College Ready, Hungry, and Homeless

JULY 2018
College Ready, Hungry,

and Homeless
AN OVERVIEW OF BASIC NEEDS INSECURITY IN
CALIFORNIA’S PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM
Speaker's Office of Research and Floor Analysis

SPEAKER’S OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND FLOOR ANALYSIS
Margaret Peña, Director
Prepared by Nicole Restmeyer

(916) 319-3764 | [email protected]
The following people contributed to the completion of this report:
Mónica Henestroza, Speaker’s Office

Carlos Alcala, Speaker’s Press Office
Jeanice Warden, Assembly Higher Education Committee
Kevin Powers, Assembly Higher Education Committee
Cover page and back page designed by:
Luis Jimenez, Speaker’s Office of Protocol

COLLEGE READY,
HUNGRY, & HOMELESS
Executive Summary
“In my first semester, I had nowhere to go when the dorms were closed for winter
break. I was no longer in contact with family I could live with, and taking a month
off work was not financially plausible. I was forced to spend a large portion of my
financial aid money on securing a place to sleep…”
This report presents a comprehensive overview of basic needs insecurity issues in California’s public
higher education system. Food and housing insecurity is a growing challenge for students, families,
faculty and staff, institutional leadership, and the Legislature. Students suffering from basic needs
insecurity face academic, financial, and health challenges their food and housing secure counterparts
may not face. This has a direct impact on the Legislature’s goals for increasing student success and
degree attainment, reducing the total cost of attendance, and closing the degree gap.
The report examines the state’s three public higher education systems, the high cost of attendance at
these systems when factoring in living expenses, availability of financial aid to cover those expenses,
and the resulting impact on a student’s basic needs. This report also reviews the recent actions taken
by the higher education systems and the Legislature to address basic needs insecurity, as well as
policy recommendations for the future.
The state’s public higher education system is divided into three segments: the California Community
Colleges (CCC), the California State University (CSU), and the University of California (UC). While
tuition and fees for California residents are lowest at the CCCs, after factoring in the high cost of
housing, other living expenses, and the lower amount available for student aid, the total cost of
attendance can mirror costs for the UC or CSU. CSU and UC students have more access to student
loans and institutional aid that covers a higher proportion of their total cost of attendance. By contrast,
over 80% of all CCC student aid comes from the Pell Grant and California College Promise Grant.
CCC CSU UC
$1,104 ($46/unit x 12 $5,742 plus campus- $12,630 plus campus-
Tuition and Fees
units) based fees based fees
Total Cost of $12,871 with family $25,640 on campus $34,700 on campus
Attendance $20,639 off campus $26,164 off campus $31,600 off campus
% Covered by
33% 50% 50%
Grant Aid
1
Key Data Points
CCC Housing accounts for 43% of the cost of being a CCC student, and 30% of students are solely
responsible for their housing costs. Grant aid at CCCs covers a third of the total cost of
attendance, and relatively few students have access to loans. In recent years, about 40% of
students had very low food security, and a quarter of students experienced homelessness. At
Los Angeles Community College District, almost three in four students reported food insecurity,
and at Peralta Community College District in the Bay Area, 84% of students experienced
housing insecurity in the 2016-17 academic year.
CSU Grant aid for low-income students covers half the cost of attendance at CSU. Since 2006-07,
financial aid packages for students living off-campus have been calculated based on annual
inflation, but median rents have risen much faster than the rate of inflation. The Basic Needs
Initiative found that 42% of students were food insecure, and 11% of students were homeless
in the past year. In addition, the survey found only 10% of students with very low food security
and 7.5% of students with low food security used CalFresh systemwide. Seven in 10 students
were unaware of emergency housing services or thought they were not offered on campus.
UC Rent is the largest expense for UC students living off campus, though UC has the most amount
of aid available for living costs. In 2016, 5% of undergraduates were homeless while attending
UC, and nearly half of undergraduates were food insecure. Of students experiencing food
insecurity, 57% were not food insecure as children. In addition, a survey of graduate students
in May 2017 found that one in three was food insecure and 5% experienced homelessness.
Policy Recommendations
• Conduct oversight and follow-up on implementation of AB 801 (Bloom, Chapter 432, Statutes of
2016), which, in part, required colleges to designate a Homeless Student Liaison on campus.
• Connect students with benefits like CalFresh by incorporating pre-screening into existing services,
such as academic counseling or orientation, in order to capture the most students eligible.
• Provide emergency aid or micro-grants to students facing financial emergencies or needing

