A "FaceBook friend" of mine posted this link earlier today regarding homelessness and hunger at college campuses across the country. While the story was published on NPR in July 2010, which may or may not be "current", I still find it very relevant today. The article is about the the growing number of college students who find themselves homeless and/or hungry at some point in time during their college career. One student featured in the article got through a portion of his academic year by sleeping on the sofas in the library and showering at the campus recreation center. UCLA created an Economic Crisis Response Team after beginning to hear similar stories in 2008.
Some may find this to be "unbelievable", particularly those who either see college as a safe haven that is often immune to societal ills or those who assume that college is an ivory tower, for people who do not experience personal life trauma. For those of us in a student affairs type position, we know differently. We know that there are a number of students who were living in a homeless and hungry situation when they were recruited to college. We hear the stories after students have begun school as they desperately try to figure out how to pay the bill that up until now seemed so far away. We see stories of college graduates who are so far in debt they must move back in with parent or friends to avoid homelessness while working a low paying job and attempting to pay off student loans accrued in college. yes, homelessness is a very current issue for college students.
The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth has worked to establish policy which would help identify students in the college application and financial aid process. These students, identified as Unaccompanied Youth or Independent Youth, are provided with assistance in completing documents such as the FAFSA. Anyone who has ever completed their FAFSA knows how much information is required. Some students have no way of knowing certain pieces related to their parents tax information...they may not have parents, or parents may not have an income to report. Some of the NAEHCY policies help students figure out how to classify themselves to answer those questions.
Making this a much more "current issue" for me, I received a call from a distraught parent today asking what to do if she could not pay her sons bill. it was his first semester, and as she stated "the bills keep coming". The family was desperate for help and begging me to do something. In doing research, i learned that they had taken advantage of financial aid awarded- a parent loan and an unsubsidized student load. They were not a family that was "Pell Eligible", but they did qualify for these loans. They learned the loans did not cover it. She indicated the entire family was working to pay his tuition, including the student himself and a teen aged sister. While this family did not indicate homelessness or hunger, the desperation in her voice reminded me of this article I had just read.
Then there are the students who are graduating every year in debt. I recently saw this YouTube clip, where a recent grad discusses being $80,000 in debt at 24 years old. She is using her degree, working in her chosen field, but not making much money. She has the choice of being homeless or moving in with her parents. Thankfully living with her parents is an option, but I cant help but think that at this stage in her life, she is feeling like she should be able to survive on her own.
As I reflect upon the conversation I had late in the day, the article I read first thing this morning, and my experience working with the special populations of UNC's Independent Youth, I cant help but think that higher education has taken a major turn is purpose...the 11th Generation if you will :) Today's college campus may just be a place where one can find safety and security that has never been felt before. One may initially think that sleeping on a sofa in a library and showering at the rec center is terrible and sad. But to the student, it is better than sleeping in their car and taking a bath in a gas station sink. For some students living in a residence hall could be the most secure place they have ever lived.
I posted a comment to this already and apparently my interent went out when I did it, so here it goes again!
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part for me as an RA was seeing students who wanted to be in college so badly and had to leave after their first or second year because they could no longer afford it. I think it's a reality for a lot of students that they are fully capable of succeeding in college but financially, it will do more damage to them in the long run. Even living in the halls causes a major dent in a students' pocket book for the first year because meal plans and residence halls are not cheap to live in. There's obviously no easy fix for this problem, and I have no answer for the students who can't afford college. I'm sure it was just as frustrating for you in that phone call knowing there were so few options left. It will be interesting to see what issues we come up with to help the upcoming generation of students.
After reading this blog I recalled a staff meeting I went to last year on homeless and foster youth. Honestly, at first I was not happy about having to sit through the presentation. Afterwards, I was signing up to help.
ReplyDeleteHomeless and foster youth are a small population on our campus and I believe we rarely think about them and they are even less present in our polices. For example, having worked in housing (at a few institution) I remember having to inform students that they had to find somewhere else to live for spring, fall, winter and summer breaks. At the time I never gave it much thought, then I attend my staff meeting.
Our homeless and foster youth have no where to go (usually). They finds themselves looking for places to stay and a place to feel welcome over breaks that usually involve most students going home to families and home cooked meals. I have to ask why do we close and force these students out? Why are we only concerned for them during the few months they are with us?
