Artis and her children—Kemiya Dodson,16, a 10th-grader at George Wythe High School; Jeremiah Dodson, 14, a ninth-grader at Armstrong High School, and Amica Dodson, 8, a third-grader at Overby-Sheppard Elementary School—are the first of the group to be settled in a new home.

On a morning in early September, Lakesha Allen, a family support specialist in RPS’ C-FIT program, pulled up in a maroon pickup truck filled with groceries and household supplies for the Artis family.

Ms. Allen said that she has helped Ms. Artis’ family with clothing and school supplies as well as going through the housing process to make sure they have housing stability. She also donated a bedroom set that was sitting in her garage.

“It is a blessing to have someplace to call your own instead of living in hotels, couch surfing or staying at friends’ homes on different days, and not knowing where you’re going to stay the next day,” Ms. Allen said.

“I am so proud of Ms. Artis and her family because they worked so hard to get into a new home,” Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said after meeting the family that morning. “Ninety-nine point nine percent of the credit goes to her,” Mr. Kamras said.

Details about the C-FIT program, including volunteer and donation efforts, are available by contacting Ms. Allen at lallen3@rvaschools.net or (804) 780-6288.