San Jose State University’s Student Homeless Association (SHA) continues to fight for students facing home insecurity with calls for more transparency from the university on housing assistance for students.
4,000 students were houseless in 2019, according to a survey conducted by SJSU Cares the same year.
“Our main goal is to assist the unhoused students at San Jose State University,” said Anthony Majano, SHA President, and fourth-year sociology student. “Whether that be through working directly with the university, and establishing programs or improving various resources offered by the university.”
SHA currently is made up of 21 members that are at the forefront of advocating for home-insecure students. They are responsible for the enhancement of the SJSU Cares Center and helped start the emergency bed program in 2019.
The emergency bed program consists of 12 beds that, as of this fall, are available for home-insecure students for up to 28 days.
Majano said that after the initial piloting of the emergency bed program in 2019, several students spoke with them about the difficulty in utilizing the services provided by SHA.
“When they asked for a bed, they were asked to use their student loans or they were questioned about whether or not they used all their student loans,” Majando said in a phone call. “Once they were given a bed of their own, they got to stay for two days or so, that was last year.”
Students were initially only allowed to stay for up to two days, but following on-campus protests last spring, students can now utilize emergency beds for up to four weeks.
The change to the bed policy comes amidst interim President Steve Perez’s first year. SHA commented that he is someone who has been trying to be more transparent than the previous president when it comes to SJSU Cares.
“I know with the previous administration with policy they were very hesitant and reluctant to kind of share any sort of relevant information with SHA,'' Majano said. “So we have to constantly be demanding for this data to [be looked] at and it took them way too long for them to get a simple data report to us.”
Advocacy from SHA in fall semester of 2021 led to the opening of a physical SJSU Cares office in Robert D. Clark Hall, where students can meet one of several case managers who work with them to address their economic situation.
The number of requests for assistance SJSU Cares received was three times higher than it was in pre-pandemic years, according to an SJSU Cares summary statistic.
“Student advocacy is such an important part of what happens within the culture of higher education in general,” said Kristen Weaver, an SJSU Cares student affairs case manager.
She advises students dealing with housing insecurity by connecting students to the right program and helping them through any economic crises they might be facing on a case- by-case basis.
She said depending on the level of severity, one of the resources she finds extremely beneficial to eligible students is Rapid Re-housing.
Rapid Re-housing is a six-month program where eligible students receive a declining subsidy.
Weaver said the first two months of rent are usually 100% covered.
“It’s [Rapid Re-housing] a pretty substantial rental subsidy,” Weaver said. “For the folks who do end up being in that spot . . . it’s kind of a game changer.”
She said this program is a substantial financial contribution by CSUs in an attempt to end student houselessness.
“We’ve been able to place a lot of students in housing through that program,” Weaver said. “It’s not just about putting them in temporary housing for a few nights, it’s about trying to get them set up in a long-term way so that they can continue their education.”
_________________________________________
Nick Zamora contributed to this article.
