Homeless College Students

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There is minimal research in regards to the experiences of homeless colleges students who are attending higher education. The lack of focus is not promoting inclusivity from institutions of higher learning. However, there are some studies that can be used to highlight the needs of homeless college student’s as they attempt to achieve their education goal(s). This paper addresses three major themes: Collegiate homelessness, social support for homeless students, and the hidden identity of homeless students. The first theme that this paper will touch on will explore homelessness within higher education. A huge obstacle that many homeless college students face is the lack of a stable home to live (National Center for Homeless Education, 2012). …show more content…
Essentially, the data revealed that financial aid administrators do not have an in-depth understanding of this population. As one student expressed how difficult it is to provide financial aid administrators with the required documentation to prove homelessness, “sometimes you don’t have those documents. And those situations are completely true and valid, but there’s no way for you to prove them...when they want those letters that don’t exist. The thing is, how do I prove any of this”? (Crutchfield, Chambers, & Duffield, 2016, p. 194). Another student was asked to provide tax records of their parents, “they had me running around like eight times going back and forth to the financial aid department because of my mom’s stuff...I don’t even live with them”(Crutchfield, Chambers, & Duffield, 2016, p. 194). This example demonstrates the lack of knowledge from financial aid staff because according to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, by law, homeless youth are not required to provide documentation of their …show more content…
The first critique is that the study took place in California. Therefore, the policies that pertain to homeless students in California cannot be generalized to other states. The ethnicity of the participants was unknown, thus we can assume that this study is not an accurate representation of the general homeless student population. Another critique is that the researchers provided the participants with gift incentives, which could have resulted in biases responses from the homeless students. The researchers recruited participants from various support service programs, therefore, the experience of the participants may be different in comparison to homeless students who are not part of these programs. In addition, the participants were open in disclosing their legal status and that may not be the case for other homeless students who are not receiving support services. As Muñoz (2016) expressed “lack knowledge on behalf of campus representatives contributed to students’ hesitation to disclose their legal status” (p. 727). The study also does not include if the participants were able to graduate or transfer. Further research in other states is needed to gain insight on what approaches they have implemented to assist this population. However, the findings in this study are extremely beneficial for student affairs professionals because the lack of knowledge from financial aid administrators creates additional barriers for
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