security deposit assistance, and ensure eligibility for aid is as clear and unrestrictive as possible.
• When developing on-campus housing, or housing near campuses, consider the needs of low- and
moderate-income students and build mixed-income or exclusively affordable projects.
• Coordinate with local Continuums of Care and public housing authorities to ensure students
experiencing homelessness are accessing the local coordinated entry system, and build
relationships with local youth shelters and service providers in particular.
• Provide students with housing assistance by operating legal clinics or referring them to legal help
for evictions or landlord issues. Use some on-campus housing spaces for short-term emergency
housing for students who are homeless. If schools do not have on-campus housing, partner with
local hotels and motels to offer homeless students subsidized vouchers for temporary stays.
2
Barriers to a College Education
INTRODUCTION
“I work really hard to keep up with the rest of the class, because I have lost my
place three times due to my inability to pay because of my lack of financial aid. I
have done two semesters without books and cry daily because I just want to give
up sometimes. I really don’t know what to do to prove I want and deserve this
other than continue to show up. And I pray I don’t get killed in the park while I
sleep.” – Female, 42, part-time California Community College student1
Food and housing insecurity, also known as basic needs insecurity, among college students is a
problem that only recently has been brought to light. The stereotype of the “starving student” living on
instant ramen is a harsh reality for hundreds of thousands of students. The problem extends beyond
ramen, as students report having to dumpster-dive for food, live in their cars, couch-surf with friends or
family for months at a time, stay in abusive relationships in order to avoid homelessness, and go
hungry to pay for rent or textbooks.2
The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as the limited or uncertain
availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the inability to acquire food in a socially
acceptable manner. Food security is broken into four ranges: high, marginal, low, and very low. High
and marginal food security indicates that a person has no or very few food access problems or
limitations. Low food security indicates that a person has reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet,
but little or no indication of reduced food intake. Very low food security, the most severe form, occurs
when a person reports multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.3
Unlike food insecurity, there is no standardized measure for housing insecurity that is consistent across
surveys and fields. Researchers at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, a national leader in studying basic needs
insecurity among college students, define housing insecurity as a broad set of challenges that can
include the inability to pay rent or utilities, moving frequently, or living doubled or tripled up with other
individuals.4
Homelessness, the most extreme form of housing insecurity, has definitions that vary based on agency.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homelessness using four
categories: individuals and families who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence;
individuals and families who will imminently lose their primary nighttime residence; unaccompanied
youth and families with children and youth who are defined as homeless under other federal law (i.e.
the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act); and individuals and families fleeing, or attempting to
flee, domestic violence.5
3
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, specific to education,
STUDENT defines homelessness to include children and youth sharing the
housing of other people due to loss of housing or economic hardship;
VOICES children and youth living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or
campgrounds due to the lack of adequate accommodations; or
“I’m scared. I children and youth living in emergency or transitional shelters or
abandoned in hospitals. The act also classifies children and youth who
live with my
have a nighttime residence that is a public or private place not meant
boyfriend but I for sleeping; who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned or
can’t break up substandard buildings; and migratory children as homeless.6
with him
Some groups of students are disproportionately impacted by basic
because I’ll be needs insecurity. Students of color, first-generation college students,
homeless. financial aid recipients, former foster youth, and student parents are at
That’s a horrible much higher risk.7
feeling.” Basic needs insecurity has a direct impact on student academic
success. These students are much more likely not to buy textbooks, to
miss, drop, or fail classes, and to withdraw from school entirely. In
“I have resorted
addition, these students consistently report high levels of stress and
to regularly other mental health issues, which negatively impact academic
stealing from performance and health in general.8
grocery stores
This report will provide data on housing and food insecurity from the
in an effort to three public postsecondary systems in California. This brief will also
feed myself. review what the systems are doing currently on the issue, followed by
…[P]lease make a summary of policy recommendations to address the problem.
meal plans more
affordable for Basic Needs Insecurity by System
EOP students.”
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES (CCC)
The California Community College system is the largest system of
higher education in the nation, with more than 2.1 million students
across 114 campuses.9 CCCs are by far the most affordable of the
three systems when looking solely at tuition and fees. However, 43%
of the cost of being a CCC student is housing. Many dependent CCC
students live at home with their parents in order to save money, but
three in 10 students are solely responsible for their housing costs. 10
In addition, grant aid at CCCs covers only one-third of the true cost of
attendance.11 Eighty three percent of all CCC financial aid comes from
* All stories in the Student
the California College Promise Grant (formerly the Board of Governors
Voices panel may be found Fee Waiver) and Pell Grants—in 2014-15, 1.18 million CCC students
in publications or surveys received Promise Grants and 526,363 received Pell Grants. The
cited in endnote 2.
Promise Grant covers the total cost of per-unit enrollment fees (tuition)
4
for qualifying students. However, the Pell Grant, which may be used for non-tuition costs, covers less
than a third of average non-tuition costs, leaving a sizable gap that these students must fill.12
Though no formal systemwide survey has been conducted to measure housing and food insecurity
among CCC students, there are several studies that include some CCCs in their data, and at least two
community college districts—Los Angeles and Peralta—have data available.
Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has nine campuses and a 2016-17 total enrollment
of 237,868 students, representing 10% of total CCC enrollment. The district’s fall 2016 survey of basic
needs found that almost three in four LACCD students reported food insecurity in the past 30 days, and
38% reported very low food security. One in five students were homeless, and 55% were housing
insecure. Scaled to total enrollment, this represents 47,500 homeless students and 130,000 housing
insecure students. Similar to national data, around 30% of basic needs insecure students in LACCD
received CalFresh, 16% received housing assistance, and about 9% received CalWORKs or WIC
(Women, Infants, and Children) assistance.13
Numbers at Peralta Community College District (PCCD), which serves northern Alameda County, were
also dire. A spring 2017 survey found that 84% of students, approximately 41,858 individuals,
experienced at least one form of housing insecurity or homelessness, and 30% of students reported
experiencing homelessness in the past year. One in five reported not knowing where they were going
to sleep and not having a home in the past year, and one in seven slept in an abandoned building, car,
or other place not meant as housing. The highest prevalence of student homelessness was at Berkeley
City College, with 32.4% of its students reporting homelessness. Across PCCD, almost half of students
reported being severely rent burdened—spending 50% or more of their monthly income toward rent. In
addition, 60% of PCCD students were food insecure in the past 30 days, and 40% had very low food
security.
The PCCD survey found significant correlation between food and housing insecurity and academic
performance issues. Almost half of food insecure students suspended their studies at some point. Basic
needs insecure students reported having 3.5-4.0 GPAs at significantly lower rates, and 2.0-2.49 GPAs
at higher rates than secure students.14
A 2017 report by the Community College Equity Assessment Lab also found that basic needs insecure
students were concentrated in developmental (remedial) education at rates as high as 60-70%. Food
insecure students, in particular, were more likely to indicate intention to drop out, and were much less
likely to feel confident in their academic abilities. In addition, these students had high instances of
reported depression, severe anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation.15
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY (CSU)

The California State University system spans 23 campuses and enrolls over 450,000 students each
year (total enrollment in the 2017-18 academic year was about 484,000).16 CSU tuition is currently
$5,742 systemwide, plus campus-based fees that vary by institution. Eighty percent of CSU students
receive some type of financial aid, with an average award amount of $11,100. In the 2014-15 academic
year, 43% of enrolled students were Pell Grant-eligible.17
5
Grant aid for financially needy students at CSU covers, on average,
STUDENT half of the total cost of attendance. State and institutional aid programs
focus on tuition, leaving other aid to cover non-tuition costs (i.e. Pell
VOICES Grants, federal and private loans, student and family contributions, and
a very limited amount of federal work-study funding).18
“When I am at
How does CSU estimate living costs for its standard student expense
work and budgets and aid packages, particularly for students living off campus?
hungry because The California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) used to conduct a
I didn’t have regular Student Expenses and Resources Survey (SEARS) across
time to pack public and private postsecondary institutions, but budget reductions
halted the survey in 2006-07. CSU has taken the 2006-07 survey
lunch, I would results and adjusted them for inflation in the intervening years, in an
rather starve attempt to calibrate the data accurately.
until I get home,
However, the survey data does not take into consideration regional
but by then I am variations of cost, and it is not system or campus-specific.19
already feeling Additionally, rents have been rising faster than inflation in many
really weak.” California metropolitan areas, including areas with large CSU
campuses, such as Sacramento, Fresno, San Jose, and Long Beach.
From 2000 to 2012, inflation-adjusted median rent in Los Angeles
County increased by almost 25%.20 Rents in Sacramento specifically
grew 7.4% over just a year period from 2016 to 2017, compared to a
4.3% average year-over-year increase across California.21 Annual
“I don’t want to inflation in 2016, by comparison, was only 1.3%.22
go to school
As a result of SEARS, CSU’s budget estimates for the cost of housing
anymore if this
and food (living off campus) are similar across campuses, despite
is what it has to massive differences in median monthly housing costs across
be like.” metropolitan areas. See the chart for examples of the disparity in
median housing costs (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau to
include contract rent plus average monthly cost of utilities23) and the
similarity of off-campus living cost estimates.
Off-campus housing & Median housing costs in

