College student homelessness discussed at Housing Action Summit

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) -Anchorage college students housing and food insecurity struggles were a key focus of a Housing Action Summit, as Assembly Members and community stakeholders wrapped up what municipality leaders have called a ‘focal point’ of weeklong event called Housing Action Week.

Detailing a recent survey, University of Alaska Anchorage staff showed how students dealt with homelessness while attending school.

“It’s stressful. Everyday, you try to focus on schoolwork, but then also focus on, you know, what am I going to eat today? Where am I gonna sleep today?,” said former UAA student Jennifer Spencer.

Spencer is now a UAA college advisor. But when she was a student, she said the cost of housing led her to become homeless.

“Couch surfing, living with friends, living with people who allowed me to live with them at a cost of $0, which is the only thing I could afford,” Spencer said.

UAA College of Health Assistant Dean Travis Hedwig said according to a 2019 survey: 36% of students reported dealing with food insecurity, 37% housing insecurity, and 10% homelessness.

“Living in a place that’s unfit for human habitation. It might include living in a car. It might include staying in a parking lot here on campus,” Hedwig said.

Speaking to what she calls a solution to fix the problem, UAA School of Social Work Assistant Professor Rei Shimizu said the Seawolf food pantry now helps students dealing with food insecurity.

“’It’s a shopping model so they can come to the pantry. And they’ll be given like a little grocery bag and they can pick whatever food that they would like,” Shimizu said.

Hedwig said the school is also looking at creating an emergency student housing pilot program.

“One way we might do this is work with human services or social work to have a quad designated to be able to handle an emergency housing kind of situation,” Hedwig said.

Spencer said her main issue when she was a student was she could not afford housing.

“I just didn’t have enough money to afford living in the dorms. I didn’t have enough money to rent on my own, because I didn’t have much of any money,” Spencer said.

Additionally, Hedwig said the school has a solutions driven group called The Hunger and Homelessness Support Network., That meets on the fourth Friday of every month at noon.

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