In 2017, a survey made at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell shows that 5.4% (n=1004) were or have experienced homelessness within the last 5 years. As a social issue, homelessness has been affecting college students’ personal lives and academic performance, making it more difficult for them to successfully fulfill their goals. This paper addresses the effects and stereotypes of homelessness among college students, following the social constructivism framework by recognizing our own background, position, and interpretations shaped by our own experiences (Creswell and Poth, 2018). Suggestions on how by having an ethnographic approach and encouraging participatory research action (PAR) we could shed a light on homelessness on campus.
Keywords: Homelessness, College Students, Social Constructivism, Autoethnography
At College and Homeless
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development describe ‘Homeless’ as “an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any other unstable or non-permanent situation.” This social issue mostly occurs when individuals are incapable of buying and/or affording a roof over their heads, which could lead them to experience food insecurity, and being at-risk for physical and emotional disorders (Gundersen, Craig; et. al., 2003; Institute of Medicine, 1988; Goodman et. al, 1991). Heartbreaking and/or unexpected incidences can also cause homelessness, such as job loss, divorce and/or family disputes, a house/building fire, untreated mental illness, domestic violence, the loss of loved ones, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), physical disabilities, and natural disasters. Homelessness can also be the effect of structural issues (high housing costs, low household income), personal issues (mental illness, substance abuse, other physical and mental disabilities), and social policies (effectiveness of assisted housing, mental health, and substance abuse programs). Homelessness has also an impact on college campuses across the U.S. In many cases, college students struggle with homelessness due to the lack of support system or a cohesive way to address those who are at-risk of experiencing homelessness or are already experiencing this issue. This paper will focus on how homelessness affects college students, and how can my own personal narrative help in creating more awareness on this matter in order to alleviate and essentially end homelessness on campus, starting with the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
When I talk about homelessness on campus, for many students the notion of a college student not having a home is impactful and almost impossible for them to grasp. One of the reasons why is due to the concept of homelessness being interpreted as the picture of a person sleeping under a bridge or living in the streets. Stereotypes and the media also plays a key role in increasing the way people ‘box’ homeless persons. With headlines like, “Lowell: Don't give money to panhandlers,” “Lowell Council discusses clearing homeless from Lord Overpass area” (Lowell Sun); “Homeless man charged with beating, robbing elderly victim” (The Eagle Tribute). “Homelessness activists defend campaign to trash Melbourne streets” (Herald Sun); “Parents: Dirty needles, condoms litter path near school playground” (King TV), it is easy for anyone, with only has a narrowed idea or tunnel vision of homelessness, to stereotype and negatively affect those who have been facing this unfortunate situation.
People often forget that homelessness does not have a face; homelessness does not discriminate. This social problem can affect anyone, regardless of race/ethnicity, language, social/economic status, religion or ideology, migration status, political party, ability, and geographical location -yes- including college campuses. In this paper, I will be addressing the homeless population at UML and how homelessness affects college students. (1) I will present some data collected by observation and interactions (or fieldnotes), (2) practice reflexivity by reflecting in the past and transcending the present, and (3) employ conscientization through self-learning and critical self-inquiry (Bailey, 2018; Pillow, 2003; Lykes, 2007).
Literature Review
The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth claims that about 56,000 students self-reported as homeless on their 2013 annual Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin surveyed more than 4,000 undergrads across 70 community colleges in 24 states. Their findings include the report from 13% of the students describing themselves as homeless (Carapezza, 2017). Gupton (2017) states that “Homelessness is not merely a crisis of inadequate housing; rather, it is an example of the intersection of multiple forms of marginality within systems of inequity.” The New York Times recounts how homelessness is affecting college students in a way that other college students may not be aware of, couch-surfing (Harris, 2017). Gupton (2017) suggests [community] colleges create programs designed to support mobile and homeless students in areas such as academics, psychosocial, and mental health, as well as to reinforce the role of institutional and individual support with the goal of promoting resilience on a college campus. Despite literature on homelessness on campus being limited, the hopes on tackling this issue keep increasing.
Methodological Framework
The paradigm or interpretive framework underlying my research method is based on both social constructivism and autoethnography. Creswell and Poth (2018) describe this social constructivism as the need of our understanding the world in which we work and live by recognizing our own background, position, and interpretations shaped by our own experiences. Having these frameworks is suitable for my study because it allows me to bring my own historical and cultural background in order to have a holistic approach to my study.
Ethnography, derived from the Greek ethnos (nation or people) and graphia (writing), historically refers to the expressive study of other cultures through a researcher’s immersion in that culture (Dutta, 2014). I chose to have an autoethnographic approach because it creates a moral meaning that moves from the personal to the political, the local to the historical and the cultural, as well as the creation of spaces for ‘give and take’ between my readers and myself (Denzin and Lincoln, 2018).