Institution food cost estimates metro area (per
(2016-17)24 academic year)25
CSU Bakersfield $13,780 $8,343
CSU Dominguez Hills $12,888 $12,627
CSU East Bay $13,884 $15,813
CSU Fresno $12,492 $8,370
CSU Long Beach $12,910 $12,627
CSU Los Angeles $13,882 $12,627
CSU Sacramento $12,492 $10,431
San Diego State $12,050 $13,536
San Francisco State $13,882 $15,813
San Jose State $13,882 $18,396
6
CSAC recently secured funding and assistance from the College Futures Foundation to conduct a new
SEARS, and stakeholder groups have been working on updating the survey questions and choosing
priorities for data collection. CSAC plans to use the survey responses to build student expense budgets
and aid packages for the 2019-20 academic year.26
In February 2015, CSU Chancellor Timothy White commissioned a study of food and housing insecurity
to establish a baseline for the prevalence of these conditions among CSU students. The study was
among the first of its kind in the nation, and led to the creation of the Basic Needs Initiative, which is
tasked with creating a framework for addressing food and housing insecurity systemwide. The initiative
recently completed and published its comprehensive second-phase research study, which surveyed
students from all 23 CSU campuses and conducted focus groups at 11 additional campuses.
According to the preliminary study, published in January 2016, approximately 12% of students at CSU
Long Beach, or 4,500 students, were housing insecure or homeless. Forty percent of students reported
that they always or sometimes worried about having enough money for food, and 35% reported that
they always or sometimes skipped meals to save money. These numbers were higher than estimates
of the percentages of food and housing insecure students that staff, faculty, and administrators
suggested in the same study.27
The comprehensive follow-up study, recently published in January 2018, found that 42% of all CSU
students were food insecure, of which 20% experienced low food security and 22% very low food
security. Additionally, 11% of CSU students reported experiencing homelessness one or more times in
the past year. Scaled to total enrollment, this survey suggested that 201,000 CSU students were food
insecure and almost 53,000 experienced homelessness at least once in the past year.28
In examining demographic data, nearly half of first generation college students reported being food
insecure, compared to 37% of non-first generation college students. Over half of students who received
Pell Grants reported being food insecure. Former foster youth also had higher rates of both food
insecurity (63%) and homelessness (25%).
Qualitative interviews and focus groups from the second phase study also demonstrated how being
basic needs insecure impacted students’ academic success and health. Students experiencing food
insecurity, homelessness, or both reported lower GPAs, more academic concerns, and more poor
health and mental health days in the past month than their counterparts. Food insecurity had a
particularly strong relationship with low GPA.29
Since the start of the Basic Needs Initiative, CSU studies have consistently shown low awareness and
utilization of support services, including CalFresh, food pantries, and emergency housing. CSU Chico’s
Center for Healthy Communities found 47% of students were eligible for CalFresh, but only 12% were
enrolled in benefits at the time.30 At Humboldt State, over half of students experienced low or very low
food security, but only 19% were enrolled in CalFresh.31 The second phase survey, the most recent,
found only 10% of students with very low food security and 7.5% of students with low food security
used CalFresh systemwide. In addition, across all CSUs, over half of students reported they were
unaware of a food pantry on campus or thought the service was not offered, and 71% were unaware of
emergency housing services or thought they were not offered. 32
7
CSU Sacramento’s hiring of a case manager for students in crisis
STUDENT provides another useful, if limited, metric in measuring housing
insecurity. In spring 2017, 250 homeless students at Sacramento State
VOICES requested assistance from the case manager. According to an article
by The Sacramento Bee, that number doubled to 500 students in the
“One time, in a fall.33 This is by no means the true number of homeless Sac State
students—students are likely becoming aware of services or feel more
desperate
comfortable disclosing their situation to staff and administrators.
attempt to
receive the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA (UC)
independent The University of California is the most selective—and expensive—of
status, I came in California’s three public postsecondary systems. Systemwide tuition
to talk to the and fees currently cost resident undergraduates $12,630 for an
academic year, and UC estimates the total cost of attendance for living
financial aid
on campus is $34,700, versus $31,600 off campus.34
office … the
woman to whom Like at CSU, grant aid at UC covers nearly half the cost of attendance
for the average resident student, at an average award amount of
I was talking
$16,000. UC also offers a significant amount of institutional aid, of
told me to ‘go which two-thirds covers tuition and fees and one-third covers living
out and get costs. Low-income students at UC have the most grant aid available of
pregnant’ in the three systems, an average of $25,200 in 2015-16.35
order to receive Unlike CSU, UC conducts a triennial—soon to be biennial—Cost of
the independent Attendance Survey (COAS) of its undergraduate students in order to
status.” formulate student expense budgets and financial aid packages,
particularly for students living off campus and for indirect expenses not
controlled by the university (i.e. textbooks, food not from meal plans,
and off-campus housing costs). The majority of UC undergraduates,
54%, live off campus, versus 35% in on-campus housing and 11% with
parents or relatives, but these rates vary widely among schools.
Rent is the largest expense for students living off campus. The 2016
COAS results show significant differences in monthly off-campus rent
“I just bought a by institution, as well as numbers of reported roommates and
housemates. Average rent systemwide for these students was $731,
math book,
but averages by campus ranged from a low of $388 at UC Merced to a
which means I high of $925 at UC Berkeley.
won’t be able to
According to the 2016 COAS results, rent costs for off-campus
buy groceries
students actually decreased by 3% when compared to 2013 average
for two weeks! systemwide rent in constant dollars. Rent costs declined between
So water it is!!!” 2013 and 2016 at every campus except UC Berkeley, where they
increased by 10%. How could rent have remained mostly flat for UC
students in this time period, given the state of the rental market and
8
the housing crisis across California, and the fact that many UC campuses are in very high cost areas?
Students appear to be sharing housing at higher rates and with more housemates and/or roommates
than in previous years in order to defray the cost of rent, particularly in expensive areas of the state.
Systemwide, the percentage of students living in off-campus housing with four or more housemates
increased from 31% in 2012-13 to 37% in 2016. Every campus except UC Riverside reported an
increase in the percentage of students in this living situation, with the largest 3-year increases (11.5%
each) at UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz. Students tripling or quadrupling up in one room still paid an
average of $681 in monthly rent at UCLA, $672 at UCSB, and $563 at UC Irvine.36
The UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UES) also asks undergraduates questions on student
homelessness and housing. In 2016, 5% of systemwide undergraduates were homeless while
attending UC, or 10,500 students when scaled to total undergraduate enrollment in fall 2016.37
Numbers varied based on campus, from a high of 7% at UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz, to a
low of 3% at UC Davis.38
Systemwide, homelessness was reported at higher rates among international students (8%) and
African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian students (6%), but was highest among former
foster youth, similar to CSU and CCC data. Thirteen percent of former foster youth reported that they
had experienced homelessness. Homelessness was also more common among LGBTQ students.39
Academically, students who experienced both homelessness and food insecurity in this survey reported
the lowest average GPAs, compared to students only experiencing food insecurity, homelessness, or
neither.40
The UC Global Food Initiative began an examination of food insecurity across all 10 UC campuses—
including UC San Francisco, an entirely graduate/professional campus—in spring of 2015. Results from
the Food Access and Security Study, discussed below, led UC to create a systemwide Food Access
and Security Subcommittee, and each campus now has a Food Security Working Group to focus at the
institutional level.
Across all campuses, 42% of students, and nearly half (48%) of all undergraduate students, were food
insecure. Of this cohort, 23% had low food security and 19% had very low food security. Two data
points from the study stand out: First, of students experiencing food insecurity, 57% reported that they
were new to being food insecure, i.e. they were not food insecure as children. Second, though 17% of
respondents had received CalFresh assistance in the past, a dismal 2% of students reported having
CalFresh benefits currently.41
UC found that food insecure students reported a lower average GPA, 3.1, than their food secure
counterparts, whose average GPA was 3.4. Food insecure students had more difficulty studying
because of hunger, and one in 10 had to suspend studies due to financial hardship, versus only 3% of
food secure students. In addition, one in four food insecure students had to choose between paying for
food or academic/housing expenses, and 15% had to choose between paying for food or medicine.42
In a campus-level focus group on food insecurity at UCLA, 32% of participants had low food security
and 22% had very low food security. In this particular group, undocumented students, commuters, and
international students were found to be highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Food insecure students
9
worried about food frequently and reported negative mental and
STUDENT physical health impacts, including stress, fatigue, depression,
headaches, and an inability to focus on work.43
VOICES
Graduate students are underrepresented in or excluded entirely from
many studies of basic needs insecurity on college campuses. The
“As a single
Food Access and Security Study found that one in four graduate
mom I cannot students was food insecure, and about one in ten had very low food
afford anything security. 44 Food insecurity was more prevalent among African
more than a American, Latino, American Indian, and LGBTQ graduate students.45
room for rent but
The Graduate Student Well-Being Survey, published in May 2017, also
the market is so found that 29% of respondents were food insecure, but certain groups
competitive that of graduate students had much higher rates than others. Specifically,
no one wanted to one in three Master’s and academic doctoral respondents who had not
rent to both my advanced to candidacy, 43% of respondents in the humanities, 44% of
child and I African American respondents, 41% of Hispanic/Latino respondents,
and 39% of LGBTQ respondents were food insecure. Much like other
except an elderly
surveys, food insecurity was negatively associated with being on track
man who rented to graduate on time.46
his poorly
Mirroring UC’s undergraduate data, about 5% of UC graduate students
renovated small
reported that they had experienced homelessness in the past 12
garage to me and months. Similar groups of students reported higher homelessness
then sexually rates—African American (7%), American Indian (10%), international
harassed me (6%) and LGBTQ (7%) students reported homelessness more often
when I went in than their counterparts. In addition, like in food insecurity data, more
and out of his graduate students in the humanities and social sciences reported
homelessness than in STEM fields.47
house to come
and go.”
Existing Barriers
CULTURE AND PERCEPTION

