Student housing at community colleges is somewhat rare — only 28% of community colleges in America have on-campus dormitory options for their students. But the last twenty years have seen a growing number of community colleges try to find creative ways to help their students who are housing or food insecure.
“Students have to decide if they’re going to eat and pay rent, or be able to go to college,” said Dr. Martha Parham, the senior vice president of public relations at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).
The need for those solutions was heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and “things like transportation, living expenses, housing, access to broadband have come to the forefront,” said Parham.
Many community college students are parents, said Dr. Karen A. Stout, president of Achieving the Dream. “Their first priority is their children. Taking care of those first priorities like housing, food, and child care, will open the bandwidth for students to engage, to be more productive, because of the environment they’re in.”
“A lot of colleges are thinking differently about community-based partnerships, working with homeless communities and providers, thinking very creatively about being a venue for affordable housing,” said Stout.
Parham said that it can be shocking to look at community college statistics, “when you start to understand the real issues our students are facing.” Of community colleges students, in general, 30% are first generation students, 15% are single parents and older, she added. “The vast majority (72%) are working, so they’re attending part time. They’re trying to take care of their families and deal with the issues that life brings with it while trying to get an education.”
Parham adds though there is no empirical evidence that dormitories make dealing with all these issues better, solutions for student housing directly confront the major issues of housing and food insecurity.