Reflexibility and Positionality
I was born and raised in the north coast of the Dominican Republic, in a province named Puerto Plata (Silver Port). I identify myself as a heterosexual Afro-Latina, who grew under the beliefs of God and Christianity as part of the values and ethics of my family. My parents have always worked -which means that, as a child, I did not experience extreme poverty compared to other neighboring communities and families. My parents were not rich, but they managed to provide us with food, clothing and making sure we had what we need -although not always what we wanted or desired.
My father, who used to live in the States for over thirty years, met my mom after retiring and flying back home. He then met my mom and, thirty-three years ago, I was born the third and last daughter of their own. Due to my dad being a US citizen, I was privileged to have dual citizenship when I became a naturalized citizen of the US while being an adolescent. I had the choice to leave the country that saw me become a woman; nevertheless, my parents made it easy for me not to even think about that possibility. Another privilege I had in my native country was not worrying about not having a roof over my head and bed where I can rest. When I migrated to the United States, however, my privileges no longer existed -at least for a while.
In 2011, after learning that I was going to become a single parent for the second time, I decided to take a flight to the US without looking back. In the US, I then faced a family situation that prevented me from staying in the place I used to live. I had no other choice than applying for government aid. I walked to the Department of Transitional Assistance located a few blocks from my sisters’ apartment in Revere, MA (before the department moved to Malden). The moment I met with my then social worker, she rolled her eyes and told me “are you pregnant, again?!” like assuming she even know me or insinuating I was another ‘foreigner’ coming to the US with an ‘anchor baby[1].’ Microaggressions like these were part of my daily basis, to the point that I started believing I was nothing more than an individual whose destiny was attached to the mercy or saying of others. I followed the plan -live in a shelter with my son, Michael, until I could manage to get a place on my own after giving birth to Amber Sophia; but this plan was shifted when I started realizing that despite the circumstances or conditions I was living, deep inside me, I do believe that my family of three could do so much more despite having so little.
Dutta (2014) claims that as researchers, we could bring our own world-views and biographies to our study to ensure our understanding of our own positionality and how our identities shape our research. Within the eleven months I lived in the shelter, I gained so many friends, and I was able to provide support to the incoming Latinx families who had language barriers -even with my then basic knowledge of English. It was then where I began to better understand and recognizing my positionality and the political positions that motivated my interest in the topic of homelessness and higher education. Thankfully, my social situation, especially being a college student at UMass Lowell, has helped me in gaining more knowledge about the topic and to use it to create more awareness.
Despite Lowell counting with amazing organizations that have been assisting homeless individuals, such as Lowell Transitional Living Center, House of Hope, Living Waters Center of Hope, I believe its missing focus on addressing homelessness on local colleges and/or universities. Thus, I envision myself working with single mothers who are facing critical struggles in their lives, such as homelessness and not being able to pursue or stay in college. I want to keep learning about ways to help this population and using my experience at school towards my goal of supporting them in a longer term. Having the privilege of being a college student and having met great mentors throughout my college-life, it has shaped the way I envisioned myself helping homeless single mothers -what first was the goal of building a shelter for them in Lowell, it transformed to not only building this place they can call home, but also provide them with mentorship and the support they need towards their independence -and beyond, a bigger goal of expanding this idea to my hometown, Puerto Plata.
Methodological Procedure
In 2017, as part of my Honors thesis/capstone project, I focused on homelessness, food insecurity, and parenting student and how do these issues affect college students (see Appendix A for more information). The project consisted of a survey, a 4-mins documentary, and a presentation of both my findings, the short film, including a panel discussion with community and state leaders[2]. Since the documentary was not filmed at the college nor the student portrayed in the same was part of the UML system, we did not need approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). However, knowing how tedious the IRB process can be and how they can keep marginalized people as nameless, faceless, and voiceless (Bradley, 2007), my academic and capstone adviser, Prof. Thompson[3] made sure to rigorously walked me through the same. I followed the UML Institutional Review Board ethics in regard to socio-behavioral research, which included survey, ethnographic, or experimental research where risks to the participants may be minimal and generally related to social or emotional stress or the release of information gathered, rather than direct interaction with the physical body[4]. The survey sent to 9880 undergraduates, and 3611 graduate students, for a total of 13,491 students enrolled at UML in the academic year 2016-17.
