Document Tag: homelessness

Basic Needs Insecurity in Texas Community Colleges: Landscape Analysis (2023)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas community colleges increasingly focused on addressing students’ basic needs insecurities (BNI), such as food and housing insecurity, so that students could continue to make progress towards their academic goals. As colleges continue to recover from the pandemic lockdowns and prepare for the winding down of historic levels of government support, faculty, staff, and administrative leaders are poised to consider how best to refine, scale, and sustain their BNI service offerings to most effectively support student success.
Over the past decade, the research on BNI has grown dramatically, documenting the widespread prevalence of BNI among the student population, the negative effects of BNI on student outcomes, and promising solutions colleges have implemented to best support students. This report documents findings across several critical issue areas relevant for community college leaders to consider as they make plans for enhancing BNI service offerings.

College focused rapid rehousing: Deploying an existing community model to address homelessness on campus (2024)

Research indicates that financial and housing insecurity challenges are widespread on most college campuses throughout the U.S. However, there is wide variability in how campuses address these challenges. This study reports on a three-year implementation of the College-Focused Rapid Rehousing pilot; an initiative in California by which universities commissioned community providers to assist students in need via a modified Rapid Rehousing (RRH) intervention. RRH is a widely implemented intervention that combines move-in assistance, short-term rental subsidies, and ongoing case management, to help individuals quickly transition into stable housing. The mixed-methods evaluation included analyses of online surveys (n = 141), administrative records (n = 368), and focus groups conducted with staff across eight campuses (n = 35). Survey findings indicate that CFRR programs assisted a diverse group of students with similar histories of housing insecurity. Quantitative analyses also show that most participants experienced the intervention as designed, though with some inconsistencies in how quickly some were assisted. Qualitative findings highlight contextual factors that affected the consistency of the intervention, including tight rental markets and philosophical disagreements among administrators about the
intervention’s scope. Despite study limitations, findings provide insights into the applicability of the RRH model on campus settings and directions for future research.

Recognizing and Responding to Poverty in College Students: What can Nurses do?

People may not consider college students when they think about populations who experience poverty. However, rising costs of college and changes in student demographics have contributed to poverty within this group. Many students experience poverty and subsequent basic needs insecurity; they may lack safe housing and the ability to access adequate amounts of nutritious food. Poverty has significant mental, physical, and academic implications for these college students. Recognizing that education is a social determinant of health, it is clear that nurses can address this issue. This article provides an overview of poverty in the context of college student concerns, including actions to promote students’ well-being and academic success. We describe current interventions to support students as well as the stigma that often accompanies poverty and may prohibit a student from asking for help. The authors present information for nurses in various roles on college campuses, such as educator and advocate; advanced practice program faculty; and student healthcare provider. An exemplar describes how faculty at one school of nursing have responded to student poverty concerns. Finally, we suggest recommendations to begin or enhance current efforts to address poverty in college students.

The Dynamics and Measurement of High School Homelessness and Achievement (2023)

How school districts measure homelessness among their students has implications for accountability and funding, as well as for supporting student success. Yet, measuring homelessness among high school students is challenging because students move in and out of experiencing it. Using administrative student-level data from a mid-sized public school district in the southern United States, we show that different commonly used procedures to measure which students are considered homeless can yield markedly different estimates of high school graduation rates for these students. This is largely because of differences in how districts classify students who experience homelessness but later become housed. To address the potentially negative effects of housing insecurity on academic achievement, it is important to first identify a common way to diagnose the problem.

Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness Pilot Program (2023)

Basic needs insecurity is a critical barrier to college students’ access1 and success, undermining persistence and completion rates for postsecondary students.2 In Washington, college students face significant challenges in meeting their housing and other basic needs while completing their credentials. Gaps in covering critical costs such as housing and food are pervasive among students in both two-year and four-year institutions. Students of color and students who experience marginalization based on their identities and circumstances — such as former foster youth, LGBTQI+ students, and students with dependents — are disproportionately impacted.3 To address this need, the Washington state Legislature enacted the Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness (SSEH) pilot program with 2SSB 5800 (2019). The Legislature expanded the pilot program twice — first by passing SHB 1166 (2021) and again through a proviso in the 2022 supplemental budget. The Legislature made the SSEH pilot permanent through the passage of ESSB 5702 (2023). SSEH provides grants for colleges to build systems to identify and support students facing homelessness and students who aged out of the foster care system. The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) and the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) administered the four-year SSEH pilot program, which consisted of 33 programs across six public baccalaureate institutions (PBIs) and 27 in the community and technical college system (CTCs).

Portland State University Student Housing Insecurity Interim Report (2023)

This study on student housing insecurity and homelessness was funded as part of a HUD FY2023 Community Project Funding Opportunity awarded to Portland State University. Phase 1 of the study, which led to this report by PSU’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative (HRAC), includes a literature review; a summary of PSU student survey results; a description of PSU programs based on interviews with staff and administrators; an analysis of programs at other institutions; and a set of recommendations for better addressing student housing needs. Phase 2 of the study will include the results of a comprehensive student survey on housing insecurity and homelessness to be conducted this fall, as well as a pair of reports by outside consultants on options for creating additional student housing and addressing policy barriers to effectively meeting student housing needs.

Does Rent-Free Community Housing Make a Difference in Higher Education Outcomes? (2022)

This study provides one of the first causal estimates of the impact of housing on academic outcomes. While college students are too often dismissed as a privileged and healthy part of the population, researchers increasingly observe housing insecurity among college students. This problem worsened during the pandemic, underscoring the link between housing, employment, mental health, and wellness. Even in states like Florida where tuition costs are stable, basic needs expenditures and the stress associated with basic needs insecurity can negatively impact college students’ success academically as well as their well-being during and after college. Housing is of particular importance as a critical basic need for today’s undergraduate students. The study takes place before and during the ongoing pandemic, thus providing a unique opportunity to understand the short-term impacts of housing on belongingness, mental health, and academic outcomes for the five cohorts studied (Fall 2018 through Spring 2021 housing scholarship applicants). Additionally, we can examine longer-term impacts of housing net the impact of the pandemic on a variety of student outcomes resulting from a mixed-methods design. Because it is difficult and often impossible to fully measure the many pre-college and college-year factors which may contribute to student outcomes, Randomized Control Trial(RCT) is a preferred “gold standard” for evaluation studies, notably for college completion. Triangulated data include admissions application information, a base-year survey at the time of application (response rate: 81%), and a follow-up survey and stratified random sample of interview respondents. We conduct this analysis with these questions in mind: 1)Does this scholarship influence student well-being as measured by belongingness, mental health, and/or financial wellness? 2)Does the provision of a housing scholarship have an impact on student retention or completion? The evaluation aims to assess the “education for life” housing intervention model: rent-free housing and community living for students who receive the scholarship, carefully isolating the effect of housing in comparison to eligible applicants who do not move into this scholarship housing community. Baseline data indicate this population experienced challenges with mental health and financial wellness (including basic needs insecurity) at the time of application.

Findings from the study suggest that these rent-free community housing supports provide greater financial well-being, mental health, and postsecondary educational impacts. More specifically: •Reduced need for paid employment, •Reduced perceived stress, and •Enhanced retention and graduation in terms following assignment. Overall, the housing program appears to serve a population that is academically strong at the start but with considerable financial and health needs. Considerations for implementation and scale are discussed for community programs. Further investigation may allow greater insights into the longer-term impacts of the scholarship program, as most students were still enrolled and on target but had not yet finished college. Our mixed-methods data suggest potentially distinct impacts for STEM students as well as for students whose housing was interrupted during the pandemic.