When Pati Nadgwick Jeffers arrived at her apartment for the first time in July, there was only one way to start her move: by making carpet angels.
Like snow angels, the 47-year-old explains, grinning as she shows off a photo of herself and her friends, flopped onto the carpet of her then-empty Vancouver home.
It was a welcome moment of silliness for the Clark College pharmacy technician leadership student who, thanks to the city’s affordable housing levy, has a home of her own for the first time in five years. Nadgwick Jeffers benefited from about $2,800 in emergency grant funding from the Homeless Prevention and Housing Consortium, helping her find an apartment after years of couch surfing and sleeping in a trailer on a relative’s property.
“I’m excited to have a counter to put my toothbrush on,” Nadgwick Jeffers said.
Clark College is on the front lines of responding to poverty among college students. The school’s own data suggests 45 percent of students ages 25 or older are housing insecure, meaning they’re sleeping on a friend’s couch, unable to pay their next month’s rent or already in debt for back rent. Another 10 percent are homeless.
Armetta Burney, director of Clark College’s Workforce Education Services department, called the numbers reflective of housing issues in the community at large.
“We never know what our students carry with them when they come here,” Burney said.
Clark College’s membership in the Proposition 1-funded consortium, which is overseen by the Council for the Homeless, gives it a unique position to respond to the issue. The city last year allocated $1,210,000 to the group, which includes Clark College and six other agencies that help identify and prescreen people who may qualify for emergency housing assistance.
Nadgwick Jeffers, who also works at a pharmacy in Oregon, received funding to cover her apartment application fee, deposit and first month’s rent. Each individual or family may qualify for different amounts of funding covering different costs, depending on their circumstances. The funding goes directly to the property management company or agency providing housing, rather than being given to the recipient.
“The strength of working directly with Clark … is it allows for more connection with new people,” said Kate Budd, director of the Council for the Homeless.
According to the city, 104 households thus far have benefited from the funding, aiding 231 individuals. Clark College alone has helped identify 24 students who received grants, Burney said.
Housing insecurity
A growing body of research suggests Clark College is not alone in having a student body facing high rates of housing insecurity and homelessness.
The Hope Center for College, Community and Justice, a nonprofit research center that evaluates housing and food insecurity among college students, found in a survey of 43,000 students that 46 percent of community college students were housing insecure, while 12 percent were homeless.
Meanwhile, according to the 2018 report, 36 percent of university students were housing insecure and 9 percent were homeless.
A study by researchers at California State University, that state’s largest public university system, found that 41.6 percent of students at a CSU campus experienced food insecurity, and 10.9 percent were homeless.
That can have harsh repercussions for those students, ranging from greater risk of mental health problems like anxiety or depression as well as physical health problems like headaches or higher likelihood of illness and injury.
“When you’re living in an unstable way, you’re experiencing trauma,” said Rashida Crutchfield, principal investigator on the CSU study.
Crutchfield said those students may be seeing academic achievements on pace with their peers. But even that can have consequences — students who don’t have a safe home to return to often stay on campus for hours to study or work, exhausting themselves as they seek refuge in the safety of a college library or student center.
“That also means you’re always tired,” Crutchfield said. “Having to be somewhere at all times can be exhausting.”
That’s been Nadgwick Jeffers’ experience for the 2½ years she’s been in school. In addition to the housing grant, Nadgwick Jeffers has also used programs like the Penguin Pantry, a student food bank, as well as using the campus gym to shower. It’s been an exhausting, piecemeal journey, but one she pursued in hopes of leaving the past behind.
“I thought about quitting more times than I can count,” Nadgwick Jeffers said. “In a way it pushed me harder and faster.”
So while she and her friends may have had some laughs making imprints in the new carpet of her apartment, those weren’t the only guardians in her life. Nadgwick Jeffers credits the support of the college for helping her through some of the most difficult years of her life.
“They’ve been my angels,” she said.
