This article by Blake Ellis from CNN Money describes the issue of being homeless in college. I had never really given thought to homeless college students before reading this article. I suppose I had the assumption that if you could afford to go to college, you couldn’t be homeless. But after reading this article, I realize that this is assumption is just as flawed as the rest. I was shocked that there were 58,158 (reported) homeless college applicants in the 2012-2013 school year. The true number is probably even higher than this, since people often don’t consider themselves homeless if they are living in a car or in on friends’ couches. As Duffield says, “‘There’s an assumption that if you’re homeless, you’re so focused on basic needs like food and shelter that school isn’t a concern,’ said Duffield. ‘But for these youth, education is the answer — the jobs that are available don’t pay good wages if you don’t have a degree, so [education] is the only way out of their situation.'”

These students work harder than most others to get through school because they can barely even afford to pay the 15% (or more) of their tuition that financial aid doesn’t cover.
Yet, they can’t afford to stay on campus over breaks. I know that the University of Redlands charges students to stay on campus over winter break. This makes me wonder how many students can’t afford to stay here during the month long break and if any are technically homeless during that time. Though this is a fairly affluent university, there may be some students who have no home to return to during the breaks.