The cost of college has recently gone up significantly and continues to grow year after year. For some community college students, living at home is an option and financial aid may be given. But, for many students whether at a community or four year university, those resources are not an option.
There is no denying that there are many college students who are homeless. Many of these students sleep in their cars or even on benches around campus.
In the state of California a reported one in five community college students are homeless, surveyed from 40,000 students around 57 out of 115 community colleges. There is also an estimated twenty percent of 2.1 million community college students that have experienced homelessness at one point.
The number only grows higher as many community colleges around California do not have any housing.
On April 2, a bill was introduced in the state legislature, aimed at allowing homeless college students to sleep in their cars on campus due to housing crisis.
This is a step closer for those struggling to find a place to sleep at night.
There are still many issues that need to be handled in the case of long term living situations.
But making changes can be difficult if many of the students facing homeless insecurities won’t speak on being a homeless college student.
Many times colleges tend to not speak on the topic of homeless students on campus, which can make these students feel ashamed of their situation, when in many cases it isn’t anything they can fix on their own.
If homeless students were given more resources, if any at all, from their schools it could help lower the rate of homelessness on campus.
Making the campus as a whole more aware of these situations could help in a tremendous way and could make these students feel like they are not alone.
