Homelessness and Housing Insecurity Among Community College Students: A Longitudinal Evaluation of a Housing Choice Voucher Program (2024)

Housing insecurity and homelessness among American community college students are widespread problems that reduce the odds of college attainment and undermine students’ health and well-being. In 2014 Tacoma Community College and the Tacoma Housing Authority launched the College Housing Assistance Program (CHAP) to address this challenge by offering housing choice vouchers to local community college students experiencing or at serious risk of experiencing homelessness. If students could successfully navigate the application process and local housing market, the vouchers offered a short-term subsidy to reduce their rent and hopefully promote degree completion. Over the next several years, CHAP received national and regional awards and became a model for affordable college housing programs. This evaluation examines its effects on students before the housing authority ended the program in 2022.