Attending college classes online and studying at home doesn’t mean long hours in a home office or at the kitchen table for students like Douglas Marler.
For the past four years, Marler, 31, has lived in his compact SUV.
He just wrapped up his first year at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, where he is pursuing a degree in cyber security and networking. He already holds an associate degree in political science.
Since spring, he’s attended his classes online because of the pandemic.
And, as a houseless student, he’s part of a cohort of community college students that was already increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States.
Those who work with houseless college students say their clients were already struggling to balance their fundamental needs, and those problems have become more urgent as schools and students adapt to a post-COVID-19 reality.
Each fall since 2015, community colleges throughout Oregon have participated in the Real College Survey, an assessment of students’ basic needs that includes questions about housing status.
Last year, 1 in 5 students at Mt. Hood Community College experienced some form of houselessness, and more than half experienced housing insecurity during the past year.
At Portland Community College, 14% of students experienced houselessness and 40% reported housing insecurity in 2019. The college system did not provide retention data when Street Roots requested it.
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The criteria used by the survey are broad: Anyone without a designated, safe place to sleep each night is considered homeless, said Amber High, the marketing and communications coordinator at Mt. Hood Community College.
That includes students like Marler who are sleeping in vehicles and those who are couch surfing, High said.
The median age of a student at Mt. Hood Community College is 30, which means many students experiencing houselessness are too old to qualify for educational services under the umbrella of the Homeless Youth Continuum, which includes organizations like Outside In and New Avenues For Youth, where most services are capped at age 24.
The college coordinates with those organizations, along with Human Solutions, Central City Concern, the Urban League and other social services organizations to provide wraparound services for students facing barriers to continuing their education — including GED services, as well as vocational education and associate degrees offered by the school.
Bhaktirose Dawdy, who co-founded and coordinates the school’s Student Success Program, said she’s heard from numerous students who’ve had to withdraw because they lost their jobs or housing this spring. She also said her staff is continuously working to get students access to the things they need to stay afloat.
“Connecting with and reconnecting with resources is a big piece of what we do. And with the pandemic, those resources have been rapidly changing,” she said. “You know, they’ll open up resources for 48 hours and close them, and if you’re in the know, and you get in line at the right time — virtually or in person — you’re good. And if you missed it, you missed it,” she said.
Her program delivers food boxes, provides gas cards to students who live in their vehicles, provides rapid-charging batteries for students who need to keep their phones and computers charged, and helps with utility bills.
Covering bills “gets a little tricky when you’re talking about houseless folks, because they might be paying to stay on someone’s couch, like $50 a week or a month,” Dawdy said. “So sometimes we’ll pay their phone bill so that they can free up the dollars to pay for staying on that couch. And that way, we can still ensure a bit more of housing or stability for them without having to be like, ‘Oh, I need a rent agreement.’”
Rose said it’s not clear how many students have dropped out of college due to COVID-19 because her office can continue to work with students who aren’t enrolled. But, she has heard from students who have left and students who’ve decided to decrease their course load because they have sensory processing issues that make online learning more difficult.
Marler told Street Roots that in addition to access on campus and educational materials, he lost other resources he needs when the pandemic hit, such as an access to a local office that allowed him use of a shower, water, restroom, gym, the internet and electricity.
“The rona raised my profile in the neighborhood,” Marler said in an email to Street Roots. “I am still settling the debris the rona kicked up. The rona is exhausting.”
Marler accesses the internet through an unlimited cellphone data plan that includes 50 GB of Wi-Fi hot spot use.
Mt. Hood Community College is in the process of buying some hot spots for students but is still “working out the logistics” of ensuring more consistent internet access for students, High said.
“For now, we have to work with one student at a time on a case-by-case basis to determine the best path forward for them and will hopefully have a more one-size-fits-all approach to this problem soon,” High said.
For now, students can access classes online and tutoring sessions via Zoom.
Marler said he prefers online classes, but for other community college students experiencing housing insecurity, the shift to online learning has been bumpier.
Daniel, 23, has been living in a studio apartment in Portland through Outside In’s transitional housing program. He has started attending classes at Portland Community College.
Daniel, who asked to be referred to by a pseudonym in this story, is able to access the internet at his apartment using a Chromebook he got through school.
Loraine Schmitt, PCC’s dean of online learning, said the college provided 400 laptops and 300 Wi-Fi hot spots through a $100,000 grant from Comcast.
But online classes are harder, Daniel said. He’s used to being able to ask questions in class and misses participating in discussions that give him access to different points of view. Some of PCC’s classes are offered asynchronously, meaning students can log in anytime. Even those offered through video chat must be recorded so students can access them on their own schedule.
“Being present in class helps you stay alert,” he told Street Roots. “When you’re at home, it kind of makes you slack and just lazier.”
Daniel has continued his education with summer classes. He hopes to pursue a career in information technology and has been taking technical writing classes to that end.
He has a scholarship through Outside In that offers assistance with books and supplies as well as transportation and unmet tuition, but he is struggling to find work to help cover his other living expenses.
The pandemic threw more than 400,000 Oregonians out of work and led many companies to freeze hiring. Daniel — who has worked in fast food, warehouses and industrial jobs such as sheet-metal bending — told Street Roots he’s still looking for a job.
Daniel said he wrote a paper for one of his classes about what houseless students need to thrive. The answer was simple: housing.
“People need to be in the right environment in order to survive,” Daniel said.