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NPR
National Survey Shows
High Rates Of Hungry And Homeless Community College Students
Update: New survey results out today show that the rates of hungry and
homeless students at community colleges across the country are higher
than previously thought.
The results, published by researchers at the University of Wisconsin,
show that one third of community college students go hungry and 14
percent are homeless.
Those rates are up from 2015, when the same research team surveyed
4,000 community college students in 10 states, and found one fifth were
without adequate nutrition. Thirteen percent were homeless.
Today's results come from a much wider survey sample, more than 33,000
students, at 70 community colleges in 24 states.
"Not only did we find challenges of food insecurity and housing
insecurity at the less expensive community colleges, we found it at
more expensive colleges," says sociologist Sara Goldrick-Rab, who led
the research team.
"We found it at urban schools and rural schools. It's all over the
place," she adds.
Researchers say — short of longer term solutions — colleges should
partner with local homeless shelters and food banks to better address
students' needs.
Goldrick-Rab says rates of hunger and homelessness are higher this
time, in part, because her team surveyed earlier in the term before the
most vulnerable students dropped out.
The Number Of Hungry And Homeless Students Rises Along With College
Costs
Homelessness in college
can stand in the way of graduation.
LA Johnson/NPR
There's no way to avoid it. As the cost of college grows, research
shows that so does the number of hungry and homeless students at
colleges and universities across the country.
Still, many say the problem is invisible to the public.
"It's invisible even to me and I'm looking," says Wick Sloan. He came
to Bunker Hill Community College in Boston more than a decade ago to
teach English full time. He says it felt like he quickly became a
part-time social worker, too.
"When I first got here, I was always told that we should never miss a
chance to give students food," he says. "I foolishly thought at the
time they meant Doritos and cookies. It's protein that they're after.
It's crazy."
Bunker Hill is home to one of 25 food assistance programs on
Massachusetts' public college campuses. That leaves just four public
campuses across the state without one.
One first-year student at Bunker Hill, whose name we aren't using to
protect her safety and privacy, was living in a shelter in Boston last
summer when she first decided she wanted to enroll in classes here.
But she says that shelter didn't feel safe. "If I wanted to get good
grades, if I wanted to get a good education, I needed to be at a
slightly safer shelter," she says.
She was put on a long waiting list for a bed at a youth home and
finally got in after six months. That's when she enrolled at Bunker
Hill.
Now she's majoring in math.
"I knew that I really loved learning, but I wasn't sure if I was going
to fit into the education system."
She says she has been pleasantly surprised by Bunker Hill, though.
"This is a really good place to figure out where you might go with your
education," she says.
Across the country, college administrators are increasingly seeing
students like her.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin surveyed more than 4,000
undergrads at community colleges across the country.
The results? Twenty percent of students reported being hungry, 13
percent homeless.
Sara Goldrick-Rab, a sociologist who led the research team, says it's
not just that college students need to work while in school. "It's that
they're working, and borrowing," she says, "and sometimes still falling
so short that they're going without having their basic needs met."
Goldrick-Rab says she believes state and federal governments should
work together to help college students find a place to live and
something to eat so that they're ready to learn and, eventually,
graduate.
"Most people think, 'Well, if you're really poor, and you really don't
have money to eat, you can get food stamps," she says. "What they don't
know is that for a college student, who doesn't have children, to get
food stamps requires that they work 20 hours a week."
And that's exactly what the first-year student from Bunker Hill has
managed to do. She's putting in 20 hours a week at a physics lab close
by and has recently saved enough to rent an apartment with two
roommates. She says she still needs help affording tuition and
transportation.
"I don't really need a whole lot of this or that. It's nice, but what
helps me the most is people thinking that I'm going to make it." And
her classmates and professors, she says, who allow her to feel like a
normal college student.
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