What are barriers that currently exist that prevent students from
achieving basic needs security? One challenge that institutions have
been working to address is culture and perception.
Normalizing the ‘starving student’ as part of the traditional college

experience hinders efforts to address the problem. At CSU, qualitative
interviews showed a disconnect between faculty and staff, who
regularly interacted with students in crisis, and some administrators,
who believed that there was very low or no basic needs insecurity on
campus. Some thought that students acted irresponsibly and
squandered resources that otherwise would have met their needs.48
10
In the same vein, some CSU administrators and staff said they did not think the university should
become ‘a social services agency’ and saw some services as outside the university’s purview.49 Staff at
the CCCs also expressed a similar sentiment—there has been reluctance at the district and college
level to take on tasks and challenges that were once considered outside of their mission.50
Another perception issue is the stigma of students being labeled as ‘needy,’ which can manifest in
different ways. In many instances, CSU staff were concerned that labeling or making services highly
visible on campus would de-incentivize student participation because they thought students were
worried about being seen as poor or in need. At the same time, other staff also felt a need to restrain
outreach and promotion because they feared there were too many students who needed assistance
and resources would be stretched too thin.
Students reported that the primary barrier to services was not fear of stigma, but rather that they did not
know services were available—according to the second phase CSU study, the number one reason
students did not utilize services was that they had never heard of them.51 Their need for assistance far
outweighed concerns about how they would be seen.52 This reality points to the need to have students
directly involved in creating and marketing programs, rather than staff alone.
HOMELESS YOUTH AND FAFSA

