PHX Reporter

According to a recent National Low Income Housing Coalition study, Arizona is ranked among the five worst states for affordable housing. In Maricopa County, eviction rates continue to rise significantly, and Metro Phoenix is facing one of the worst housing shortages in its history (Arizona Housing Department). Between 2020 and 2021, Phoenicians experienced the third-largest rent increase for a major city in the US. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 44% of renters in Phoenix were cost-burdened (City of Phoenix, 2020). Cost-burdened renters spend 30% or more of their income on housing costs and struggle to make rent while being forced to make tradeoffs among essentials such as utility bills, groceries, healthcare, transportation, and childcare. 

Although the housing crisis has made housing unfathomable for millions of Americans, the housing crisis is felt acutely by community college students. In 2020, 52% of all community college students reported experiencing housing insecurity, where housing often costs more than tuition. Housing insecurity is defined as unaffordable housing, poor housing quality, crowding, and frequent moves.

Increasingly, higher education institutions acknowledge that students can only be expected to achieve academic success or personal well-being once their basic needs are met. Dr. Kimberly Britt, Phoenix College President, said, "The student population at PC is impacted greatly by concerns such as housing insecurity. When students do not have the basic support and resources they need to survive, it can make it impossible for them to thrive in their academic pursuits. This grant will help our students by providing them with an essential foundation for success. Partnered with the resources we already provide to assist with food insecurity, this grant will help ensure more of our students are able to focus on their studies and not where they will sleep tonight or where they will find their next meal." 

Roberto Villegas Gold, Counseling Department Chair, led the grant effort with support from other members of the counseling department to demonstrate the need for housing funds. Villegas-Gold noted, "When Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) were released, we applied for and were awarded funds to establish the Single Stop program. [The program] supports basic needs and connects students to the federal and state benefits they are eligible for. When we hired social worker Kaylin Shady, she immediately said housing continues to be a huge concern. We sought out this grant because we had a novel idea about how to best support our students who are unhoused or experiencing homelessness." 

With HEERF funds, the Counseling Department dispersed over $100,000 of emergency funding to students in danger of losing their housing. "Emergency funding for a one-time need has turned into more permanent needs," Villegas-Gold said. "This grant will help with a much larger issue we weren't able to address [with HEERF funding]." $500,000 of the Department of Education grant will support students directly: paying rent, covering costs like utilities, and providing intensive career development to help students find work that pays them at a higher rate than when they entered the program. "We have all the resources available to help the students by tapping the relationships we already have with career services and some of our community partners," he said. "All we needed was the support to connect students to housing and bring on someone with a specific housing focus to build relationships with landlords and apartment complexes in our area." The three-year grant also funds a housing coordinator position. 

Villegas-Gold expects this housing assistance to provide long-term support and stability for PC students, not just during the three-year funding cycle but beyond. Reducing student reliance on financial aid for basic needs lowers the amount of student debt they have when they graduate. The program's long-term impact is two-fold: promote college graduation and degree attainment, and eliminate the return to homelessness. Homelessness and education are intimately linked. Without a degree, students are more likely to struggle financially and be stuck in a cycle of intergenerational economic disempowerment. Housing stability requires that people have access to jobs that pay a living wage, which means that an educational degree is one of the critical components for long-term success in housing stability. 

Original source can be found here.