This housing program keeps California college students off the streets and in the classroom

Presley Wilson’s priorities shifted from college to finding a new home after she got booted from her studio apartment in the middle of her first semester at Cal State Long Beach.

Homelessness loomed for the transfer student when her financial aid package arrived too late to keep her from falling behind on her rent.

Then, three weeks before she had to leave her apartment, a university case worker located a slot in a state-funded program designed to get students out of homelessness and back on track to earning a degree.

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With money for the deposit on a new apartment, plus a $500-a-month subsidy for the next year, the sociology major now can focus once again on pursuing a career as a public policy researcher.

“It’s a massive reduction in stress,” said Wilson, 39. “Just the ability to focus on taking the next steps towards a career that I can do. … Getting the degree opens up more avenues.”

The path through college often is filled with pitfalls, triumphs, struggles and many, many sleepless nights.

But for some, the challenge of passing a midterm or completing a paper is compounded by the need to find a safe place to sleep at night.

Data shows at least 8% of public university students experienced homelessness at some point each year, sleeping in their cars or in shelters, couch surfing at friends’ homes or living in unsafe or unstable conditions. At community colleges, 24% of students experienced homelessness.

For the past decade, universities and community groups have taken steps to address student homelessness.

And state lawmakers added their support, appropriating $148 million over the past five years for “rapid rehousing,” a program designed to keep students off the streets and in the classroom.

“The state had recognized that … in terms of the jobs that are going to be available in the next 10-20 years, we needed more college graduates,” said Debbie Raucher, interim director of John Burton Advocates for Youth, which sponsored the legislation behind the rapid rehousing program.

“In order to do that, we had to address the non-academic challenges that students were facing.”

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The rapid rehousing program that rescued Presley Wilson from homelessness provides rent subsidies along with a wide variety of “wrap-around” services — from financial literacy and life skills training to academic counseling and mental health support.

“We actually have to invest the resources such that the students who are experiencing the greatest needs do have the support that they need to be successful,” Raucher said.

‘A Hyundai is not a home’

Louis Tse spent two years living in his car while pursing a doctorate in engineering at UCLA. Not because he couldn’t afford to pay rent on an apartment. But because he wanted to save up his rent money to start a homeless shelter for college students.

The Bruin Shelter opened in Santa Monica in 2016, operating until recently when it had to shut down to hunt for a new site.

Louis Tse outside the student-run Trojan Shelter in Koreatown, which provides housing for homeless college students. Tse, 35, lived in his car for two years to raise money for the Bruin Shelter, which he founded in 2016. While the Bruin Shelter currently is searching for a new site, the Trojan Shelter houses four students in a converted church rectory. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marcus Anders, 21, spent a year living at the Trojan Shelter in Los Angeles while pursuing a career in nursing. He now volunteers at the site, which is run by USC students. “I’m worried about exams, my job,” said Emmett Liljegren, Trojan Shelter president. “These students are worried about basic needs.” (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Louis Tse, 35, executive director of Student MOJO, in the kitchen of the Trojan Shelter, one of four student-run shelters supported by the non-profit Student MOJO. UCLA’s Bruin Shelter and UC Santa Cruz’ Slug Shelter currently are shut down while looking for new sites. But the Trojan Shelter and UC Davis’ Aggie House currently provide stable housing for homeless college students. “Education is the best anti-poverty measure you can (provide),” Tse said. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marcus Anders, 21, rifles through clothing available for students, including interview attire, in the Resource Room at Trojan Shelter in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 2024. Anders, who lived in the shelter while pursuing a career in nursing, now volunteers at the student-run shelter. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Louis Tse outside the student-run Trojan Shelter in Koreatown, which provides housing for homeless college students. Tse, 35, lived in his car for two years to raise money for the Bruin Shelter, which he founded in 2016. While the Bruin Shelter currently is searching for a new site, the Trojan Shelter houses four students in a converted church rectory. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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But the program served as a model for the Trojan Shelter, now housing four students in a converted church rectory in Koreatown; and the Aggie House, a student-run shelter at UC Davis. The three shelters, which aren’t part of the rapid rehousing program, are examples of how others responded to student homelessness.

“I would see students who were sleeping in classrooms or conference rooms. These aren’t places where you sleep. It’s clearly a last resort,” Tse said. “I just sort of sat with that for a couple months and decided that I had to do something about it, and that’s how Bruin Shelter got started.”

Many of the homeless students Tse saw coming through the Bruin Shelter didn’t have a network of family or friends, he said. Sometimes they came from the foster care system. Some were undocumented. Many were gay, lesbian or trans students who had been disowned by their family. Data show that homeless students are disproportionality from minority backgrounds.

“Residents are looking for people that they can rely on, whether that’s their peers, their fellow students or mentors,” said Tse. “We try to surround them with the social capital that they weren’t privileged to have up to that point.”

The two years he spent in his car weren’t easy, Tse said.

“One thing that’s always stayed with me is the last thing that I would see before going to sleep, and the first thing I would see when I’d wake up in the morning is the roof of my car. And that always kind of centered my purpose,” he said. “A Hyundai is not a home. People need a home to do homework. Like, it’s literally in the word.”

Intensive services

Under the rapid rehousing program, colleges and universities partner with homeless service providers already operating in their community.

A portion of the money pays university staff who refer students to the partner agencies and continue to oversee their progress. The partner agencies help students find housing and provide rent subsidies and additional support.

Wrap-around services keep students housed and on track by providing life skills training, mental health services and academic support. Career centers help students find jobs. Gradually, the case workers guide the students to self-sufficiency.

“It’s not like, now you’re in housing and you’re all done, you’re all fixed,” said Cal State Long Beach Professor Rashida Crutchfield, who co-authored the state’s first study documenting on-campus hunger and homelessness. “Getting someone into housing is a first, critically important step. And then, … you support the student in maintaining that housing while they’re going to school.”

The students who use rapid housing usually have significant challenges, added Danielle Munoz, director of the Basic Needs program at Cal State Long Beach.

“They may not be able to work for, like, a year. Or there’s a lot of chaos,” she said. “There’s behavioral challenges. There’s a lot of students who actually have so much trauma, they really struggle with the roommates.

“The rapid rehousing agency helps the student rehabilitate, because there’s a reason they went homeless, and it’s not that fast to fix. Sometimes it’s rehabilitating their trauma so they can have roommates. A lot of them have learned helplessness, so they’re just scared and don’t think they can do it. So, we take a lot of time with our students.”

Thousands housed

High rent is the key reason why students end up on the streets, program administrators say.

In the 18 years since today’s college freshmen were born, Southern California’s average apartment rent has increased between $675 to $1,100 a month, CoStar figures show.

And students often pay a “rent premium” for apartments close to campus.

“Oh, my gosh, you should see what they charge our students,” Munoz said. Rents for apartments near her campus easily range from $1,500 to $2,000 a month.