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Food and housing insecurity can impact the academic work of college students, causing some to drop out of school. This policy brief from NextGen Policy positions Compton College as a model for how other California community colleges can address food and housing insecurity on their campuses.
The brief highlights a variety of ways in which Compton College is working to ensure students have their basic needs covered so that they are free to pursue their education without worrying about their next meal or wondering where they will sleep each night. Among the school’s strategies:
- Rather than having to declare what resources students are struggling to obtain multiple times to different offices and or programs, Compton College students only need to fill out one form to request assistance. All staff members then guide students to this form where students receive the information they need for all of the basic needs resources available at Compton College.
- To address student homelessness, Compton College partners with the Coalition for Responsible Community Development to implement the Shallow Subsidy Housing Assistance Program. CRCD is a community development corporation in South Los Angeles striving to improve the quality of life in South Central LA. As part of SSHAP, students receive a monthly rental subsidy, housing stability planning, and links to other services.
- Compton College has implemented several programs to provide students with on-campus food resources. First, the college has a data sharing agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Public and Social Services (DPSS) to share student data for students who are interested in food resources. After receiving consenting students’ information, DPSS then contacts students to obtain the remaining information needed to apply to CalFresh, a state-run program that provides low-income Californians with monthly food benefits. Within the first 30 days of this partnership, there was a 10 percent increase in the number of Compton College students enrolled in CalFresh.
- Lack of reliable transportation results in high rates of tardiness and absences, which negatively impacts student success. To support its students, Compton College partners with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide all enrolled Compton College students with “TapToGo” passes that are good for the entire semester. With TapToGo passes, students have access to several bus and rail services through multiple local transportation agencies. There are no time limitations for using these passes, meaning students have access to public transportation to and from school or for any other needs, any day of the week, including weekends.