California junior college offers a lifeline for homeless students

By Dwayne Bray, Andscape

Lack of housing and high costs mean more students are couch-surfing and sleeping in their cars

LONG BEACH, Calif. –  The stereotype of a homeless person is someone with a mental illness or substance-abuse issues panhandling on the corner. But an increasing number of homeless people are college students – with full class loads, part-time jobs and a degree in their near future.

“A lot of people are very surprised that we have students who are experiencing homelessness,” said Rashida Crutchfield, an expert on homelessness in higher education and an associate professor at California State University Long Beach. “I’ve talked to students who are living under bridges, in tents, in their cars. More often than not, students are couch surfing or dorm surfing, so moving constantly from place to place.”

Nowhere is the crisis greater than in California, a state with more than 2.5 million people enrolled in two- and four-year colleges. One in 5 of California’s community college students end up scrounging around for a place to rest their backpacks, take a shower and or call home. A disproportionate number of these housing-insecure students are Black, a result, experts say, of economic and social inequality in the state and around the country.

[…]

Crutchfield, the Cal State researcher, attributed the problem to a national housing crisis that has left America short nearly 4 million dwellings, with a particular deficit in affordable, multifamily units. Crutchfield also cited the high cost of living in California compared with most of the rest of the nation, as well as a stereotype of college students.

“There are times where students experience a particular discrimination in the housing market because there are presumptions about who they are as tenants,” she said. “And so sometimes students see escalated requests for rent simply because they are students and then we also know that Black folks can experience discrimination” as well in the housing market.

The issue of homeless students has confounded both education leaders and elected officials in California.

A UCLA study of enrollment in the 2018-19 school year found that more than 4 million students in the state, including both college and K-12, could be classified as poor. Based on the findings of multiple studies, California has about 360,000 community college students and about 58,000 at four-year colleges who are housing-insecure.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation allocating $1.4 billion to build more on-campus housing but most current students would be long gone from their campuses by the time it gets built later in the decade. And at the community-college level, Newsome’s legislation would add housing to only 12 of the system’s 116 campuses besides the 12 that currently have some housing.

Bray analyzes the problem.

Police presence has not improved homelessness or the homeless, but some people wonder if reparations might help.

More breaking news here.