Food Insecurity and Homelessness in American Higher Education: An Overview of New Nationally Representative Estimates (2023)

UPDATE: New version amended with additional table (July 30, 2023) This memo offers new nationally representative estimates of food insecurity and homelessness affecting the nation’s college students, obtained from the just-released National Postsecondary Student Aid Study: 2020 (NPSAS), and compares them to estimates from my prior research studies conducted at The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. The results confirm that a sizable number of the nation's college students—including graduate students—are food insecure and some are homeless. As long suspected, the rate is higher for college students than for the broader public. Moreover, we can now see that basic needs insecurity is a problem at every type of college and university and cuts across student demographics and even traditional measures of income and financial need. ● 23% of undergraduates and 12% of graduate students experienced food insecurity. ● 8% of undergraduates and 5% of graduate students experienced homelessness. ● Basic needs insecurity affects 35% of Black/African American students, 30% of Native American students, and 25% of Hispanic students. ● For-profit colleges and universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities have the highest rates of basic needs insecurity among their students. The coalition of institutions willing to assess and address these problems had higher rates of the challenges— now that all institutions are included the averages are lower, yet still substantial. We owe a debt of gratitude to those brave institutions that led the way and convinced the federal government to count what matters most to students - the security of their basic needs.