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Anthony Mejia

Professor Batty

English 101

14 March 2019

The Struggle for success at a community college for students who are homeless

Imagine for a day, coming out of your everyday class, the day has just ended and you're

ready to go home. However, in this imaginative day you don't have a home to go to. On this day,

a nineteen-ninety seven honda accord is home. Simple little things such as writing a paper for an

english class or just doing homework isn't that simple to do, since most students have wifi and

own a computer which makes said homework and paper easy to do because, most professors

require students to turn in their homework or essays online. This however can be challenging for

students who are homeless. Yes there is the school library but for some of these students, they

probably have more than one job to pay any student fees, car payments, and to hopefully get a

meal for the day. This may sound outrageous to some people, no way this can be a reality but,

unfortunately it is. There are a handful of college students where some may call this imaginative

day a nightmare, to these students who are homeless, it is their reality. In fact “one out of five

students have surveyed that they have been homeless within the last twelve months”(The Times

Editorial Board,2019).
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So in what ways can we help our fellow students achieve success? Luckily for our fellow

students there is some assistance in the making “A new bill in the legislature AB 302,... ​It would

require community colleges to allow homeless students who are living in vehicles to park

overnight in campus parking facilities. The students would have to be enrolled in classes and in

good standing at the college.” ​(The Times Editorial Board,2019). This would be a big help for

the students who live in their vehicles. In the article by the LA times questions how would all of

this work if it became a reality.”​Would the students have to move their cars out every morning

— and if not, is there a risk the parking lots would become permanent encampments? Would the

law guarantee space only for students living in their cars or could homeless students also sleep in

the parking lots in tents?...What kind of security will all of this require?”(The Times Editorial

Board,2019).​ This paper agrees with the questions said by the LA Times. However this paper

also argues that the parking facilities should only be for students who own and live in their

vehicle otherwise, the parking lot would turn into some sort of camp. As for security, most

colleges have a campus sheriff, who should patrol the parking facilities overnight when the

students are sleeping in their cars, which will hopefully remove the thought of not being safe

from students.

Even if this new bill became a reality, it really doesn't do much, it only eliminates the

concern of where is the student going to sleep for that night. After all the, new bill only qualifies

students who basically have good grades. College isn't easy, especially since most work is done

online as mentioned in the introduction. Even though college libraries have computers for
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students to use to complete their homework or any work that needs to get done, homeless

students don't get the luxury of having time on their side. On top of that college is all about

money, most of the things such as books and even scantrons aren't free. Sure some may say that

the student should apply for financial aid but how can a student provide the required information

if the student is homeless? An article by jarrett gupton explains how explains the difficulty of

when homeless students apply for financial aid “​..applying for financial aid and scholarships is

difficult. Most financial aid applications don’t identify them as any different than a student from

a low-income home. If they are outside the foster care system, they must write a letter that

verifies them as homeless.”(Gupton). This can be a nuisance because financial aid such as fafsa

require students to put in their parents tax information just to see if the student qualifies, most

homeless students probably don't even speak to their families most likely due to the fear of being

looked down upon from their family “Homeless students can feel alienated from their peers

because the familial relationships..”(Gupton).

Not only do the students have to stress about school work but, they also have to stress

about where will they sleep for the night, any financial debts, and most importantly, graduating

from college. Luckily we already have a solution for the question of where the student is going to

sleep for the night, if that even becomes a reality. So how can help students achieve success in

college? Since money seems to be the main problem, students are most likely working two jobs

just to pay for any college fees, this paper suggests that the solution for this is, for all

community colleges to just be free, with the exception of book fees. If community colleges were

free, money wouldn't be an issue thus, hopefully allowing students to have only one job and

giving the student more time to dedicate towards school.

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Works cited

Cohen, Deirdre. “Homelessness on Campus.” ​CBS News​, CBS Interactive, 20 Jan. 2019,
www.cbsnews.com/news/homelessness-on-campus-the-toughest-test-faced-by-tens-of-thousands
-of-college-students-in-america/.

Gupton, Jarret. “Challenges Homeless Students Face in Higher Education.” ​CEHD Vision
2020​, 16 Nov. 2016, cehdvision2020.umn.edu/blog/homeless-students-higher-education/.

The Times editorial board. “Why Not Let Homeless College Students Park in Campus
Lots?” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2019,
www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-campus-parking-homeless-20190225-story.html?outp
utType=amp​.