Housing insecurity creates significant barriers for student parents, jeopardizing their academic success, economic mobility, and mental health. Addressing these issues through targeted interventions is crucial to support this vulnerable population and ensure they have the opportunity to complete their degrees and improve their families’ long-term outcomes.
This article discusses how practitioners at the University of Colorado Boulder use
assessment to refine an Emergency Housing Assistance program through a Basic Needs
Center. Leaders of the center use people-driven practices combined with quantitative and
qualitative assessment practices to provide housing relief for students. We show how
equity-centered assessment practices improve student health and well-being. Practitioners
across the country can apply actions from this center’s assessment to assist students at
their own universities to secure reliable and safe housing.
In this manuscript, the authors examined the rates of food and housing insecurity experienced by student-veterans enrolled at community colleges in fall 2020. The results of a multi-institutional survey of student-veterans at 113 community colleges suggested that 37.6% of community college student-veterans experienced food insecurity and 52.5% of community college student-veterans experienced housing insecurity. Additionally, 17.8% of community college student-veterans experienced homelessness in the past year. The results also suggest that community college student-veterans who experienced food and housing insecurity had lower grade point averages, higher rates of clinically significant generalized anxiety disorder, and higher rates of clinically significant major depressive disorder. Examples of strategies to support community college student-veterans experiencing food and housing insecurity are included.
College students nationwide are increasingly facing food and housing
insecurity, issues that are often hidden and not immediately apparent. The
Hope Center’s research surveys provide the largest assessment of basic needs
security among college students in the United States, revealing that students
in Arizona are also experiencing these challenges.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services describes housing
insecurity or instability as the lack of secure shelter due to factors like “having
trouble paying rent, overcrowding, moving frequently or spending the bulk
of household income on housing.” The The U.S. Department of Agriculture
defines food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for every
person in a household to live an active, healthy life.”
According to a study of college students in the U.S. published by the
National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine, food insecurity is
inversely associated with degree completion and educational attainment.
Study results show that among food-insecure college students, 43.8 percent
completed their college degree compared with 68.1 percent of food-secure
college students.
Arizona’s educational attainment – the percentage of adults who earn a twoor four-year degree – is below the national average. Increasing educational
attainment is a priority for the board, as individuals with degrees not only earn
higher salaries but significantly enhance the state’s economic prosperity. To
address this, surveys were conducted at Arizona State University, Northern
Arizona University and the University of Arizona to assess student experiences
related to basic needs, particularly food and housing insecurity.
In response, student regents and the Arizona Board of Regents initiated a
tri-university work group in the 2020-21 academic year. This group was tasked
with assessing student food insecurity and housing needs, and providing
guidance on evidence-based policies and practices to address these issues.
A key recommendation, approved by the board in June 2021, requires each
university to submit an annual report detailing efforts to assess and alleviate
student food and housing needs on campus. Additional recommendations
include establishing a Basic Needs Committee at each university, and
developing a communications plan and portal to highlight and explain the
universities’ initiatives
Safety nets are typically invisible until tested, and the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to observe how undergraduates responded to the common challenge of campus closures. Using survey data from two public universities (N=750), we investigated the factors associated with students’ reports of moving to a parent’s home as a result of the pandemic. Our findings indicate that students’ material needs stemming from loss of housing (if on campus) or employment (if off campus) significantly affected, but did not fully explain, their housing decisions. Beyond these factors, older students and those living with a romantic partner, sibling, or extended family member were less likely to move in with a parent. These findings build on research documenting class-based differences by demonstrating the importance of life stage and other social ties. Moreover, they highlight how parent-child relationships evolve during the transition to adulthood, influencing decisions to seek support in times of crisis.
Using in-depth interview data from families and service providers, we examine the success of the Creating
Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) program in Seattle, focusing on how it reduced many of the learning, compliance, and psychological costs of using housing vouchers so that participants could expand their residential
choices. CMTO’s approach of combining information and flexible financial resources with personalized
high-quality assistance bolstered participants’ confidence, agency, and optimism for their housing searches
in high-opportunity neighborhoods. Accessible, collaborative, pertinent communication from program staff
was central to addressing both the psychological costs of the federal Housing Choice Voucher program and
families’ experiences in housing and social services. These results provide evidence to inform housing policy
as well as to enrich broader scholarship on program take-up, implementation research, and the role of Navigators and service quality in addressing administrative burdens low-income families face while using other
social programs.
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.
There are major assumptions that housing opportunities in higher education are equally accessible and available to all students. However, these accessible housing opportunities are not available to current and prospective students who possess a criminal record. Many college students with criminal records are deemed ineligible for adequate housing opportunities even before their applications are submitted. This study uses a qualitative layered analysis approach to explore how denials from on-campus housing affect college students with criminal records. Using the perspectives of this marginalized and invisible student population, we draw the reader’s attention to how students with criminal records are affected as a result of being denied on-campus housing, and we provide tangible recommendations for future research, housing practices, and housing policies in higher education.
Students and formerly incarcerated people are both populations associated with increased risk for housing insecurity and homelessness (see for example, The Hope Center, 2021; Couloute,2018). Formerly incarcerated students fall into both populations. This executive summary summarizes the findings and recommendations of a study conducted for a master’s thesis that provides a better understanding of the housing needs of formerly incarcerated students, specifically, the housing needs and experiences of students in Fresno State’s Project Rebound, a support program for formerly incarcerated students.