Renee Westbrook is a mature, middle class, college-educated African American woman, a former journalist, who suddenly found herself homeless.
I met her at the San Diego International Fringe Festival where we are both performing our one-person plays. Mine is called “Amok Monologues: Short History of an American Filipino (NPR, Harvard, Death on Mission St.).
Westbrook’s is called “Shelter,” her personal tale of seeking shelter for the night and finding she is not alone. She tells stories of other people of different ethnicities, circumstances, who found themselves without a place to call home.
It can happen to anyone.
After seeing her show, I found out the broad definition of homeless would also include a segment I didn’t expect: college students.
A new national survey taken at 70 community colleges across 24 states is now part of growing data that shows college students are not immune.
“We’re the third study to find either 13 or 14 percent, so it’s consistent,” Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor at Temple University told the Associated Press. “But at the same time, my bigger concern, and the thing that staggers me a little bit, is thinking this could be an underestimate.”
