When college students at Monroe Neighborhood School expertise homelessness, they usually meet with Nicole Meyer. Since 2023, Meyer has been the homeless liaison on the two-year public establishment in Rochester, New York, which is inside the State College of New York system.
Almost two years in the past, SUNY required every of its 64 schools to designate an individual to function homeless liaison on their campuses — a part of a nationwide motion to create such a place at larger schooling establishments.
Larger ed establishments and states all through the U.S. have handed legal guidelines and carried out insurance policies over the previous decade or so designating homeless liaisons on campuses. The motion has been fueled by a rising recognition that many college students expertise homelessness throughout their school years, consultants say.
Round 8% of undergraduates and almost 5% of graduate college students reported experiencing homelessness in a 2020 survey that was printed in 2023 from Nationwide Heart for Schooling Statistics.
“There has lengthy been an assumption that if somebody was in school, that they’d the monetary well-being to cowl all their bills,” mentioned Rashida Crutchfield, govt director of the Heart for Equitable Larger Schooling at California State College, Lengthy Seashore. “As larger schooling has discovered that [homelessness] is a part of the scholar expertise, you’re seeing much more responsiveness to our accountability to deal with it.”
College students experiencing homelessness sometimes don’t have household or pals who’ve attended school and subsequently lack a community to assist them navigate the monetary support system, campus life and vital assets, mentioned Barbara Duffield, govt director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection.
A homeless liaison thus turns into a degree individual on campus who can join these college students with assets that may assist them stay enrolled by means of commencement, Duffield mentioned.
Actually, a scarcity of housing can hinder college students’ means to give attention to their research, inflicting them to drop out, Duffield mentioned. Moreover, such college students usually grapple with psychological well being points, a way of isolation and family-related points, she mentioned. On prime of all that, they usually should stability jobs with their courses, she mentioned.
In Meyer’s case, by fall 2024 she had labored with 173 Monroe college students experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness — roughly 2% of the school’s scholar inhabitants. A disproportionate share of these college students are Black, Brown and ladies, Meyer mentioned.
Meyer helps college students discover sustainable on- or off-campus housing — a difficult activity given surging rental prices in Rochester. She works with the monetary support workplace and different directors to assist the scholars entry scholarships, grants and the school’s emergency funds.
As well as, Meyer mentioned she connects with college districts to assist put together excessive schoolers experiencing homelessness for the transition to varsity and companions with native organizations to assist Monroe college students navigate medical health insurance, transportation, baby care and a bunch of different wants. Basically, she’s the designated level individual for all these college students.
“I’m a one-stop-shop for primary wants, and housing and safety,” mentioned Meyer.
The origins of homeless liaisons
The homeless liaison position emerged on the larger ed degree following the 2007 passage of the federal School Price Discount Entry Act — a invoice that elevated funding for Pell Grants, made reforms to the monetary support system equivalent to increasing reimbursement choices for debtors, and gave unaccompanied homeless youth unbiased scholar standing when making use of for monetary support, Duffield mentioned.
That meant youths dwelling in shelters, outdoors, in automobiles, in lodges, or on couches might apply for federal monetary support with out their mother and father’ signatures, she mentioned.
“This was actually vital as a result of for therefore many younger individuals, they don’t seem to be in contact with their mother and father, they’re not being supported by their mother and father, and it’s simply barrier after barrier after barrier to getting monetary support,” Duffield mentioned.
On the time, Duffield mentioned, schools lacked information about unaccompanied homeless youth, in addition to coaching to establish these college students and deal with the boundaries they face.
Following the 2007 legislation, Colorado policymakers tried to rectify that information hole by organizing a activity power composed of scholars and better ed and Ok-12 directors. One of many activity power’s suggestions known as for establishing a single level of contact at each school and college in Colorado, based mostly on a liaison mannequin already utilized in Ok-12 districts.
Colorado schools appointed homeless liaisons in 2009, establishing a first-of-its-kind mannequin within the U.S., in line with a reality sheet from the state’s schooling division.
