They barely make enough money to pay for college. Sometimes they have to choose between buying a textbook or buying food. Making rent, finding food, paying bills, raising a child, and dealing with abusive partners— these are some of the roadblocks many students face as they work toward earning their degrees.

“College leaders are often embarrassed to admit that there is a problem on their campus,” says the researcher Sara Goldrick-Rab. As the founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, a research and advocacy institute at Temple University, Goldrick-Rab says colleges need to stop thinking about such challenges only as personal issues that services like food banks alone can solve. It takes community involvement and systemic changes to solve the problems of financial instability.

Below are interviews with five students who have all experienced food or housing insecurity – or both. The interviews were conducted in September during a Goldrick-Rab-organized event, “#RealCollege: A National Convening on Food and Housing Insecurity,” held at Temple University.

Chant’e Catt

The high cost of housing takes a toll

At 39, Catt has a B.A. in sociology and is studying for a master’s in social work at Humboldt State University. She learned how to talk about housing insecurity in the 1990s when, as a teenager, she and her family became homeless. A first-generation student whose understanding of people in need put her on a path to getting a degree in social work, she says, “Education wasn’t big in my family at all. There wasn’t a lot of value in it.”

Three years ago while they were both community college students, Catt met her partner, Justin Fishman, a former Army helicopter mechanic. They had a daughter together, and when Catt was accepted to Humboldt State University, they thought they could buy or rent a home nearby. “This is a new start for us, we can buy a home, we can go to college,” she said she remembered thinking at the time.

They looked for a home for a year and a half, but couldn’t find a place they could afford. Thanks to a competitive rental market, where dozens of bids were put in for every available apartment, they unexpectedly found themselves homeless.

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Chante Catt

The young family alternated camping and staying in hotel rooms. A one-time state homeless grant and aid from veteran services helped them get into an apartment they had previously been denied.

IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYBODY

Catt worries that there is a misconception that students don’t know how to manage their money, but she says the real issue is that many students are right on the financial edge. Furthermore, “a lot of this intersects with race and first-generation students,” groups she says are already marginalized. “This could happen to anybody.”

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Chante Catt

ACKNOWLEDGING THE NEED

During her time at Humboldt State, Catt has been asked why she moved to Arcata, in Northern California, when she didn’t have a home there. The simple is answer is she wanted to go to college. “The fact that I was even in school as a 36-year-old first-generation student was an accomplishment,” she said. If she didn’t keep going, “it might never happen. I might never finish my education.”

The ordeal inspired Catt and other students to create the Student Housing Advocate Alliance, a club for students who have experienced housing insecurity. That led to Catt being hired by the university as a student intern and later as an off-campus housing liaison, one of the first in the California State University system, to handle case management around student housing issues.

RECOGNIZING RED FLAGS

One of Catt’s goals is to help faculty and other students recognize when someone is struggling. Observing and engaging students when there are red flags – like failing tests or missing deadlines — are key. Maybe poor class performance is a sign of a hidden issue? Catt knows firsthand the challenges that arise from homelessness — like when she was living in a campground that lacked internet access. She says faculty members can have a positive impact by “just acknowledging the students’ needs and humanizing the connection of professors and students.”

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Chante Catt

Frankie Becerra

A winter night he won’t forget inspires to him talk about food insecurity

Frankie Becerra is studying political science with a focus in business law at the University of Minnesota and has plans to go to law school. When he was a child, Becerra’s immigrant parents struggled to make ends meet. His status as a DACA recipient meant that he could work his way through college, but would not be eligible for federal financial aid.

As a result, he took a year and a half off to work and earn enough money to return to college. His college career isn’t following the timeline Becerra expected. He thought he’d have completed college and be working on a master’s at 23, not still pursuing his undergraduate degree.

Now president of the student cabinet at LeadMN, a nonprofit group that provides leadership training and advocacy for the 180,000 students who attend Minnesota’s two-year colleges, Becerra decided to get involved in the issue of food security after a late night at work left him cold, tired, and hungry.

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Frankie Becerra

During that long, cold walk back to campus, he thought, “the only thing lower than my bank account was the temperature outside.” As a student on the meal plan, he was dependent on the campus eatery, which would not open for several more hours. His energy drained, he just wanted to sleep. But he couldn’t, because he was so hungry.

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Frankie Becerra

NOT JUST SKIPPING A MEAL

Becerra is concerned that too many faculty and staff members fail to understand the depth of food insecurity on campus. “Food insecurity is not only just skipping a meal,” says Becerra, “because everyone at some point has skipped a meal.” Instead, he says, “Food insecurity is not knowing when your next meal is going to be.” He says the college administration does a disservice to the students if they do not recognize food insecurity as a systemic issue. Faculty must also understand that for many students, their coursework is only part of their lives — that sometimes students need to put their basic needs first.

A NEW STANDARD

Becerra grew up with a free meal plan for schoolchildren and thinks this is one solution for college students. “The free and reduced lunch would be a great strategy to try,” Becerra says, especially since, in his view, a two-year college degree is required now to find work. He says the same logic applies for college students as it does for elementary-school kids: You can’t learn when you’re hungry.