Having been a residence director for quite some time I recall the count down I used to have for break times and thinking as long as they are out I am good. But not any more and this blog reminded me of that. We should care about the welfare of our students they are the ones who keep us going now and when they become alumni.
Now, I truly do not think this falls on one department or area but I do think as higher education professionals we should consider how we are meeting the needs of this population. If we can bring students in for violations of the code of conduct abroad and over breaks why can we not house our homeless and foster youth who are achieving for an extra month or two.
Thank you for calling attention to this important issue. I could not agree more with your final comments in this post. We run a Food Bank on campus for students (actually, there are 3 on campus- each of the institutions on the Auraria campus now has a student Food Bank). Homelessness and hunger often go hand in hand. I hear countless stories from the student staff running the Food Bank about their fellow students, and Food Bank clientele, who are hungry and homeless. They tell me about students who are enrolled in school because it is a warm place to spend time, and even about those who are in school so that they can utilize the basic welfare services that we offer- such as the Food Bank (it is only available for currently enrolled students). Over the course of the last year that I have had oversight of the Food Bank, I have struggled with the boundaries of what the College can, and should, provide students in these supplemental service areas. How do we assist students in need, while at the same time ensure that they learn to navigate external systems of support? The College has a commitment to assisting students in need- but exactly how far do we extend our assistance and responsibility?
ReplyDeletePartnerships with local community agencies and organizations are certainly an important avenue for colleges and universities to explore in answering these questions. At my institution, the connections with local food pantries have been invaluable in providing assistance to students who have needs greater than what we are able to meet with on-campus resources. Likewise, finding safe temporary housing facilities where we can refer students has been important.
Despite these connections, and countless referrals as a result of the connections, I still find myself wondering if we have correctly managed our limitations and boundaries. Are we doing enough to help these students? Or, on the flip side, is it irresponsible for us to involve ourselves in an area (essentially social work) that’s otherwise handled by specifically trained and skilled professionals? Perhaps a new trend will emerge in which colleges and universities will employ social workers to assist students who have particularly challenging personal/life circumstances. Of course, given the dire nature of some of these student situations, and the emotional response that accompanies work in this area, I’m not sure that I’ll ever feel ‘settled’ about the matter.
This is a very important topic that colleges and universities should be considering. I also work at the Auraria campus, but at a community college that has the highest rate of Pell eligible students in the Colorado Community College system. I deal with homeless students daily. We not deal with homeless students, we deal with non-student homeless folks walking into our building off Colfax, Speer and the light rail. I have found students sleeping here, showering in the bathrooms, and using our free phone (local calls only)on a regular basis. The population is on the rise.
ReplyDeleteWe have done a couple things to assist with this population. We have a food bank and recently created a Human Services specialist position, which helps find housing and other pertinent resources for our homeless students. We also have a 3 member team that oversees the CO Unaccompanied Homeless Youth support on campus. We are required to have a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) that homeless youth can go visit to get help with their financial aid (these students do not have access to parents information which is needed for their FAFSA). Once they visit the SPOC they are referred to other resources on campus. Next week we are having "kick-off" to offer an opportunity for our students to become familiar with the Unaccompanied Student Support Program “USSP”. We will provide information about resources, care package and a brief orientation to help them to be successful.
Schools really do need to consider this population and what resources they can provide. K-12 has dealt with it at a large scale and we are next.
Michele I think the issue you raised is one that as professionals in higher education we must pay attention to. As our counterparts in K-12 education have discovered, kids who are hungry or who have to worry about where they will be sleeping at night can't focus on their learning in the same ways their peers might be able to. I think the same is true in higher education and while we may not be able to account for all the issues our students deal with when they leave our classrooms it is critical to acknowledge the ways in which those issues impact the classroom.
ReplyDeleteWith the McKinney Vento act http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/briefs/reauthorization.pdf
we have seen some progress in educational institutions providing focused resources to this issue. I believe, Lori, the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) on Colorado campuses has come about as a direct result of the McKinney Vento act and the Colorado Department of Educaiton and Colorado Department of Higher Education collaborating to support these students. It sounds like CCD is doing some great work to support homeless and unaccomapied youth on campus.
Finally,I think you make an interesting point, Braelin, about the convergance of our work in higher education with social work. I've started noticing more and more campuses considering and implementing "case management" approaches, similar to those of social work, in order to support various student populations. And at the same time in this era of shrinking resources I had an upper level administrator express a real concern about how we in higher education need to have tough conversations about prioritizing our resources. It seems to me as institutions of higher education we will continually need to look to our community partners as we engage in these very complex conversations.