Findings
Out of the 1006 Students who completed the survey, 55% Female; 43% Male; 10% LGBTQ+; 72% White/Caucasian; 14% Asian; 11% Hispanic/Latino(a); 5% Black/African American. 5% Active Member or Veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces. In addition, 24% First Generation Students. 5.4% (54 students) had experienced homelessness within the last 5 years[5]: 29 (53.7%) students ages between 18-23 reported experienced homelessness; followed by 17 (31.48%) ages between 24-29, and 4 (7.41%) students ages between 30-35. It was surprising to learn that college students who are between the ages of 18 and 23 have been the most affected by homelessness. Although the survey was focused more on parenting students, comments, and suggestions on how UML can improve the way they address these issues were also inspiring (read more on Appendix D).
Furthermore, having an ethnographic approach, by strengthening my research-researcher relationship with the person who was being filmed, made me realize the importance of letting people talk about their issues instead of us jumping into ‘helping’ based merely on assumptions or stereotypes. I found that a new survey focusing on homelessness at UML should be conducted, along with having more emphasis on mentoring and support of the student population who have been facing homelessness and/or food insecurities.
Dissemination Plans
I would like to further this study into becoming a project for the next academic year, by giving my participants the chance to have their voices heard while using my own experiences to better understand them by creating a mentoring program between students living on shelters and mentors on campus and the city of Lowell. Furthermore, I would like to conduct a new survey focusing primarily in homelessness at UML and to provide more open-ended questions for my participants. Emulating my capstone project, I would like to present my research to students via a panel/discussion with community leaders on campus and in Lowell, as well as inviting state representatives for them to have an opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge. Finally, I would like to present my future findings and project to the annual Legislative Action Day, usually hosted at the end of February.
Conclusion
Homelessness has no face. In my hopes to have a more inclusive campus community, I would like to model Creswell and Poth (2018) transformative paradigm as an alternative framework that focuses on the power and social relationships within society. One of the goals for a transformative approach is the act for societal improvement by offering participatory action as well as being influenced by knowledge, power, and social relationships that create opportunities for addressing injustices of marginalized groups or individuals. Participatory action brings together the empowerment of the people being researched and the engaging in active collaboration and representation. Therefore, adopting social constructivism, a transformative framework (participatory action), and by sharing my own experiences with homelessness, I can envision my goals becoming reality while giving a voice to those who have been marginalized, right next to us on campus.
“Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow's reality”
-Malala Yousafzai
Bailey, C.A. (2018). A guide to qualitative field research. (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage Publications. (pp. 125-142).
Carapezza, K. (2017). The Number of Hungry and Homeless Students Rises Along with College Costs. NPR.
Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (4th Ed.) Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage Publications; Ch 2 – Philosophical assumptions and interpretative frameworks
Dutta, U. (2014). Critical ethnography. In J. Mills and M. Birks (Eds.) Qualitative methodologies: A practical guide. (pp. 89-105). London: SAGE Publications
Fine, M. (2006). Bearing witness: Methods for researching oppression and resistance: A textbook for critical research. Social Justice Research, 19(1), 83-108.
Goodman, L. A., Saxe, L., Harvey, M. (1991). Homelessness as psychological trauma: Broadening perspectives. American Psychologist, 46(11), 1219-1225.
Gundersen, Craig; et. al. (2003). Homelessness and food insecurity. Journal of Housing Economics, 12(3). Elsevier. (pp. 250-272).
Gupton, J. T. (2017). Campus of Opportunity: A Qualitative Analysis of Homeless Students in Community College. Community College Review, 45(3), 190-214. DOI: 10.1177/0091552117700475
Harris, E. (2017). Behind the Problem of Student Homelessness. The New York Times. Institute of Medicine. (1988). Homelessness, Health, and Human Needs. Washington, DC. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/1092.
Lykes, M.B. and Mallona, A. Towards transformational liberation: Participatory and action research and praxis. In Reason, P., and Bradbury, H. (Eds.) Handbook of Action Research (pp. 106-120).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Pillow, W. (2003). Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as a methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(2), 175–196.
The first person who introduced me to the world of Qualitative Research was my sociology professor, Susan Thompson, Ph.D. Terms such ‘participatory action research (PAR),’ ‘reflexibility,’ and ‘fieldnotes’ were part of Thompson’s life. Thompson encouraged me to acknowledge and control my bias and my ‘strong objectivity’ as people to worry they are too close to the topic (Fine 2006). Thanks to her teaching methods and dedication, I not only increased my passion for helping the homeless, food insecure persons, and parenting students, but also helped me in the creation of a new club/organization on campus, UML Parents Club.
