Homeless College Student

Excerpt from the San Diego Union-Tribune

Southwestern College — with four campuses in Chula Vista, Otay Mesa, National City and San Ysidro — has approximately 28,000 students. In a February 2020 survey by the Community College Equity Assessment Laboratory, more than half of 500 local students who participated said their housing was unstable. About 100 said they rotated between the homes of friends and families, while others slept in cars, closets, at a campus or outdoors.

One in 5 students at San Diego Community College District, which has four colleges, lack housing, said Carlos Cortez, chancellor of the SDCCD.

Nationwide, 3 in 5 college students faced difficulties in accessing food and shelter in 2020, according to a March report by Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice.

Even with federal stimulus funding earmarked for higher education, “community colleges received significantly less support than four-year colleges, and students who were claimed as dependents were ineligible for CARES stimulus checks, even if they earned income and filed a tax return,” the report said.