Homeless Students Research Articles

Struggling with the basics: food and housing insecurity among college students across twenty-two colleges and universities

Objectives To quantify the number and type of students failing to secure basic needs. Participants Students attending 22 postsecondary schools in the United States in Fall 2019. Methods The Adult Food Security Module and part of the #RealCollege Survey were used to measure food and housing insecurity, respectively. Logistic and linear regression models were used to assess the relationship between selected factors and basic needs insecurities. Results Participants (n = 22,153) were classified as 44.1% and 52.3% food insecure and housing insecure, respectively. Homeless students or those who experienced childhood food insecurity were at the greatest odds of college food insecurity. Year in school was the largest contributor to being housing insecure, with PhD or EdD students being 1,157% more likely to experience housing insecurity compared to freshmen. Conclusions High prevalence of basic needs insecurities remain. Current campus initiatives may be insufficient, calling for a more holistic approach at the campus, state, and national levels.

America’s inescapable crisis: Student homelessness

Homelessness among U.S. K-12 students has been on the rise for decades, and it shows no signs of slowing down, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to significant unemployment. Joseph Bishop describes findings from a study of student homelessness in California. Interviews with those experiencing homelessness and those who serve them, as well as analysis of the data, reveal the obstacles that prevent these communities from receiving the help they need. These include differing definitions of homelessness, limited funding being made available, and lack of training among the educators who could help identify and support students. Because of the multifaceted nature of the problem, groups at the local, state, and national levels must find ways to work together to arrive at solutions tailored to the need.

Campus Police Response to Mental Illness: Training, Collaboration, and Perceived Effectiveness

Most research on police response to mental illness has not included officers who work in college settings. This study examined the frequency with which campus police are asked to respond to mental health crises, their preparedness to do so, and their perceived effectiveness. Additionally, this study gathered information about campus and community partners and examined differences between mental health-focused calls involving students versus community members. Seventy-six campus police departments participated in the study and reported that 10% of calls involve a mental health issue, with wellness checks and suicidality being common student issues and homelessness, violence toward others, and substance abuse being common issues for calls involving community members. Over half of officers have Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, and the number of CIT-trained officers was related to perceived effectiveness at managing student mental health calls. Implications for mental health resources on college campuses and the need for additional research in this area are discussed.

Putting Homelessness in Context: The Schools and Neighborhoods of Students Experiencing Homelessness

The number of K–12 students experiencing homelessness is increasing across the country. Schools may serve as sources of support and stability for homeless children, but little is known about the types of schools that homeless students attend or about the communities in which they live. We investigate the context of student homelessness in Los Angeles by analyzing student-level administrative data from the Los Angeles Unified School District and publicly available data on neighborhoods and schools from school years 2008–2009 to 2016–2017. Our findings suggest that homeless students tend to be clustered within lower-achieving schools with higher concentrations of disadvantaged student groups and live in neighborhoods with higher concentrated disadvantage. Despite policy provisions to ensure stability, homeless students have high rates of school and residential mobility in the years they are homeless, and mobile students tend to move to less-disadvantaged schools. We conclude with policy implications to strengthen the implementation of the federal McKinney-Vento Act.

Income Support Policies and the Rise of Student and Family Homelessness

This study investigates whether the generosity and accessibility of publicly provided income support contributes to levels of family homelessness. Using data on student homelessness from most public school districts in the United States, I find that greater access to cash assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program reduces levels of family homelessness and that the reduction is particularly strong for majority–Black and Native American school districts. The results suggest that the observed decline in access to TANF cash assistance may be an important driver of the rise in family homelessness. Evidence is inconclusive about whether greater access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or greater generosity of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) reduces levels of homelessness.

It’s More Complicated Than It Seems: Virtual Qualitative Research in the COVID-19 Era

COVID-19 has necessitated innovation in many parts of our lives and qualitative research is no exception, as in-person qualitative data collection has been complicated by the constraints of social distancing and the prioritization of participants’ and researchers’ safety. Consequently, virtual methods have quickly gained traction. However, there is little research that comprehensively explores the range of practical, rigorous, and ethical considerations that arise when designing and engaging in virtual qualitative research. Addressing this gap, we examine the process of designing and conducting a virtual qualitative study, using specific examples from our case study of student homelessness in Houston, Texas that drew from semi-structured interviews and the analysis of over 50 documents. Garnering insights from Salmons’ Qualitative e-Research Framework (2016), and benefiting from 22 technical memos that documented our process, we profile the challenges we faced—and choices we made in response—as we designed and conducted our study. Our findings suggest that in practice, engaging in virtual qualitative research, particularly in the era of COVID-19, is a purposive exercise that requires thoughtful, careful analysis around a number of methodological challenges as well as ethical and equity-oriented questions. Our exploratory work has timely implications for qualitative scholars in the current COVID-19 context, but also showcases the potential to conduct high-quality, rigorous, ethical qualitative research in a virtual format, offering a glimmer of hope for more equitable qualitative research in contexts of crisis and beyond.

