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 practically 5% of graduate college students reported experiencing homelessness in a 2020 survey that was printed in 2023 from Nationwide Middle for Training Statistics.
“There has lengthy been an assumption that if somebody was in school, that that they had the monetary well-being to cowl all their bills,” mentioned Rashida Crutchfield, govt director of the Middle for Equitable Larger Training at California State College, Lengthy Seashore. “As larger schooling has realized that [homelessness] is a part of the coed expertise, you’re seeing much more responsiveness to our duty to deal with it.”
College students experiencing homelessness usually don’t have household or mates who’ve attended school and due to this fact lack a community to assist them navigate the monetary assist system, campus life and vital sources, mentioned Barbara Duffield, govt director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection.
A homeless liaison thus turns into some extent particular person on campus who can join these college students with sources that can assist them stay enrolled by commencement, Duffield mentioned.
In actual fact, an absence of housing can hinder college students’ potential to deal with 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 high of all that, they usually should steadiness jobs with their lessons, 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 faculty’s pupil inhabitants. A disproportionate share of these college students are Black, Brown and girls, Meyer mentioned.
Meyer helps college students discover sustainable on- or off-campus housing — a difficult process given surging rental prices in Rochester. She works with the monetary assist workplace and different directors to assist the scholars entry scholarships, grants and the faculty’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 insurance, transportation, youngster care and a bunch of different wants. Primarily, she’s the designated level particular person 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 stage following the 2007 passage of the federal School Value Discount Entry Act — a invoice that elevated funding for Pell Grants, made reforms to the monetary assist system equivalent to increasing reimbursement choices for debtors, and gave unaccompanied homeless youth unbiased pupil standing when making use of for monetary assist, Duffield mentioned.
That meant youths residing in shelters, exterior, in automobiles, in motels, or on couches might apply for federal monetary assist with out their dad and mom’ signatures, she mentioned.
“This was actually vital as a result of for therefore many younger folks, they aren’t in contact with their dad and mom, they’re not being supported by their dad and mom, and it’s simply barrier after barrier after barrier to getting monetary assist,” Duffield mentioned.
On the time, Duffield mentioned, schools lacked information about unaccompanied homeless youth, in addition to coaching to determine these college students and deal with the limitations they face.
Following the 2007 legislation, Colorado policymakers tried to rectify that information hole by organizing a process power composed of scholars and better ed and Okay-12 directors. One of many process power’s suggestions known as for establishing a single level of contact at each school and college in Colorado, primarily based on a liaison mannequin already utilized in Okay-12 districts.
Colorado schools appointed homeless liaisons in 2009, establishing a first-of-its-kind mannequin within the U.S., in accordance with a truth 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 advice of designating a campus liaison into legislation simply final yr.
These states noticed a possibility to assist college students obtain help companies they could 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 pupil, school or workers member, or highschool counselor {that a} college pupil could also be experiencing homelessness, he’ll attain out to the coed 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 sources to help the coed primarily based on every circumstance,” Mena mentioned.
Homeless liaisons additionally assist college students navigate the monetary assist course of, Crutchfield mentioned.
College students underneath age 24 can obtain an exemption permitting their schools to evaluate assist primarily based on their very own monetary standing — slightly than that of their dad and mom. However monetary assist workplaces don’t all the time guarantee eligible college students obtain that assist, Crutchfield mentioned.
“Monetary help is essential to pupil retention in schools and universities,” mentioned Crutchfield. “That is true for any pupil, however particularly for college students experiencing homelessness. In the event that they don’t have entry to monetary assist, they don’t have entry to our establishment.”
Nevertheless, the work homeless liaisons do varies with the establishment, Duffield mentioned.
At some schools, “aside from having the ability to reply questions or assist with challenges round monetary assist, it’s a reasonably restricted position,” mentioned Duffield. “Somewhere else, it’s extra expansive.”
Being a homeless liaison is normally not a standalone position. Quite, it is performed by a workers member who works in monetary assist, pupil help or pupil advising workplaces, she added. Mena, as an example, is Northeastern Illinois’ vp of pupil affairs and dean of scholars, and Mayer is a pupil companies specialist at Monroe.
Coaching additionally varies. Mena and different Northeastern Illinois campus workers and directors obtained coaching to conduct the work by the Beegle Poverty Institute — an expert improvement course by consulting agency Communication Throughout Boundaries. The course helped them perceive the causes and complexities of poverty and easy methods to assist college students turn into self-reliant, he mentioned.
Meyer, alternatively, by no means obtained formal coaching for being a homeless liaison, however she tries to benefit from 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 assist workplace earlier than the liaison position was created.
She additionally talks with different homeless liaisons by a SUNY homeless liaison community about methods for approaching situations they face on the job, equivalent to figuring out college students who is likely to be homeless or constructing relationships with landlords, she mentioned.
“As larger schooling has realized that [homelessness] is a part of the coed expertise, you’re seeing much more responsiveness to our duty to deal with it.”
Rashida Crutchfield
Government director, Middle for Equitable Larger Training
Moreover, homeless liaisons have various workloads.
Since launching its homeless liaison place in fall 2023, SUNY Cortland has obtained fewer than 5 referrals to this system, together with a pupil who wanted short-term 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 coed 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 some extent particular person, who understands what you’re going by, who is aware of what sources can be found on campus and off-campus, who can take that additional time, whether or not it’s pointing in the appropriate route to neighborhood sources or [pointing] in the appropriate route on campus,” Duffield mentioned, “simply makes all of the distinction.”