The UML Parents Club’s main purpose is to establish the first UML child-friendly organization where current/expectant parents and allies, who are also students at UML or planning on transferring from other institutions, can meet to share resources as well as their own experiences inside and outside UML. The Parents Club goal is to provide them with unique opportunities for community building and professional/personal gain, such as fun/educational activities with their children, and workshops on social/personal topics such as finances, job training / career counseling, homelessness, education, housing opportunities, child care, time management, mental well-being, and so forth. To learn more about the PC, visit https://umasslowellclubs.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/parentsclub
Appendix B: Capstone/Honors Project Presentation
This presentation was hosted on April 11th, 2017, at O’Leary Library, Room 222, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. We began the presentation with the screening of the short film, following the results of a survey that was approved by the UML Institutional Review Board (IRB) on November 14th, 2016. We also offered a discussion/panel addressing how UML, Lowell, and the State of Massachusetts are working together to reduce homelessness and food insecurity on campus, and to offer more support for parenting students facing similar situations.
The panel included Associate Dean of Student Affairs for Compliance and Violence Prevention, and Title IX Deputy Coordinator, Annie Ciaraldi; Director of Operations, House of Hope Inc., and Mentor at Budget Buddies, Ms. Julie Lemire; who has been working with the homeless population for over 17 years, also nominated for the First Annual Non-Profit Alliance of Greater Lowell Awards. Also, Deputy Division Director of Adolescent Services at Community Teamwork, Inc (CTI), Dr. Thula Sibanda, Ph.D., who form part of the Merrimack Valley Homeless Young Adult Consortium (MVHYAC), which was formed to create a system of supports and services for young adults in the Merrimack Valley region experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Lastly, (D-MA) State Senator for the Middlesex and Worcester district, and former Chair of Acton Housing Authority, also my mentor, Senator Jamie Eldridge, who last year presented the Bill S.681, or the “College for All,” which has been referred to the Joint Committee on Higher Education. This bill would require the state to cover the cost of all tuition and mandatory curriculum or course fees not covered by state or federal grants through the FAFSA process for eligible students attending a public higher education institution in Massachusetts. Sen. Eldridge has been also my mentor, and to whom I would be forever grateful for all the support he has given to me and my children, since I met him, back in 2015.
Appendix C: “Why do I do what I do?”
February 21, 2018 - The most disturbing to me about society is the lack of sensitivity and empathy not only within some of our politicians and leaders but also our civilians. What truly interest me is working with single mothers who are facing critical struggles in their lives, such as homelessness. I do really want to keep learning about ways to help this population and using my experience at school towards my goal of supporting them. Something that is a puzzle to me is how closed minded some individuals are regarding homelessness -basically, to them, it only means that someone was “irresponsible enough” to end up as a homeless person. Thankfully, my social situation has helped me in gaining more knowledge about the topic and to use it to create more awareness.
I am glad, and truly blessed, to have a mentor who has helped me and guide me to where I am today -he’s a politician; one of the good ones. Sen. James Eldridge has been such a blessing to my family; he has helped me in the process towards my economic independence and has shaped the way I have seen politics and how our voices do matter. He is a great advocate for minorities, undocumented immigrants, homeless individuals, and so forth. My Sociology classes, especially those I took with one of the sweetest and passionate UML professors, Prof. Susan Thomson, has increased my passion of giving back to the community.
Like Sen. Eldridge, who also lives in the same town she does, prof. Thomson has shaped the way I envisioned myself helping homeless single mothers. What first was the goal of building a shelter for them in Lowell, it transformed to not only building this place that they can call home, but also provide them with mentorship and the support they need towards their independence -beyond that, I want to expand this idea to my hometown, Puerto Plata, in my native country, the Dominican Republic. Although I have a clear idea of my topic, it is still difficult or challenging for me to learn the ‘behind scenes’ of a place like this. Nevertheless, I like to learn, and I will continue doing so.
Appendix D: Survey Findings
[1] “People, namely women, come to the United States illegally and give birth to children, generally for the specific purpose of bolstering legal attempts of the child's parents remain in the United States or even become citizens themselves. Looser definitions suggest "anchor babies" can simply be intended to help illegal-immigrant parents access taxpayer-financed public education and/or social services through their citizen children -- another political hot button, to be sure. (Even here, the law limits those benefits to the children themselves.).” Ross, Janell. 2015. “The myth of the ‘anchor baby’ deportation defense.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/20/the-myth-of-the-anchor-baby-deportation-defense/?utm_term=.43ac8cd72338
[2] Refer to Appendix B for flyer and information
[3] See Appendix C to learn more about Prof. Thomson
[4] IRB also addresses ethical considerations such as breach of confidentiality; invasion of privacy; embarrassment; risk to reputation, employability, or insurability. Informed consent is sought from each prospective subject or their legally authorized representative, in accordance with, and to the extent required by Sec. 46.116.
[5] See Appendix D for survey tables
No comments:
Post a Comment