By attending Community College of Philadelphia, Quaris Carter is trying to break out of his cycle of poverty and chronic homelessness.
Carter, who is entering his third semester at the college, said he could think of no other way to break out of the poverty and chronic homelessness that has been his lot for the past three years.
“If this doesn’t work, I just don’t know of any other way,” said Carter.
People aren’t surprised to see homeless people huddled for warmth on steam grates or panhandling on street corners. Most people don’t expect to see homeless individuals sitting in college classrooms with books open and pens poised. Yet a growing number of college undergraduates are pursuing their degrees without the assurance they will have a roof over their heads.
According to data from Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), 58,000 applicants nationwide self-identified as homeless in the 2013-2014 academic year, up from 33,000 students in the 2010-2011 academic year. Since colleges are not required to keep track of their homeless students, the FAFSA form is the only significant data available.
A hidden problem
However, the FAFSA numbers do not reveal how widespread the problem is and do not cover all the students who might be homeless, said Barbara Duffield, policy director at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY).
