Precarity among college and university students is so widespread that it is often talked about as a rite of passage. But post-secondary homelessness and housing insecurity come with a real human cost—they should not be normalized as just part of the student experience.
Post-secondary student homelessness is quite widespread in Canada. One study found that 6% of post-secondary students experience homelessness, while another shockingly put the number at 28%. Despite this, post-secondary student homelessness doesn’t receive the attention it deserves, either in terms of research or solutions.
To fill this gap, Eric Weissman and his coauthors from the Post-Secondary Student Homelessness Research Network have recently published the findings of a multi-site, qualitative study on post-secondary student homelessness.
The Post-Secondary Student Homelessness Research Project
The project has its origins in a smaller study in 2017 that was expanded thanks to funding from the Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab. Weissman and his coauthors conducted a scoping literature review and a global resource scan to lay the groundwork for 65 interviews with students with lived experience of housing precarity and homelessness and 54 interviews with staff at post-secondary institutions across Canada. They used their findings to create a toolkit that institutions can use to work towards solving homelessness among their students.
Causes of Post-Secondary Student Homelessness
Financial precarity was, unsurprisingly, the main cause of student homelessness identified in the study. One striking finding was that students who are members of marginalized groups are at much higher risk of housing precarity and homelessness: among student participants, 71% were women, 54% were racialized, and 24% identified as 2SLGBTQ+. This is in keeping with other that shows these groups are more likely to experience financial precarity.
More than half of student participants were employed, which one study has associated with lower rates of graduation. Thirty-one percent of students relied on student loans, although these were often identified as being insufficient, resulting in debt and the need to make sacrifices around basic needs and safety. Student debt is associated with worse mental health, which was also apparent among students in this study. As well, students who experienced homelessness tended to be more isolated, with the majority declaring only occasional or rare contact with their families.
The second leading cause of post-secondary student homelessness identified in the study was domestic conflict or violence. Almost 20% of student respondents described having no choice but to stay in unsafe conditions just to keep a roof over their heads, and this lack of safety was the cause of homelessness in 15% of cases.
Consequences of Post-Secondary Student Homelessness
In addition to the direct harms of homelessness in terms of physical and mental health, all the above factors identified above—financial insecurity, working, debt, housing instability, unsafe housing—are associated with lower rates of academic success. Forty-four percent of student respondents described their grades as low, and 17% had previously attended post-secondary but had to stop. Sixty-three percent had missed school due to homelessness, and 55% stated that housing instability was a barrier to academic success. Homelessness among post-secondary students was also strongly associated with shame, with over 77% feeling shame and 71% having hidden their living situation from others.
In terms of available supports, although 39% of student participants were not aware of any support services available through their institution, many others did make use of available supports. Campus food banks were used by 28% of respondents, while fewer than 20% accessed emergency housing or funding. Students reported being unlikely to seek support even when they were aware that it existed, and this has been found to be more pronounced among racialized students. Existing campus resources around basic needs insecurity focus heavily on food, but there is an increasing focus on service navigation and awareness. This is important for addressing the knowledge gap that stops students accessing support.
Institutional Toolkit
Since every experience of post-secondary student homelessness is unique, solutions must be adapted to each student’s needs. Similarly, no two institutions face the same challenges. Rather than propose a list of recommendations to all institutions, Weissman and his coauthors created a set of tools that institutions can choose from (after consulting with students with lived experience and community partners). The toolkit is divided into four dimensions, and each one deals with a systemic factor that contributes to student homelessness. Here’s a brief summary:
Dimension 1: Collect data on the prevalence of student homelessness and its impacts while promoting available resources and improving system navigation.
Dimension 2: Help with financial precarity by simplifying and expediting applications for bursaries and loans and expanding programs that offer basic needs support.
Dimension 3: Improve access to mental health and social supports, notably by increasing awareness of existing resources.
Dimension 4: Respond to housing insecurity by creating a central database of housing resources, developing emergency housing programs, and exploring options for subsidized student housing.
By implementing specific measures across these four dimensions, institutions can stop students from becoming homeless while making it more likely students who experience precarity will remain in school. All of the measures are designed to avoid significant new costs and seek to create a service landscape in which students have options about how to meet their unique needs.
Systemic Change Is Possible
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Canadians were exposed to housing precarity who might otherwise have been shielded from it. This increased the prominence of the issue at the national and provincial levels, leading to new investment in solutions. The post-secondary sector is a crucial piece of this equation, because when stable housing is out of reach for students, education and social advancement are out of reach as well.
Post-secondary institutions have been dealing with the consequences of housing precarity and homelessness, like academic problems and financial stress, but a shift in perspective is required to see the underlying issues. The Post-Secondary Student Homelessness Research Project stems from a long-term commitment to creating systemic change around this issue, and the authors of the report see the current moment as an opportunity. It is possible to prevent and end student homelessness and make the sad cliché of student precarity a thing of the past.
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This research was funded by Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab, co-led by A Way Home Canada and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.
