Being homeless is not something you usually want to admit. For most people, it’s not even on their radar, but it is an issue that needs more awareness on the Elon University campus. It seems strange to think of students sleeping in cars, but the truth is that it happens, and it’s a more widespread problem than you might think.
Homelessness doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a process. For me, the process started late last August when I received an email from the Bursar’s Office informing me I needed to write a huge check if I wanted to return to Elon in the fall. I’ve received this email every year, but while Elon’s cost of attendance rose every year, my financial aid package slowly shrunk. At the beginning of my senior year, I was out of money and options. After being tossed between the Office of Financial Planning and the Bursar’s Office for days, they told me in order to stay at Elon, I would need to find a place to live off-campus, which for me meant finding a job.
Taking seven classes and working a part-time job wasn’t easy, so I was relieved in a way when I lost that job due to my limited availability. I wasn’t as relieved when I realized this meant I had to move out of my house. With nowhere else to go I found myself, at the end of October, moving back home to Raleigh.
I knew trying to finish the semester would be difficult with a two-hour commute every day, but I didn’t have any choice. I woke up early to make it to Elon for my 8 a.m. class and drove back to Raleigh late at night. To save gas, I slept on friend’s couches or in the library. The back seat of my car was my closet, bookshelf and cupboard.
I attended events with free food, found faculty lounges with coffee makers and made friends with dining hall workers who occasionally gave me leftovers. I made being homeless a science.
I finally found a place to stay at Thanksgiving Break. My church has a program that allows families to “adopt” college students so they can have homecooked meals and a place to stay during holidays — I was in need of both. When they learned of my situation, my adopted family invited me to rent out their spare room for the rest of the year, an invitation I accepted gratefully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zvt8vkpt3E&list=UU_hlA78Ox-M0avU29j1dHrg
Along with the physical and psychological effects of this homelessness, my academic performance suffered. It should come as no surprise that students can’t do well when their basic needs are not met.
A home isn’t just a place to stay. It’s a foundation that students need. I know I have not been the only homeless student at Elon. I wasn’t homeless for long — only about four weeks. I can only imagine how much more difficult that semester would have been had I been homeless the entire semester and not able to commute to Raleigh for a time.
Where are the resources on campus for those students that struggle to find affordable housing? Where could I have gone for guidance and support when I saw this coming? If you admit a student with financial need, which Elon wants to do more in the future, you should see them through and make sure they receive enough financial and academic support to graduate.
Elon prides itself on being a residential campus. It’s spent millions of dollars creating one. If it has the facilities but not the resources to provide access to those facilities, that’s not something to be proud of.
There are students at Elon who are homeless and need the support of this institution in order to finish their educations. Elon should pay attention to its students and care about where they sleep at night. If students are here, but are not set up for success, the university is doing them a disservice.