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ReplyDeleteIt really shocked me when I first moved here to discover that Colorado has such a high rate of homelessness. In fact, according to a posting on the Now on PBS site in 2009, (http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/526/homeless-facts.html) Colorado was in the top 10 states with the highest rates of homelessness. An August 10, 2011 story at the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/colorado-homeless-student-population_n_923845.html) cites statistics that more than 18,400 children in the Colorado K-12 educational system are homeless this year. In fact, last year, UNC student Tyler Cobb was interviewed by Nate Hass because she had been homeless before coming to college (http://www.unco.edu/news/releases.aspx?id=1249).
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredible increase from the 2006 Colorado Statewide Homeless Count done by the Center for Education Policy Analysis and Center for Public-Private Sector Cooperation, Graduate School of Public Affairs, at the University of Colorado at Denver which stated the total homeless in Colorado was 16,203. (http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/SPA/BuechnerInstitute/Centers/CEPA/Publications/Documents/HomelessExecutive%20Summary-FINAL-2-27-07.pdf) Is it possible the the economy has had such a negative influence on this number or are there other factors at play here? What has caused this incredible jump from 16,203 TOTAL in 2006 tomore than 18,400 children, not including adults, in 2011? Almost every day as I head to Greeley, there are homeless people with tents and signs at the exit ramps of Interstate 25. This problem is reaching almost epidemic proportions along the Front Range and it is only a matter of time before we’re all involved. As we should be.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177064219731.htm
ReplyDeleteI thought this topic was very interesting. I have always known about the amount of debt students incur from attending college, but to be homeless within college is incredible. Likewise, the frequency of it is what is incredible, thanks to Janella's post with her findings.
I came across this article in Businessweek that speaks about for-profit colleges like University of Phoenix and how they have been recruiting homeless people to attend UofP because they are able to receive financial grants and federal loans. The article states how in the last 9 years, federal grants have risen $4 Billion to $26 Billion to for-profit institutions. That is alarming!
There needs to be a way to curb this from getting out of hand and control. On one side, it is great that homeless people understand the need to getting an education to move off the streets, but to do at the cost of mass amounts of debt, and no place to live is a horrible situation.
First of all thank you for your interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI think in the beginning we should to confess that we have an issue; because the confession is the first step to solve it. Now, homeless students at colleges are a big problem but the most important thing that it does not convert to be a phenomenon. Therefore, the individual solutions may increase the problem or the issue, and instead of figure out the responsible for this, we will give him a good chance to escape away from his responsibility.
Therefore, and to solve this issue, the whole society have to cooperate to solve it. Federal government, state government, universities and colleges, businessmen, charitable organization, and individuals should cooperate to form a board to make a study to find financial, social, and health solutions for these students.
Thus, these students who suffering from homeless and\or hunger may be they are talented or genius, but because of their financial situation and bad circumstances which force them to search for a job that ensure them a good life. These situations will make the country and the nation loose these talents and genius that can raise the nation to higher level educationally and economically, and that will make the country ahead of all the other countries, especially that we are living at time of the global competition.
This has been an issue that our institution has struggled with over the last few years. We are a very suburban campus with the highest median family income of all colleges in the Colorado Community College System. People on campus and in the immediate area surrounding campus just have not been prepared with how to handle homeless students.
ReplyDeleteWe have a campus police force and some of the officers, in my opinion, get a little overzealous in their focus on homeless students whenever some incident happens on campus.
We have occassional tuition classification issues that arise for homeless students as they generally do not possess the typical items to prove residency (mortgage / rent statement, employment history, filing taxes, etc.).
Additionally, while many of us on campus have a sincere desire to help students who are homeless, and we have established a Student Emergency Fund avaialble through our Office of Student Affairs, this fund is given very little funding through our institutional budgeting process; the vast majority of the monies provided to this fund are through fundraising efforts.
We all are constantly faced with the challenge of so many important issues facing our institutions and the limited human and financial resources we have to work with.
Thank you for this post! I have to echo what Braelin said...I helped found the Food Bank here at Metro State, and the stories that I heard were incredible. Many students were using their food bank allowances to supplement meals for their families. I also heard about students living out of their cars, and using the Food Bank as their main source of sustenance.
ReplyDelete