The complexity of the financial aid process for homeless students or students at risk of homelessness
is another barrier to housing security in particular. Despite the 2007 enactment of the College Cost
Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) and guidance from the federal Department of Education,
unaccompanied homeless youth (UHY, generally aged 18-24) and youth at risk of homelessness still
face trouble receiving financial aid matched to their need in a timely manner.
Under CCRAA, FAFSA applicants can indicate whether they have been determined by an agency to be
UHY in order to receive ‘independent’ designation for financial aid purposes and draw down more aid.
Agencies can include local K-12 school districts, homeless assistance programs, or emergency shelters
funded through McKinney-Vento or the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA).
If applicants have not been determined to be UHY but believe they are homeless, or are self-supporting
and at risk of homelessness, they can request a homeless determination from a financial aid
administrator (FAA), which the FAA is required to provide. The FAA may request certain written
information—including a letter from a school, a private or public shelter or service provider, or staff from
a college access program—from the applicant in order to make the determination, but if documentation
is not available, the FAA may interview the applicant and make a determination.53
FAAs said that the process is smoothest when they have contact with or letters from school liaisons or
McKinney-Vento/RHYA shelter staff, but two data points suggests a large number of homeless youth,
particularly in California, do not have these resources at hand. First, more than a quarter of California
schools reported in 2017 that they had zero homeless students among their school population and
provided no services as a result. Schools rely on parent answers to a housing questionnaire to
calculate these numbers, but stigma, shame, fear of action by Child Protective Services or immigration
enforcement, and the timing of the questionnaire likely result in severe underreporting.54
11
Second, California’s Point-in-Time Count data from 2017 indicates that
STUDENT UHY in our state are more likely to be unsheltered than all people
experiencing homelessness—82.5% of these youth were unsheltered
VOICES in our state in the latest count, compared to 68.2% of all Californians
experiencing homelessness. San Jose had the highest rate of any
major city, with 96% of UHY unsheltered, but San Francisco and Los
Angeles were not far behind, at 88% and 80% respectively.55 These
“I skip meals to numbers reflect a dire lack of shelters and services for youth in
be able to pay California. In fact, 19 of the 43 Continuums of Care in California did not
have a single RHYA grantee in their jurisdiction in 2013, the first year
rent, get my
that continuums had to begin counting UHY and transition-age youth
clothes from (18-24) as distinct categories of homeless individuals.56
free piles, I don’t
These dual challenges—underreporting in schools and an enduring
go out…My
scarcity of youth shelters or services—mean that many homeless
freshmen year I students in California cannot provide the information from school
was looking at district liaisons or shelter staff that FAAs find easiest to process.
tents…” Homeless students have said that providing this documentation can be
extremely difficult, and FAAs have frequently requested information
that is explicitly not required, including parents’ tax records or other
financial information. Some FAAs in California institutions have
admitted that they routinely ask unnecessarily invasive questions or for
‘proof’ of homelessness beyond what is needed for verification, in
effect raising the bar above what homeless students can provide.57
“…My rent plus
utilities alone is To combat this problem, the US Department of Education issued a
Dear Colleague letter in July 2015 ordering institutions not to request
more than 70% additional documentation, proof, or statements from UHY if they did not
of my income.” have any conflicting information on the homeless status of the student.
The letter states: “We are aware that some institutions are
unnecessarily restricting applicants’ access to aid by asking applicants
to provide justification as to why they are homeless or
unaccompanied...Institutions should limit any inquiry to whether the
applicant has been determined to be [homeless or at risk of
homelessness].”58
Why are FAAs asking for burdensome information that they do not
legally need to make these verifications? Surveys show that although
these administrators are compassionate to student needs, many worry
about fraud and subterfuge, or fear being audited and having no ‘proof’
to back up their determinations. They were wary that students were
lying about being homeless in order to draw down more resources—
and yet not a single administrator could report an instance where this
had actually occurred in practice.59
12
STUDENTS AND SOCIAL SERVICE PROGRAMS
Existing social service programs, including CalFresh (SNAP), housing assistance programs, and
homeless shelters, tend to be ill-equipped to serve students, and in some cases are deliberately
structured to exclude students or make it difficult for students to access them.
CalFresh, the primary nutrition assistance program for people struggling with food insecurity, provides a
monthly benefit to households that meet income and eligibility requirements. Benefits can be used to
purchase groceries from approved vendors. However, there are restrictions that limit the eligibility of
college students (enrolled at least half time) for CalFresh unless they meet certain exemptions.
Exemptions are available for students if they meet income eligibility and are working at least 20 hours a
week, are receiving federal or state work-study, are unable to work because of a disability, or are
certain types of single parents, among other criteria. However, studies show that the optimal amount of
hours of work per week for students to stay on track to graduate is 10-15 hours, not 20 or more.60
At CCCs, where full-time enrollment is much lower than part-time enrollment, higher percentages of
students likely work 20+ hours a week and meet that exemption—though many need to work in order to
afford the full cost of attendance and are prevented from taking as many courses as they would like.61
Conversely, UC’s 2016 COAS results indicated that only 9% of undergraduates work more than 20
hours a week.62
Work-study benefits offer another exemption for students to receive CalFresh. However, federal work-
study (FWS) awards are inequitably distributed based on an outdated funding formula. In the 2015-16
academic year, only 7,311 CSU students systemwide received FWS awards, although nearly 200,000
students were eligible for Pell Grants. The CSU second phase study found that only seven percent of
respondents were able to secure a FWS position.63 The school in California with the most FWS
recipients in 2015-16 was the University of Southern California, with 3,020 recipients.64
Students also have difficulty qualifying for housing assistance. Students under 24 who are living
separately from their parents may receive Section 8 assistance, only if both they and their parents meet
income eligibility thresholds, with some exceptions for veterans, student parents, and married students.
Unfortunately, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers grant aid for non-
tuition educational expenses (i.e. textbooks, supplies, transportation to school) to be income for the
purpose of determining eligibility. HUD itself noted in a brief that this may have the perverse effect of
forcing some students to take out loans, rather than accept grant aid, in order to maintain their Section
8 eligibility.65
Independent students are generally eligible for Section 8 if they meet income requirements. Some
public housing agencies exclude or de-prioritize full-time students in their definition of eligible families.66
It also should be noted that receiving a Section 8 voucher does not guarantee a housing placement,
and waitlists for vouchers and public housing units are months or years long.
Similarly, homeless shelters and assistance programs often have lengthy waitlists. As was discussed
earlier in this report, very few Continuums of Care in California have robust homelessness programs
focused on transition-age youth and UHY. For many reasons, these youth—including students—often
do not feel comfortable or safe in traditional adult shelter settings, and avoid them as a result.
13
FINANCIAL AID FOR LIVING EXPENSES
STUDENT
California has one of the most robust financial aid systems in the
VOICES nation. The vast majority of that aid—which includes the Cal Grant
entitlement programs, CCC’s California College Promise Grants
(formerly the Board of Governors’ Fee Waiver), CSU’s State University
“My friends
Grant, UC’s Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, and the Middle Class
have been Scholarship Program—is grant aid targeted at covering tuition costs for
forced to sleep students with financial need. Cal Grant B, the only state aid program
in the forests or that covers living expenses, only provides $1,648 in non-tuition funds
per academic year. The maximum federal Pell Grant award, which can
in their cars...
be used to cover tuition as well as non-tuition college costs, was
They get $5,920 in 2017-18.
harassed by
The Institute for College Access and Success estimated that the
[police] but they
average amount of grant aid available per low-income student in 2015-
have nowhere 16 was $5,400 at CCCs, $10,300 at CSU, and $25,200 at UC.67 At the
else to go.” same time, however, the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that grant
aid at CCCs covers only one-third of the cost of attendance, half the
cost of attendance at UC, and half at CSU. For students at UC and
“I eat a bowl of CSU, federal loans, work, and family contributions make up some of
the remaining gap. (UC also uses about a third of its institutional aid for
rice and tell living costs.)
myself I’m okay.
Starving myself However, less than 10 percent of CCC students borrow federal loans,
and many CCCs do not even offer federal loans to students. In
for a few days is addition, though 54% of all CCC financial aid received in 2016-17 was
better than Pell Grant aid, the Pell Grant does not cover even a third of average
living on the non-tuition costs for CCC students.68
streets.” When looking at the net price (the total cost of attendance minus
available grant aid) of public colleges in areas with undergraduate UC
campuses—the cities of Davis, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Merced, Santa
Barbara, Los Angeles, Riverside, Irvine, and San Diego—this
difference in aid is apparent. In seven of the nine areas, the CCC
option actually had the highest net price of the public institutions. In
none of the nine cities was the CCC the lowest net price option.69 This
financial pressure on CCC students leads many to enroll only part-time
and work long hours each week to try to cover the rest of their living
expenses. As the basic needs insecurity data from CCCs
demonstrates, many are unable to fill those gaps and suffer as a
result.
Beyond the amount of aid available, the timing of disbursement also

presents another challenge for students. Institutions can make their
own aid available earlier, but they can disburse federal student aid no
14
earlier than 10 days before the first day of classes. For first-year, first-time borrowers, schools cannot
disburse federal direct loans until 30 days after the first day of classes. This poses a challenge
particularly to students living off-campus, as their landlords will likely require security deposits in
advance of the start of term, and some pay rent through summer, when less aid is available.70
HOUSING COSTS IN CALIFORNIA