When the Old Will No Longer Do: School and Community Practices for Student Homelessness Amid COVID-19

In this qualitative case study, we employ 29 semistructured interviews and an array of supplemental data to explore why and how COVID-19 shaped school and community practices around student and family homelessness in Houston, Texas. Drawing on Small’s notion of organizational embeddedness, we find that COVID-19 fundamentally altered school and community practices, as educators and providers faced resource constraints, new concerns about safety, and evolving student and family needs. Providers struggled to meet the depth of need stemming from COVID-19; however, they also embraced innovation in adapting their practices to the pandemic era. We find that this adaptation occurred along a continuum, ranging from pausing or stopping existing practices to developing new practices from scratch. We conclude with implications for theory, research, policy, and practice.

Increasing Identification of Homeless Students: An Experimental Evaluation of Increased Communication Incorporating Behavioral Insights

Over 1.5 million students in the United States experience homelessness. These students are entitled to educational support through the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program. However, many homeless students are not identified and therefore never receive this support. Across 1,732 local education agencies in New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York, we conducted a randomized controlled trial of increased email communication incorporating behavioral insights targeting homeless liaison staff in order to increase the identification of homeless students. The intervention had an impact on the mean number of identified homeless students among the treatment local education agencies (3.62, 90% CI [0.32, 6.92], p = .07). The impact remained when outliers with high leverage were removed (1.51 CI [0.24, 2.79], p = .05). Within this sample, our analysis indicates that more than 3,000 additional homeless students were identified with a low-cost, low-intensity, behavioral intervention during the second semester.

Student Housing and Homelessness: A Paradox of Urban Gentrification in Pretoria’s Old East, South Africa

ABSTRACT The urgency of providing affordable student housing influenced government and higher education institutions to consider urban renewal as a possible avenue to alleviate this demand, with the result that private–public partnerships were promoted to address this. Issues discussed in this article are drawn from qualitative interviews with University of Pretoria’s Student Representative Council (2018–2019), a university official and a Pastor as well as an administrator from churches based in Hatfield and Arcadia, Pretoria. This article looks at urban renewal processes in Hatfield (Old East of Pretoria), which is home to the University of Pretoria and argues that the unintended consequences of revanchist gentrification has not sufficiently addressed issues of affordable student housing. Rather, there is evidence of student homelessness.

At the nexus of two terrains: a critical ethnographic case study of an afterschool center for homelessness

Little work examines the nexus of student homelessness and afterschool provision. This critical ethnographic case study of organizational culture draws from observation, documents, and interviews with youth experiencing homelessness, staff, and volunteers at a community-based afterschool center for youth experiencing homelessness. It explores how the center straddled the discourses and ideologies inherent in both the student homelessness and afterschool terrains. The center built close connections between and amongst youth and staff and fostered wide-ranging community collaborations, which allowed it to connect youth to various resources and offer flexible programming. Yet, it also suffered from contradictions and tensions in its framing of parents, youth, homelessness, and race. These strengths and weaknesses reflected the center’s position at the nexus of both homelessness and afterschool. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

No Place Called Home: Student Homelessness and Structural Correlates

AbstractDuring the 2015–16 school year, 1.3 million students nationwide experienced homelessness. Yet hardships like homelessness represent dynamic rather than static states, and so annual figures ...

Role of school-climate in school-based violence among homeless and nonhomeless students: Individual- and school-level analysis

BackgroundResearch is scarce regarding homeless students’ school-violence experiences, specifically while considering the role of school-climate and the different groups within the homeless student population. Understanding the relation between school-violence and school-climate might help towards the development of support for homeless students. ObjectiveExamine the association between school-climate components, homelessness and school discriminatory bullying, behavioral victimization and weapon involvement at the student and school levels. Participants389,569 high school students and 811 schools from a representative California statewide sample (2011–2013). MethodsBivariate and multivariate analyses were used to examine differences between the subgroups of homeless students as compared to nonhomeless students. Hierarchical logistic regressions were conducted to examine the relation between school-climate and discriminatory bullying, behavioral victimization and weapon involvement in school at the individual level, and hierarchical linear regressions were conducted at the school level. ResultsAt the student level adding school-climate dimensions contributed significantly to each outcome. Positive school-climate was associated with lower rates of all school-violence outcomes. Safety, positive relationship and connectedness were all significantly negatively associated with the outcomes, especially safety. At the school level, the partial linear regression coefficient of school-climate is negative and significantly (p < .001) decreases discriminatory bullying, behavioral discrimination and gun involvement. ConclusionPositive school-climate serves as a protective factor for homeless students with regards to school violence outcomes. Enhancing whole-school interventions improving school-climate at the school level, would benefit students experiencing homelessness.

