Why are so many US college students homeless?

For many people college is a door to a better opportunity. But that opportunity doesn’t always come with a roof and four walls. In 2017 there were 32,000 homeless college students in the United States according to the US Department of Education.

Homelessness can take many forms: from students couch surfing with friends, to squatting in empty campus buildings at night, to living in a dedicated shelter.

“One of the guiding factors to homelessness is just bad luck,” says Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of Higher Education policy at Temple University and a researcher on the issue of student homelessness.

“People who weren’t going to college before are going to college now”, Goldrick-Rab explained in an interview with CBS. “The problem is they are going to college and we didn’t build the support for them.”

So what is being done, if anything, to address the issue? We’ll ask our panel that very question on this episode of The Stream. 

On this episode of The Stream, we speak with:
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab @saragoldrickrab
Professor of Higher Education Policy, Temple University
saragoldrickrab.com

Barbara Duffield @SchoolHouseConn
Executive Director, Schoolhouse Connection
schoolhouseconnection.org

Dominique Coronel @DomCoronel_
Activist & student, DePaul University
instagram.com

Dae’Janae Day
Graduate, University of Maryland
sashabruce.org

Read more: 

Many college students are on the brink of being homeless and hungry – MarketWatch 
College program offers resources for homeless students – NPR 

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