California’s high housing costs, and the high cost of on-campus housing at many schools, also present
another barrier to students achieving housing security. Many of the state’s public postsecondary
institutions are located in very expensive areas of the state, with low or declining rental vacancy rates
and rent increases still on the horizon.
Year-over-year rent increases topped five percent in several cities in California from March 2017 to
March 2018. Sacramento experienced an 8.6% jump in median rent over this period—the highest
increase out of the 100 largest cities in the entire country. Six of the top 10 cities nationwide with the
highest year-over-year increases in this period were in California: Sacramento, Anaheim, Oakland,
Fresno, Santa Ana, and Riverside.71 Many of the same areas have low rental vacancy rates, meaning
the pool of available rental units is small. In the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area, the
average vacancy rate was 2.7% for 2016; in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, it was 3.3%.72
Whether or not public institutions offer on-campus options varies. Only about 20% of CCCs offer any
student housing on campus. CSU can only accommodate about 11 percent of its full-time students in
on-campus housing, compared to almost 40 percent of all UC undergraduates (though the percentage
varies widely by campus in both systems).73 Both CSU and UC have plans to add more on-campus
housing options in the short and long term. Whether or not those on-campus options are affordable is
another matter. Many schools require students living in university dorms to purchase a meal plan, often
costing in the thousands of dollars. The combined “room and board” costs can be very high when
broken out by month.
See below for examples of standard student expense budget amounts for UC’s 2017-18 on-campus
room and board costs (divided by 9 to represent the months in an academic year) and the same
estimates for off-campus students.74
Institution Monthly on- Monthly off-campus Difference per

campus room and room and board month
board (estimates) (estimates)
UC Berkeley $1,732 $1,259 $472
UC Davis $1,624 $900 $723
UC Irvine $1,602 $1,075 $527
UCLA $1,589 $1,220 $368
UC Merced $1,684 $722 $962
UC Riverside $1,745 $925 $820
UC San Diego $1,268 $1,153 $114
UC Santa Barbara $1,745 $1,117 $628
UC Santa Cruz $1,587 $1,172 $415
15
STUDENT Addressing the Issue
VOICES All three systems of higher education are currently taking steps to
address basic needs insecurity on their campuses, as is the
Legislature. Legislative efforts from the past several years include the
“My housing
following bills:
manager stole
money meant for • AB 214 (Weber), Chapter 134, Statutes of 2017, in part, requires
my disability the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) to notify Cal
Grant recipients who qualify for participation in the CalFresh
accommodation.
program; provides clarity to existing policies and definitions in
When I noticed, order to simplify CalFresh administration for college students;
and he noticed I and, requires the California Department of Social Services
noticed, he (CDSS) to maintain a list of programs that provide a student
accused [me] of potential eligibility for a CalFresh exemption if certain
smoking requirements are met.
cigarettes to • AB 1018 (Reyes), Chapter 751, Statutes of 2017, in part,

evict me. I was requires the governing board of each CCC district to add
too exhausted to homeless students to the categories of students required to be
fight it.” addressed in their student equity plans.
• AB 1076 (Medina), which was held on the Suspense File in the

“100 percent of Assembly Appropriations Committee, in part, required the
my financial aid Legislative Analyst’s Office, in consultation with the UC, the CSU,
goes toward and the CCC, to conduct a study on the implementation of
existing law to ensure homeless students have housing when
rent, and I have
school is not in session.
around $25 per
month to spend • SB 307 (Nguyen), which was held on the Suspense File in the
on food.” Assembly Appropriations Committee, requested the UC to
convene a task force, consisting of three representatives from the
UC, the CSU, and the CCC, selected by the governing boards of
each segment, for the purpose of conducting a study to
determine the extent, causes, and effects of housing insecurity
and homelessness of current and future students.
• AB 801 (Bloom), Chapter 432, Statutes of 2016, in part,

extended priority enrollment to homeless youth, as defined, at the
CSU and the CCC, and requested that the UC make the same
extension; and required the designation of a Homeless and
Foster Student Liaison at each postsecondary educational
institution participating in the Cal Grant program. *More
information on CCC implementation of this bill is included below
16
• AB 1995 (Williams), Chapter 407, Statutes of 2016, in part, required CCC campuses to grant
enrolled homeless students access and usage of campus shower facilities.
• AB 1747 (Weber), Chapter 290, Statutes of 2016, which, among others, required a public or
private postsecondary education institution located in a county that participates in the Restaurant
Meals Program to increase access to and provide information about the program; and required
CDSS to act as the state entity for receipt of federal reimbursement on behalf of an organization,
institution, or agency that secures funds for CalFresh outreach activities, as specified.
• AB 1228 (Gipson), Chapter 571, Statutes of 2015, in part, extended priority for housing at the
UC, CSU, and the CCC to homeless youth, and requested campuses to develop plans to ensure
that homeless youth have housing during breaks.
• AB 1930 (Skinner), Chapter 729, Statutes of 2014, which, among others, tasked CDSS to
conduct a workgroup in order to seek ways to reduce barriers to students applying for CalFresh.
• AB 832 (Weber) of 2013, which was held in the Assembly Human Services Committee, would
have required all convenience stores and bookstores at UC, CSU and the CCC to accept the use
of EBT cards.75
In addition, the Legislature’s final 2017-18 budget included the Assembly proposal to appropriate $2.5
million to each segment for them to provide incentive grants to campuses to address basic needs
security. These funds may be used to create campus food pantries, designate campus employees to
help students enroll in the CalFresh program, and develop methods for students to donate unused meal
plan credits to others in need. More information on how the systems are allocating their funds is
provided below.
The housing package passed last year by the Legislature contained several measures intended to
support the development of new housing and streamline local approval of projects that housing
insecure students may benefit from. One of those measures, SB 35 (Wiener, Chapter 366, Statutes of
2017), subjects cities and counties to a streamlined approval process for new housing projects if certain
conditions are met, including that the jurisdiction is behind on permitting new housing in specific income
categories based on their Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). The California Department of
Housing and Community Development recently evaluated local jurisdictions’ RHNA progress and found
that 97% of cities and counties in the state are behind on their permitting goals, meaning they will have
to fast-track approval of certain projects.76 The first project seeking approval under these new rules has
been proposed in the city of Berkeley—home to two public higher education institutions and close to
several others in the surrounding region.77
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

As previously mentioned, the CSU’s Basic Needs Initiative—formed in 2015—produced one of the first
studies of food and housing insecurity at a campus- and system-level in the nation. The Initiative’s
research team published a follow-up study that surveyed students across all 23 campuses, the results
from which were discussed earlier in this report.78 Phase three of the research is slated to be published
in early 2019. The Initiative team recently updated the CSU Board of Trustees on the rollout of
17
intermediate steps to help students currently in crisis—first priorities
STUDENT are to grow the capacity of existing campus-based services and to
scale best practices from one campus to the whole system.
VOICES
All 23 campuses in the CSU now have a food pantry or food
distribution program for hungry students. CSU Chico’s Center for
Healthy Communities, in partnership with the CSU Office of the
“I have a budget Chancellor, is currently serving as lead contractor for CalFresh
Outreach and application assistance in order to replicate its successful
of $17 per week program on 10 other campuses—Cal Poly SLO, CSU Los Angeles,
which includes CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU East Bay, CSU Long Beach, CSU
everything after Northridge, CSU San Bernardino, Fresno State, Humboldt State, and
rent.” Sacramento State.79 The center’s new 2018-2021 CalFresh contract
will bridge all three systems to bring outreach and enrollment support
to 40 different campuses—20 CSUs, 17 CCCs, and three UCs—that
could benefit up to 40,000 students per year.80
The Office of the Chancellor created a Request for Proposal (RFP)