Different states, together with North Carolina and Michigan, adopted Colorado’s lead by informally adopting a homeless liaison mannequin, Duffield mentioned. Then states began codifying such liaison positions into legislation, with California and Louisiana doing so in 2016, Tennessee and Nevada in 2019, and Maine, Maryland, Illinois, Florida, and Arkansas between 2020 and 2022. Colorado lastly codified the duty power’s suggestion of designating a campus liaison into legislation simply final 12 months.
These states noticed a possibility to assist college students obtain help companies they might want, contemplating they’re usually first-generation school college students with a historical past of trauma, abuse, neglect, deep poverty and instability, Duffield mentioned.
What do the liaisons do?
Terry Mena started his position as Northeastern Illinois College’s homeless liaison in 2021 after the Illinois state Legislature mandated the place for all schools within the state.
When Mena receives a report from a scholar, school or employees member, or highschool counselor {that a} college scholar could also be experiencing homelessness, he’ll attain out to the scholar and conduct an consumption with different directors to raised perceive their scenario and create an motion plan, he mentioned.
“We start to drag collectively on-campus and doubtlessly off-campus assets to help the scholar based mostly on every circumstance,” Mena mentioned.
Homeless liaisons additionally assist college students navigate the monetary support course of, Crutchfield mentioned.
College students underneath age 24 can obtain an exemption permitting their schools to evaluate support based mostly on their very own monetary standing — quite than that of their mother and father. However monetary support workplaces don’t at all times guarantee eligible college students obtain that support, Crutchfield mentioned.
“Monetary help is vital to scholar retention in schools and universities,” mentioned Crutchfield. “That is true for any scholar, however specifically for college kids experiencing homelessness. In the event that they don’t have entry to monetary support, they don’t have entry to our establishment.”
Nevertheless, the work homeless liaisons do varies with the establishment, Duffield mentioned.
At some schools, “apart from having the ability to reply questions or assist with challenges round monetary support, it’s a fairly restricted position,” mentioned Duffield. “In different places, it’s extra expansive.”
Being a homeless liaison is often not a standalone position. Relatively, it is performed by a employees member who works in monetary support, scholar help or scholar advising workplaces, she added. Mena, for example, is Northeastern Illinois’ vp of scholar affairs and dean of scholars, and Mayer is a scholar companies specialist at Monroe.
Coaching additionally varies. Mena and different Northeastern Illinois campus employees and directors acquired coaching to conduct the work by means of the Beegle Poverty Institute — knowledgeable improvement course by means of consulting agency Communication Throughout Limitations. The course helped them perceive the causes and complexities of poverty and the right way to assist college students develop into self-reliant, he mentioned.
Meyer, alternatively, by no means acquired formal coaching for being a homeless liaison, however she tries to reap the benefits of skilled improvement alternatives, equivalent to by taking programs on the school which may be useful. She additionally mentioned she constructed expertise doing this sort of work inside the monetary support workplace earlier than the liaison position was created.
She additionally talks with different homeless liaisons by means of a SUNY homeless liaison community about methods for approaching situations they face on the job, equivalent to figuring out college students who may be homeless or constructing relationships with landlords, she mentioned.
“As larger schooling has discovered that [homelessness] is a part of the scholar expertise, you’re seeing much more responsiveness to our accountability to deal with it.”
Rashida Crutchfield
Government director, Heart for Equitable Larger Schooling
Moreover, homeless liaisons have various workloads.
Since launching its homeless liaison place in fall 2023, SUNY Cortland has acquired fewer than 5 referrals to this system, together with a scholar who wanted momentary housing over college break, mentioned Ann Bersani, director of residence life and housing and the homeless liaison at SUNY Cortland, a public four-year establishment in New York.
“The entire instances referred to me as liaison have been solved by the scholar with out accessing further companies.”
Nonetheless, ought to college students ever want the companies of a homeless liaison, SUNY Cortland is ready, Bersani mentioned.
“To have any person who’s a degree individual, who understands what you’re going by means of, who is aware of what assets can be found on campus and off-campus, who can take that further time, whether or not it’s pointing in the proper path to group assets or [pointing] in the proper path on campus,” Duffield mentioned, “simply makes all of the distinction.”