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Frankie Becerra

Katherine Cowley

Not all homelessness is a result of financial instability

Failing a test the day after she was forced to leave her apartment may have been the only signal that something was drastically wrong in Katherine (Kat) Cowley’s life. She was in her last semester as an undergraduate, she says, when it was no longer safe to remain with her partner and she moved out. The experience and the help she received have made her a believer in the power of storytelling. Cowley, now a 22-year-old graduate student at the U. of Montana, is one of two students on the university’s Food and Housing Insecurity Committee, which set up a campus food pantry and is now focusing on more ways to support students facing basic-needs insecurity.

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Katherine Cowley

LOOKS CAN BE DECEPTIVE

That failed test came the day after she was forced to leave her home, and prompted her to open up about what she was going through. “I told my statistics professor that I was struggling because I failed a test,” Cowley says. It was a turning point. Her professor made sure that Crowley had the resources she needed to continue her coursework “because that was what was most important to me.” Trying to keep a sense of normalcy, Cowley needed the structure of classes and meetings. Yet routines can also mask what is really going on in students’ lives.

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Katherine Cowley

THE POWER OF STORY

Cowley plans on continuing her advocacy work after she completes her master’s degree. “I’m a big believer in the power of story and just letting students know that you are not alone,” she says. Students need to know that they are not the first to experience a particular problem, and they need to know about resources and guidance that they probably never thought they would need, she explains.

The “fierce advocacy” Cowley said she received from the Student Advocacy Resource Center, which provides counseling for students who face assault, among other things, was instrumental in her continuing her education. The center staff helped her deal with the Title IX office and the dean of students. “I know that I couldn’t have done any of those things on my own,” she says.

When Cowley shared her story during her crisis, she experienced firsthand how important help is.

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Katherine Cowley

Oballa Oballa

A refugee sees how prevalent hunger is on his campus

Oballa Oballa spent nearly 10 years as a refugee in Kenya after fleeing genocide in his home country of Ethiopia. He thought he had left food insecurity behind when he came to the United States to rebuild his life and get an education. Oballa works two jobs and attends Riverland Community College, in Austin, Minn. He is studying social service with plans to become a social worker. His jobs barely cover his expenses.

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Oballa Oballa

A VICIOUS CYCLE

It’s a tough balancing act — deciding to buy books and go without food, but when Oballa is hungry, his energy drops and all he wants to do is sleep. “I would rather stay in my room until I have that energy to go to class,” he says.

“Food insecurity is real at every community college,” Oballa says. “Someone will say, ‘Oh, you’re a college student, you work two jobs, you can afford to buy food,’” but paying for college out of pocket often means Oballa finds himself broke.

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Oballa Oballa

THE ROLE OF FACULTY

As a member of the student senate, Oballa successfully lobbied to get a campus food pantry. Pizza was one of the first items stocked, “so students could grab slices on their way to class,” Oballa says.

Oballa warns that initiatives are not going to succeed unless there is faculty support. “If a student wants to start a pantry, if there’s no staff, they will say no.” At Riverland, the staff helped convince skeptics of the need and helped start a donation drive.

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Oballa Oballa

As vice president of the student cabinet at LeadMN, the same advocacy group Becerra belongs to, Oballa raises awareness about the prevalence of student hunger, but stresses that food pantries do not resolve students’ financial-stability problems. Among the issues Oballa thinks about are fees. “Why do I have to pay for parking?” Oballa wonders, when he does not own a car.

“A lot of students drop out of college because they’re like, ‘I can’t do it no more, I can’t do it,’ but if we can do something for them and secure their basic needs, they can succeed. We should be hungry to learn, but not hungry for food.”

Kassandra Montes

A single mother knows students aren’t the only ones struggling

“Being a single mom is a huge challenge because going to school and taking care of your child is harder than anything,” says Kassandra Montes, who is living in a shelter as she waits for a voucher to get into a place of her own. “Sometimes you are so tired and fatigued you let things go, and you just seem to be a procrastinator instead of a person that does what is supposed to be done.”

Montes studies biochemistry and philosophy with a minor in biology at the City University of New York’s Lehman College. She is also vice president of internal affairs for student government, works several jobs, and raises her son by herself. Montes remembers when she first moved to New York from Miami at 18: “It was easy because I didn’t have anyone to worry about, just myself. I ended up having a child and forming a life that I wanted for myself.” But when her relationship ended, she could no longer afford her apartment and was forced to move into the shelter. “It has been the roughest ride I have ever encountered.”

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Kassandra Montes

For a single mother in college, the challenges are significant. Montes is using the resources available to her, but her housing insecurity often distracts her from class.

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Kassandra Montes

NOT JUST STUDENTS

As she struggles with her own challenges, Montes is also attuned to what’s going on around her – that students may not be the only ones on campus experiencing housing insecurity. As she works toward her degree, she sees an industry where academics acquire significant debt and then cannot get tenure positions with livable salaries. Montes shares a common bond with the adjunct professors she knows who are just getting by financially and are forced to choose “between food or having a home.”

Despite the obstacles, Montes is determined to finish school and appreciates those professors who find ways to help her.

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Kassandra Montes

Epilogue

As of November 2018, Chant’e Catt is continuing her work toward bringing equitable practices to housing in the Humboldt State community. Kat Cowley has been named the Student Coordinator for the new U. of Montana Food Pantry, scheduled to open February 1, 2019. Frankie Becerra is still working two jobs and going to school full-time. Oballa Oballa remains dedicated to raising awareness about food insecurity in Minnesota, and Kassandra Montes is in her 11th month in a shelter with her son as they wait for a voucher.