Higher Education Housing Continuum

• In Event: Homelessness and Housing Insecurity in Higher Education

Abstract

Objective and Significance: Common notions of homelessness and housing insecurity revolve around visibility. An important aspect of understanding how students experience housing insecurity in high education is breaking stereotypical presumptions. In doing so, the scope of the issue becomes more evident as well as increasing the urgency for researching and addressing the issue. The goal of this paper is to provide a framework for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

Perspective/Theoretical Framework: This paper employs a trauma-informed approach. Scholars have begun to understand how traumatic experiences significantly impact how individuals engage with the educational process. Homelessness often involves multiple traumas, including loss of stability, exploitation, substance abuse, and fractured relationships (e.g., Rokach, 2005; Tierney, Gupton & Hallett, 2008). Even after stability gets reestablished, the resulting trauma often impacts perception of self and how individuals engage in the educational process (Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness, 2016). Using a trauma-informed approach allows for critically considering the range of possible ways individuals may experience housing insecurity.

Methods and Data Sources: Multiple sources inform this paper. First, research was reviewed related to homelessness and housing insecurity. Second, analysis was conducted of federal and state policies framing housing insecurity in K-12 and higher education. Finally, the definitional continuum was presented to higher education practitioners at multiple institutions across the US to receive feedback. The resulting framework represents a thoughtful approach to understanding the issue of housing insecurity in high education.

Results/Conclusions: The paper introduces the Higher Education Housing Continuum as a framework and definitional approach for research, policy and practice (see Chart 1). The housing continuum is situated within postsecondary institutions in order provide definitional parameters that inclusively identify how students experience housing insecurity. The continuum avoids the binary approach of “homelessness” or “not homeless”—which oversimplifies the experiences of students living without housing security.

The continuum presents categories within columns, but also acknowledges the movement within and between categories. Gray area exists between the categories as well as situations that overlap columns. Although the categories move from left to right from the least to the most stable that does not mean that movement along the continuum necessarily happens sequentially. And it also does not mean that college students will not experience movement from right to left as housing security erodes when a crisis emerges in their lives. A person in a stable housing situation could end up homeless.

Significance: Homelessness and housing insecurity is an equity issue that often gets ignored or overlooked. The aforementioned research suggests this issue is significantly larger than most people realize. Emerging research supports the need for scholars to critically engage with the issue of housing insecurity in higher education. Having a consistent understanding of the terminology is a critical aspect of designing research, policy and practice. Aviles de Bradley (2015) argues that in addressing education access for students experiencing housing insecurity is an issue of social justice.

Author

• Ronald Hallett, University of the Pacific