More and more colleges are closing their classroom doors — and in some cases, their residence halls — as epidemiologists urge people to refrain from public gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, while beneficial to public health and safety, such precautions may place the heaviest burden on those who are most vulnerable: former foster youth with housing and food insecurity.
In a Facebook live press conference outside the capitol building on Thursday, U.S. representatives Karen Bass, D-Calif., and Danny K. Davis, D-Ill., urged colleges and universities to consider the collateral costs of closing residence halls, cafeterias and classrooms.
“I’m deeply concerned that many decisions to decrease community spread of the virus could unintentionally cause substantial hardship on the vulnerable and foster youth,” said Davis. “Cancelling classes for weeks, closing school dorms, shutting cafeterias, requiring online coursework could all create substantial barriers for these young people who have fought so hard to make it to college.”
According to Davis, a significant proportion of college students who grew up in the child foster care system face homelessness while attending school. In 2018, the Wisconsin Hope Lab surveyed 686 former foster youth who were currently in college. More than 60% of them reported that they were food and housing insecure and almost 1 in 4 reported they had experienced homelessness in the year prior to taking the survey.
Similarly, a report published last month by The Hope Center surveyed 167,000 students from 171 two-year institutions and 56 four-year institutions in the fall of 2019. In that survey, 39% of respondents said they were food insecure in the prior 30 days, 46% said they were housing insecure in the previous year and 17% said they were homeless in the previous year.
“If colleges are dismissed, then what’s going to happen to those students?” asked Bass. “… As we prepare to address this virus from a preventive, intervention and treatment standpoint, we need to think about any measures that we take and the consequences of those measures.”
Standing beside Davis and Bass was Shay House, a former foster youth who is now a member of the National Foster Institute and an employee of Casey Family Programs.
