by Paul Benson
The holidays are coming up. It’s a time for sharing, caring, and staying warm. This can be a very uplifting time of year for most. Though for some people, these can be very difficult times, especially for those without housing security. It is no secret that in Champaign we have a growing number of homeless people and a very small amount of resources to help. We don’t have as many homeless people as we did after the Great Recession, but recently homelessness has been on the rise. Just in time for winter. The graph above, was put together from data collected by the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. This is bad for Champaign in general, but it also effects colleges such as Parkland. According to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, a 2016 study, Hunger on Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College Students, analyzed responses from 3,800 students from 12 different states and found that: “48 percent of students faced food insecurity in the previous month, with 22 percent reporting ‘very low levels of food security that qualify them as hungry.’ Food-insecure students in that study were more prone to housing insecurity. Within the past year, 64 percent experienced housing insecurity, while 15 percent reported homelessness, ‘the most extreme form of housing insecurity.’”
What was more disturbing is that the Hunger on Campus report also found that, “students with food insecurity had paying jobs (56 percent), enrolled in meal plans (43 percent at four-year institutions), received Pell Grants (52 percent), took out loans (37 percent), and used SNAP (25 percent).” Not only has there been an increase in homelessness, but the systems we have in place tend to complicate matters more than ideally providing enough assistance. Clearly, we need a more direct approach to helping those in need.
According to Parkland’s Dean of Students, Marietta Turner, “There is a rise on the homelessness challenge, and the recent study from the Association of Community Colleges said as many as 3 out of 7 students can be facing homelessness at any point in time.” College these days is very costly and even people with jobs can’t afford food let alone housing, tuition, and books. As a student, how can you be sure that you won’t be one of the 3 out of 7? Turner says, “What I tell people is, you don’t know who you are sitting next to in class who may be homeless. A lot of times they’ll work their job, they’ll come here and sleep, they’ll go to the library, they couch surf, and they might have two or three friends that they can stay with for a length of time. It’s difficult and I refer students to as many resources as possible.” There is a stigma towards homeless people regarding laziness, but the reality is that in America you can have a full-time job and juggle going to college and be homeless. In fact, as Turner points out, the increase in part-time college students is in part, because students have to work full-time jobs in order to keep up with the serious financial struggles that they face. Sadly, for homeless Parkland students who aren’t experiencing domestic abuse, Turner says “I don’t have much housing help for students, and that to me is devastating.”
“I had a student last year who literally was living in a car and managed to graduate -had made the dean’s list. On the dean’s list for two semesters and was homeless.” Turner said. “Our director of our pantry, Katie Thomas, told me a story in our last meeting, of a lady who came here this summer to take a certificate through our business training center. She had the promise of a job if she finished this certification. She came to the area living in her van, because it was a six or eight-week certification. She was eating out of our pantry, and finished her certification, and was able to land her job. She came back after she got the certificate completed and told the pantry director, ‘I would not have been able to finish this program. You don’t understand, I was out of work. This certification, this training, meant that I was gonna land this job. If I hadn’t had the support of the people here, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.’” It goes to show, just because someone is homeless, does not mean they deserve to be homeless, that they do not work/search for jobs, or that they are irresponsible with their finances. You might find yourself interacting with someone who is without housing security or who has previously struggled with housing security, and sometimes you might never know.
With the holidays approaching, let’s try to take care of one another. A better world for the unfortunate, is a better world for everyone, and even small donations can make a big difference. If you know a friend who is struggling with housing, why not help them out through the holidays? The National Health Care for the Homeless Council, cites that “Seven hundred people experiencing or at risk of homelessness are killed from hypothermia annually in the United States.” So, this is a dangerous time for the homeless population in general and maybe for some Parkland students. If you’re having trouble with housing security contact the Dean of Students office. There aren’t many resources available, but if it’s an emergency or if domestic violence is involved, then the Dean of Students could be a good place to start.
