CBS Sunday Morning – Homelessness on campus

We will likely never know just how many homeless students start college but have to leave without their degrees, an elusive statistic Dom Coronel says is actually a loss for everyone.

The number of homeless college students struggling just like Bigham is hard to quantify, but it’s big. According to financial aid applications, there are more than 68,000 students who claim to be homeless.

“I think the idea that hard-working, talented people who are trying to get an education are being derailed by homelessness, is a crisis,” said Sara Goldrick-Rab, the leading national researcher on the problem. She’s a professor of higher education policy at Temple University in Philadelphia, and the founder of the Hope Center.

“One of the things that’s changed in the United States over time is that, if you grew up without money, we have sent a pretty strong signal to those students that financial aid is available, and you should try college, because it’s your route out of poverty,” Goldrick-Rab said.