“…Housing is process to allow campuses to apply for state budget (SB 85) funds, to
be distributed based on proposed strategies and the number of
so difficult to students to be served. The Office of the Chancellor has also reached
get into, my out to federal and state agencies to discuss ways to make accepting
girlfriend and I EBT on campus easier to implement.
are forced to Housing insecurity has proven more difficult to address across all three
live in an systems. At CSU, some campuses have established emergency
abusive housing and micro-grant programs and implemented a case manager
model to connect students with on- and off-campus resources. For
household.” example, Sacramento State’s emergency grant program recently
provided a homeless student with enough aid to accept a partially
subsidized placement in a temporary housing program through
Sacramento County.81 Several campuses have also been working to
construct more on-campus housing to provide students some relief
from rising rents, including at San Francisco State, where the on-
campus housing waitlist is over 1,500 students long.82
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Similar to CSU, the University of California Global Food Initiative has
been working to address food insecurity on UC’s 10 campuses in the
wake of the UC Student Food Access and Security Study. The GFI’s
Basic Needs Access and Security Subcommittee coordinates activities
at a systemwide level, and basic needs committees on each campus,
made up of students, staff, faculty, and administrators, work with local
stakeholders to improve food security for students. Campuses have
opened food pantries, begun hosting CalFresh enrollment drives,
18
incorporated food and financial literacy into orientation trainings, and worked to accept EBT in a
growing number of on-campus stores, to name a few efforts under way.
In response to GFI subcommittee feedback, the Education Finance Model Committee, which oversees
systemwide student aid packaging and the Cost of Attendance Survey (COAS), updated its questions
to ask students how much they were spending per week on food, rather than per month. The
adjustment produced a much more accurate estimate of food expenses and allowed financial aid to be
modified accordingly.83
UC President Janet Napolitano agreed to provide campuses with additional funding, $151,000 per
campus from 2016-18, to roll out the second phase of GFI’s work and to support campus efforts.
Complementing this funding, UCOP will disburse the $2.5 million in Hunger-Free Campus funds from
SB 85 equally among each campus based upon proposals submitted in mid-January 2018.84
GFI recently published a robust Student Food Access and Security Toolkit, which highlights campus
education and community engagement programs, food access models, and institutional processes from
several schools.85 GFI subcommittees are also working to create a UC basic needs master plan to
streamline recommendations and make it easier for campuses to identify next steps.86
In addition, the Total Cost of Attendance Working Group, made up of UCOP staff, campus
administrators, UC Regents, and student representatives, published its final report with
recommendations for improving the UC’s approach to student aid in November 2017. A few of the
recommendations pertain to basic needs security—one is to work with survey experts to improve the
COAS and administer it biennially (rather than triennially). Another recommendation is to have the
Regents appoint a panel of experts from inside and outside the UC system to examine best practices in
controlling on-campus housing costs, in order to make on-campus housing more affordable.87
Separately, in 2016, UC launched a Student Housing Initiative with the goal of adding about 14,000
new on-campus beds by fall 2020. Undergraduate and graduate housing projects are currently
underway or have been completed at every campus, and the initiative is on track to deliver closer to
17,000 new on-campus beds by 2021.88 In addition, the Regents approved a one-time $27 million
allocation at their July 2017 meeting to provide campuses with flexible assistance to support existing or
new housing programs, conduct studies on ways to increase housing supply, or fund capital
improvements.89
In terms of research, UC plans to develop a validated set of survey questions in order to provide more
concrete data on housing security for students.90 As previously discussed, the data that exists currently
is limited to homelessness and generalized COAS rent and overcrowding questions.
Campus-based committees are also searching for ways to increase the amount of affordable housing
available for students, including at UC Berkeley, which currently houses the smallest percentage of its
students on campus but is in an extremely tight rental market.91 Given the recent enrollment increases,
pressure from rising off-campus rent costs, and limited financing and land capacity available, housing
will likely continue to be a challenge for the UC system.
19
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES
STUDENT
The California Community College system is most decentralized in
VOICES terms of governance of the statewide public higher education systems.
The district system makes it difficult to implement systemwide changes
quickly and as a result the districts are all at very different levels of
preparedness and capacity to address basic needs insecurity.
“I couldn’t The CCC Chancellor’s Office conducted a survey in August 2016 of
afford a meal faculty and staff to gauge familiarity with food and housing insecurity.
plan plus I live Though over 90% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their
students experience housing and food insecurity, only 15% said
off campus, so I
campuses were adequately prepared to support students with these
enrolled in EBT needs.92
but nowhere on
The Chancellor’s Office just completed a more robust survey, primarily
campus accepts
of staff from student services departments, with responses from 104 of
EBT so I can’t the 114 colleges. More than half of respondents said they interact with
eat even on students who are basic needs insecure or homeless either every day
days when I am or multiple times per week. The survey patterned questions after
on campus from recommendations from the Wisconsin HOPE Lab in order to assess
existing policy and practice.
9am to 11pm
studying and Though AB 801 (Bloom, Chapter 432, Statutes of 2016) required every
working.” institution that participates in the Cal Grant program to designate a
Homeless Student Liaison, only half of survey participants could
identify such a liaison or department on their campus. The
Chancellor’s Office sent out guidance in the form of a memo in spring
2017, so there has been a lag in implementation. More progress can
and should be made quickly on designating these liaisons.93
About two-thirds of respondents said that a food pantry is available on

their campus, and 62% said that CalFresh enrollment assistance is
also available on campus. Similar numbers also said that other food
resources are available, but with eligibility requirements, i.e. EOPS,
former foster youth, veterans, CARE-eligible, or Student Equity target
populations.
Housing, once again, emerged as the more difficult issue to address,

as staff noted that they had much more limited resources to support
housing security. Only a third of respondents identified housing
resources that their campus offered, of which the most common were
referrals to shelters and foster youth-specific programs.
The Chancellor’s Office is currently convening a Food, Housing and

