Community briefs: Homeless housing grant, student coding event and sending letters to Santa

Mountain View gets $5 million grant for homeless housing

The city of Mountain View has been awarded a $5 million grant to support LifeMoves Mountain View, which is an interim housing complex for homeless and unstably housed people, including couples and families.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development announced the grant last month, which is part of the state’s Community Development Block Grant Homekey program.

The money will be used to improve the program’s operations, including adding nearby parking and on-site solar panels, according to the city.

LifeMoves Mountain View is located at 2566 Leghorn St. and can house roughly 124 people at a time in modular, prefabricated homes. The site first opened in May.

Students participate in Monta Loma Hour of Code challenge

Over 80 fourth- and fifth-graders participated in the fourth annual Hour of Code challenge at Monta Loma Elementary School on Dec. 1, which was hosted by local high school volunteers from Computer Engineers of the Next Generation.

The event was hosted online. Participants picked a game to try out, with options for different experience levels. According to event organizers many students who’d never coded before started with the Compute It game, which is a simulation that incorporated coding concepts like loops and if-statements.

The event was meant to build interest in computer science and help students exercise their critical thinking skills.

For more information on CENG, visit cengclass.org.

Contributed by Anika Sikka, a junior at Los Altos High School and CENG’s vice president of operations.

Mountain View invites kids to mail their letters to Santa

Kids in Mountain View have until Friday, Dec. 10 to participate in the city’s annual letters to Santa program.

Letters will be accepted until Friday and Mountain View residents who include a return address will get a response from Santa.

To participate, either drop the letter into Santa’s mailbox in the Community Center lobby, 201 S. Rengstorff Ave. or mail it to Santa Claus, ℅ City of Mountain View Recreation Department, P.O. Box 7540, Mountain View, CA 94039.