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Foothill College announced Wednesday new partnerships that the community college hopes will help Santa Clara County achieve an ambitious goal: finding housing for 100 homeless students in the next 100 days.
The Los Altos Hills community college is partnering with the Bill Wilson Center in San Jose and Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County to find homes for students, including through house sharing with local residents.
Foothill is joining the county’s “100 Day Challenge,” which cities, counties and states across the country are also participating in. Locally, the Bill Wilson Center, San Jose State University, West Valley-Mission Community College District and Airbnb are involved in the effort.
“The high cost of living in the Bay Area is a real barrier to college students successfully completing their studies,” April Henderson, Foothill College’s director of Extended Opportunities Programs & Services and the college’s Foster Youth and Homeless Student Programs, said in an announcement. “These partnerships are just one way for us to serve students facing housing insecurity and get them the services that they need.”
According to a survey, 49% of Foothill students experienced housing insecurity and 19% experienced homelessness in the past year. Foothill students said they were doubling up, sharing rooms or moving in with other people due to financial constraints at a higher rate compared to the national rate.
Statewide, nearly 1 in 5 community college students are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a 2019 survey conducted by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.
Student-advocates have been pressing Foothill to address the rise in students experiencing housing insecurity. In response, the community college hosted last June a summit on student homelessness to discuss possible solutions to the housing crisis with students, faculty, administrators, local elected officials, nonprofit leaders and others.
To support students’ basic needs, Foothill offers a campus food pantry (which serves about 100 students every week), free and low-cost health services and a $15,000 scholarship for homeless or housing-insecure students to transfer to a four-year university.
Foothill encouraged students who need housing services from the Bill Wilson Center and Catholic Charities to contact Henderson at AboutHousing@fhda.edu. Students can also self-refer to Bill Wilson Center by filling out an online form.
The Bill Wilson Center also offers meals, showers, laundry, transitional housing programs, counseling and one-time funding for young people between the ages of 18 and 24 years old who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and don’t have the financial means to find housing, among other services.
Local residents who have an available room in their home can also apply to host a student through Catholic Charities’ house-sharing program. The nonprofit screens and matches applicants through background checks, preference checklists and personality profiles.
Interested community members can learn more at an information session hosted by Foothill and Catholic Charities on Wednesday, Feb. 19, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Toyon Room at Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. Or they can call Catholic Charities directly at 408-325-5134.
A noteworthy effort but JC students should never be housed with any recovering substance abusers or the mentally ill.
If anything, a voucher system covering food and rental assistance should be provided which in turn, offers some freedom of choice in the matter.
Commuting from some flophouse in San Jose all the way to Foothill College could prove problematic as well.
Foothill JC is a ‘community college’ so common sense dictates that housing should be within the immediate area of Palo Alto, Los Altos & Mountain View.
At one time, Foothill ONLY served students residing in those three cities while De Anza served the resident students from Sunnyvale & Cupertino.
Today there are far too many ‘out of town’ students attending these JCs & while the foreign students may be paying a higher tuition, perhaps it would be better if all of these individuals went to a JC in a ‘community’ where they actually LIVE.
I guess I’m still confused about why so many students from further away are trying to go to Foothill College while so many small CC’s are under-enrolled and begging for students. We should be working on housing on small CC’s farther away, and encouraging local kids to go to those small CC’s.
Concurring with the above two posters. A major source of this housing problem is that Foothill & De Anza have both become commuter junior colleges to the EXTREME.
The from out of the area JC students at Foothill/De Anza can/should go to JCs in their own respective communities rather than traveling from SF, the East Bay & Central Valley.
They’ve got JCs out there…go there instead.
This article is confusing. Foothill College is aligned with De Anza College for the purposes of management and finances. There is no mention of De Anza here. De Anza is responding to major financial issues here – replacing aging buildings that are not up to spec. However they also have housing problems. Not sure why there is no mention of De Anza. What ever is discussed should be applicable to both schools.
College students elsewhere have to pay a lot for on campus housing and food.
Students at the UC’s are often left without housing because the cities they are in are also without housing.
Students are often forced to couch surf after their freshman year.
I know of teachers (one recently left foothill) who could not find housing.
These “students” need to find another affordable college to attend.
I am sorry our local schools do not have dorms for freshman and sophomores, but I did a little research and found a list of community colleges which DO have dorms. You have to pay for them, and I think the food card is mandatory. But hey, you would be right on campus, and can focus you energy on your studies instead of where you would be sleeping that night,
Just trying to help
Here is the link
https://www.theclassroom.com/list-community-colleges-california-dorms-6060726.html
The Community College system in CA is huge with listings available on the internet which discuss price and general focus of classes. I am concerned that there is focus on specific schools in our area which already has limited housing for teachers and other support personnel.
Students have a big choice of schools in areas that have more jobs and housing. The whole Community college system should be benefitting from any tax efforts. We have schools in San Mateo County and San Francisco County as well as schools in the east bay. Both San Mateo and SF have a strong Catholic Charities focus.
When they canvas people who have housing issues they are recent imposts from foreign countries vs local students who have family here. Somewhat troubling as to what the purpose of the Community College system is which used to be the stepping stone to a four year college or a technical accreditation location.
As noted in the other thread on the bond/parcel tax issues, it appears that the majority of FHDA students are from outside the district. It is time to put a stop to this nonsense. Foothill and DeAnza do *not* need the growth. We see this in the business world, and now, in education: “branding” resulting in unnecessary commuter traffic. It really defies common sense for CC’s to become name brands.
It is time to move away from branding and towards state-system-wide objective quality standards. There is no reason why a student from San Mateo County needs to attend FHDA just for the brand– they should have specific program needs that SMC CCD can’t meet, before they attend FHDA. Education standards should be the same, and diplomas and technical certificates should mean the same. It is, frankly, *ridiculous* to have typical non-rich CC students unnecessarily commuting 10 or 20 extra miles each way to school at a cost of thousands of extra dollars a year and added traffic for everyone.
It also is ridiculous that “they” are asking us to pay extra money to expand FHDA when other schools need the students. This is a serious “Edifice Complex” situation.