Southwestern College has become home sweet home for a growing number of homeless.
As the face of the college changes, so does the face of homelessness. A new generation of younger, tidier homeless may be refugees, victims of the real estate crash or veterans of the Afghanistan/Iraq wars.
Even people down on their luck and living on the street know that college can help them go from homeless to hopeful. SWC, as it has been for generations, remains a doorway to a better future.
Homeless people fall through the cracks of our society and at Southwestern there is no accurate measure of how many are enrolled. Every SWC student is required to register with a valid mailing address, meaning homeless students must “borrow” or fake one. This leaves no official trace of their circumstance which, unfortunately, makes intervention difficult.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs puts food and shelter at the forefront. Learning and skill-building are difficult when someone’s basic needs are not met. As was said in the 1960s, “Johnny can’t learn when Johnny’s hungry.”
SWC could be doing more to help. Even with a tight budget, effective changes could be made that would not cost the school.
A major issue for homeless students is slow financial aid. It can take months for them to receive checks. They often cannot afford books or school supplies until that check arrives, meaning they are already behind in class
Money spent on homeless college students is a good investment. These students are clearly motivated, tough and persistent. They know an education is the best way to get off the streets. Every homeless graduate is soon likely to be one less homeless on the street.
Some of these students ask for help through programs like Financial Aid and EOPS, but there are many more who do not. Counselors can only point them to already-full shelters and overburdened social service agencies.
Few people realize that something as fundamental as getting three meals can easily take five or more hours a day for the homeless, if they manage to do it at all. The homeless have nowhere to store food. Their pantry consists of how much they can carry and the cheapest food is almost never the closest.
Other community colleges have innovative programs to help homeless students. Mira Costa College runs a food bank, with no questions asked. Non-profit organizations around the country provide the same kind of service by relying on donations.
San Francisco City College has Homeless At-Risk Transitional Students Programs. They provide counseling, cafeteria vouchers, and scholarship offers to homeless students or anyone at risk. They specially tailor their academic advice to address the unique needs of homeless students instead of treating them the same as any other.
Dave Wade is an example of what homeless students can accomplish. Wade, a 55-year-old homeless student, managed to become a respected Jaguar football player last year through sheer willpower and effort.
There are doubtlessly other students with the drive and fortitude that powered Wade, but willpower alone cannot overcome bias. Far too many people dismiss the idea of helping the homeless because they “did something to deserve it” or they are too lazy to get a job and would rather rely on welfare. A parallel can be drawn with the way many criticized people caught by the subprime mortgage crisis. Homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure were blamed for not being able to pay their loans, even though interest rates skyrocketed out of their control. Uncontrolled circumstances leave thousands of Americans homeless every year. Few believe “it could happen to me.”
SWC is bracing for a spike in veterans returning from war. There are more than 100,000 homeless veterans in America, about 10 percent of the homeless population. These are men and women who fought for our country and receive sizable help with things like loans and housing, but still find themselves on the street.
Homelessness often accompanies a mental or physical illness. Homeless vets are at even higher risk because many have been through traumatic experiences in combat, with a significant number having lost limbs or developed mental disorders like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Coming home will be harder than ever. SWC needs to help.