A Closer Look: Proximity Boosts Homeless Student Performance in New York City

Proximity augments homeless students' educational outcomes. Homeless K-8 graders whose families are placed in shelters near their schools have 8 percent (2.4 days) better attendance, are a third (18 percentage points) less likely to change schools, and exhibit higher rates of proficiency and retention. Homeless high schoolers have 5 percent (2.5 days) better attendance, 29 percent (10 pp) lower mobility, and 8 percent (1.6 pp) greater retention when placed locally. These results proceed from novel administrative data on homeless families observed in the context of a scarcity-induced natural experiment in New York City. A complementary instrumental variable strategy exploiting homeless eligibility policy reveals a subset of proximity-elastic students benefit considerably more. Panel evidence demonstrates homelessness does not cause educational impairment as much as reflect large preexisting deficits.

Training Homeless Education Liaisons to Support the Academic Needs of Homeless Students

The purpose of the qualitative descriptive case study was to describe how homeless education liaisons use training and resources to support the academic success of homeless students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 local homeless education liaisons in Virginia to determine how they perceive and incorporate training and community resources to encourage the academic success of students experiencing homelessness. Research revealed that they training they received met liaison needs despite needed adaptations to address legislation changes. Implications for leadership are a need to allot necessary time for liaisons to meet needs of students through understanding liaison function and resource availability. Recommendations for assisting liaisons in meeting needs of students are made.

When Student Housing is a Car: In College and Homeless

To examine the phenomenon of postsecondary student homelessness, data were collected in 2014–2015 and again in 2017–2018 to discover the prevalence, to gain greater understanding of the attendant challenges, and to identify resources that can assist homeless students in their educational endeavors. Results suggest which students are most at risk for housing insecurity. Suggestions for campus responses and resources are provided.

Resilience among homeless college students: co-constructed explorations

ABSTRACT The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the co-constructed resilience of homeless college students and to bring awareness to an unrecognized subpopulation that could benefit from increased intervention and support. Qualitative interviews using an appreciative inquiry lens with ten homeless college students were conducted in a rural public university in the United States. Students and researchers explored themes related to resilience and academic success while also experiencing homelessness. Consistent with ecological person-in-environment perspective, three themes emerged including Individual, Social, and Institutional factors that led to student success in spite of housing challenges. Implications for policy and practice include unique opportunities for universities to collect additional demographic data to better understand and serve their students who are experiencing homelessness. Campus and community-based understanding of the issues faced by these students may ameliorate the challenges and issues faced by this population of students. Additional research is needed to further understand resilience among homeless college students as well as how to better support this student population.

Hidden Success: Learning From the Counternarratives of High School Graduates Impacted by Student Homelessness

The number of youth experiencing homelessness in the United States has nearly doubled over the past decade from 688,000 in 2006 to over 1.3 million as of 2017. While graduating high school is a significant barrier for many students experiencing homelessness, many youth are able to successfully graduate despite their unstable living conditions. This qualitative study used the antideficit achievement framework to analyze the counternarratives of eight youth who successfully graduated high school while experiencing homelessness. Findings showed that strong peer relationships, the support from caring teachers, and attending church served as impactful influences that helped youth experiencing homelessness graduate high school.

A Statewide Study of School-Based Victimization, Discriminatory Bullying, and Weapon Victimization by Student Homelessness Status

Abstract Youths who experience homelessness are at high risk of victimization, yet little is known about school violence in the context of students experiencing homelessness. Specifically, limited research has considered different subgroups of students experiencing homelessness according to the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act (nonsheltered, sheltered, doubled up) in comparison with nonhomeless students. Using a representative sample ofCalifornia public high school students (N = 390,028), authors applied bivariate and multivariate analyses to examine differences among nonsheltered, sheltered, and doubled-up students experiencing homelessness regarding levels of discriminatory bullying, behavioral victimization, and weapon victimization at school. Findings show that students experiencing homelessness across all subgroups are at high risk of experiencing school violence. The severity of findings and differences among subgroups emphasize the need to develop school-based responses for each subgroup. Providers serving youths experiencing homelessness are encouraged to consider schools as a site for prevention and intervention for this population.

Mental and emotional health: impediments to the education of New York City’s homeless children

ABSTRACTThis brief asserts that New York City’s (NYC) public schools best support the education of homeless students by prioritizing their emotional and mental health through expanding counselors’ ...

Snack gaps, doubling up, and revolving doors: educational leadership practices in a changing suburb

ABSTRACT Alongside rising poverty, student homelessness and school mobility are increasingly impacting U.S. suburbs – yet, there is little research on how leadership is evolving. Informed by distributed leadership and drawing from over 50 artifacts and 42 interviews with school and community leaders, this study explores how poverty, homelessness, and mobility are shaping leadership practice in a fast-growing, U.S. suburb. Both individually and concomitantly, poverty, homelessness, and mobility drew different actors, tools, and routines into the educational arena – fundamentally shifting the who and how of practice. Overall, leadership practice was rarely distributed outside of the suburb. Leadership around family poverty was, however, a community-wide endeavor – extending beyond, but centering on the schools. Yet, local government viewed homelessness as a ‘school issue’ and little outreach occurred regarding mobility. In addressing poverty, homelessness, and mobility, principals in traditional schools tended to rely on school social workers. Implications for distributed leadership, leadership preparation and practice, and future research are discussed.