Basic Needs workgroup to identify and promote best practices and to
identify resource gaps at the systemwide level. The goal is to create
20
an inventory map and best practice guide for individual districts and schools to use to support students.
In addition, the Chancellor’s Office hosted a Food, Housing and Basic Needs summit in spring 2018 in
Sacramento.
Similar to the CSU, CCCCO requested help from the US Department of Food and Agriculture in making
it clearer how colleges can become approved EBT vendors. USDA has indicated that they will work on
creating a “how to” guide for colleges. The system is also working with the California Association of
Food Banks to bring CalFresh outreach and enrollment staff to campuses to help students enroll in
benefits.94
Lastly, CCCCO is distributing the $2.5 million from SB 85 based on student enrollment to each college
that requests funding to support CalFresh enrollment assistance and food pantry or food distribution
activities. Each college is eligible to receive a set amount of the funding based on enrollment.95
Policy Recommendations
Experts in the study of student food and housing insecurity, particularly at the nationally renowned
Wisconsin HOPE Lab, have begun to generate policy recommendations to address basic needs
insecurity. Some of these recommendations are summarized below.
• Connect students with benefits by incorporating pre-screening for benefits into existing services,
such as academic counseling or orientation, in order to capture the most students eligible. Provide
benefits access in a single hub and co-locate a Single Point of Contact there with CalFresh
outreach and application assistance and other services.
• Provide emergency aid or micro-grants to students with financial emergencies, for security deposit
assistance, rent shortfalls, or car repairs, and ensure eligibility for aid is as clear and unrestrictive
as possible, or operate multiple programs to address different issues. Make sure aid is disbursed
quickly, given that financial aid is often not the quickest or most efficient way of disbursing funds.
• Create a committee or team of individuals who are specifically responsible for basic needs security
work on campus, and ensure there is diverse representation from students, staff, faculty, and
administrative leaders. See the UC Global Food Initiative systemwide and institutional committees
as an example.
• Establish and publicize a trauma-informed Single Point of Contact—or a case manager, like at
Sacramento State—for students with basic needs insecurity at every single institution in the state.
Task them with helping students apply for financial aid, referring students to campus and
community services, building relationships with local benefits programs and service providers
(including the local Continuum of Care), and leading campus outreach efforts.
• Support students’ financial capabilities, and ensure they have access to financial literacy coaching,
credit building opportunities, and affordable financial products. Avoid partnering with bad actors
that harm students’ financial solvency, like predatory banks or loan services. Skyline College’s
partnership with SparkPoint is a good model.
21
• Establish campus food pantries, campus community gardens,
STUDENT food recovery or meal swipe donation programs, and CalFresh
outreach and assistance for food insecure students. Accept EBT
VOICES in at least one on-campus market or store, so that students who
are eligible for CalFresh do not have to travel far to use their
“In fall 2013, I benefits. Humboldt State University’s Oh SNAP! Program is a
was living out of good model on how to meet USDA requirements for EBT on
campus.
my car and
couch surfing. • Provide students with assistance on housing issues by operating
… I appealed to legal clinics or connecting students with outside legal help for
evictions or landlord issues. Use some on-campus housing
financial aid to
spaces for short-term emergency housing for students who fall
override my into homelessness or are at imminent risk of becoming homeless.
dependency If schools do not have on-campus housing, partner with local
status but was hotels and motels to offer homeless students subsidized vouchers
denied. I also for temporary stays. CSU Long Beach’s Student Emergency
Intervention Program is a good model.
tried to apply as
a homeless/ • When developing on-campus housing, or housing near campus,
low-income consider the needs of low- and moderate-income students and
build mixed-income or exclusively affordable projects.
student but was
denied because • Modify the timing of aid delivery, particularly institutional aid, to
I was splitting a help students with housing costs. Offer advances on financial aid
to students who need cash earlier.
room in an
apartment with • Push housing-related cost deadlines to after the disbursement of
four other financial aid. If possible, reduce or eliminate on-campus housing
security deposits or application fees for students.
people.”
• Coordinate with local Continuums of Care and public housing
authorities to ensure students experiencing homelessness are
accessing the local coordinated entry system, and build
relationships with local youth shelters and service providers in
particular.
22
1
Debbie Cochrane and Laura Szabo-Kubitz, “On the Verge: Costs and Tradeoffs Facing Community College Students” (The
Institute for College Access & Success, April 2016)
2
University of California Student Association Survey, Fall 2015; Cochrane and Szabo-Kubitz, “On the Verge: Costs and
Tradeoffs Facing Community College Students”; Rashida Crutchfield and Jennifer Maguire, “Study of Student Basic Needs”
(California State University Office of the Chancellor, January 2018), https://www2.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/student-
success/basic-needs-initiative/Documents/BasicNeedsStudy_phaseII_withAccessibilityComments.pdf.
3
https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/definitions-of-food-security.aspx;
Crutchfield and Maguire, “Study of Student Basic Needs.”
4
Sara Goldrick-Rab, Jed Richardson, and Anthony Hernandez, “Hungry and Homeless in College: Results from a National
Study of Basic Needs Insecurity in Higher Education” (Wisconsin HOPE Lab, March 2017).
5
“Expanding Opportunities to House Individuals and Families Experiencing Homelessness through the Public Housing (PH)
and Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Programs” (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, September 2013),
https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/PIH2013-15HOMELESSQAS.PDF.
6
“The McKinney-Vento Definition of Homeless” (National Center for Homeless Education, n.d.),
https://nche.ed.gov/legis/mv-def.php.
7
Chase Sackett, Sara Goldrick-Rab, and Katharine Broton, “Addressing Housing Insecurity and Living Costs in Higher
Education: A Guidebook for Colleges and Universities” (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, September
2016); James Dubick, Brandon Mathews, and Clare Cady, “Hunger on Campus: The Challenge of Food Insecurity for College
Students,” October 2016.
8
Meghan Silva et al., “The Relationship Between Food Security, Housing Stability, and School Performance Among College
Students in an Urban University,” Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice 19, no. 3 (December 14,
2015); Rashida Crutchfield, “Serving Displaced and Food Insecure Students in the CSU” (California State University Office of
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Diana Lambert, “High Housing Prices Are Forcing Hundreds of Sacramento State Students into Homelessness,” The
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26
SPEAKER'S OFFICE OF RESEARCH
AND FLOOR ANALYSIS
Margaret Peña, Director
July 2018

College Ready, Hungry, and Homeless

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JULY 2018

College Ready, Hungry,

Speaker's Office of Research and Floor Analysis

Prepared by Nicole Restmeyer

The following people contributed to the completion of this report:

Mónica Henestroza, Speaker’s Office

Cover page and back page designed by:

Luis Jimenez, Speaker’s Office of Protocol

• Provide emergency aid or micro-grants to students facing financial emergencies or needing

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY (CSU)

Off-campus housing & Median housing costs in

CULTURE AND PERCEPTION

Normalizing the ‘starving student’ as part of the traditional college

HOMELESS YOUTH AND FAFSA

Beyond the amount of aid available, the timing of disbursement also

HOUSING COSTS IN CALIFORNIA

Institution Monthly on- Monthly off-campus Difference per

cigarettes to • AB 1018 (Reyes), Chapter 751, Statutes of 2017, in part,

• AB 1076 (Medina), which was held on the Suspense File in the

• AB 801 (Bloom), Chapter 432, Statutes of 2016, in part,

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

The Office of the Chancellor created a Request for Proposal (RFP)

About two-thirds of respondents said that a food pantry is available on

Housing, once again, emerged as the more difficult issue to address,

The Chancellor’s Office is currently convening a Food, Housing and

Margaret Peña, Director

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