According to a report released by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University’s College of Education, 64 percent of the City Colleges of Chicago students surveyed expressed food or housing insecurity. City Colleges of Chicago’s Chancellor Juan Salgado unveiled the results as he introduced additional measures to address some of the challenges the city’s community college students face outside of the classroom, including an emergency fund and a dedicated housing coordinator.  The national survey found that 44 percent of the City Colleges students who responded to the survey were food insecure in the prior 30 days, 54 percent were housing insecure in the previous year, and 15 percent of respondents were homeless in the previous year. More than 3,000 students from the seven colleges participated in the survey, or six percent of the 47,000 students enrolled in the Fall 2018 semester.

City Colleges has launched an emergency fund for unforeseen, one-time crises, which is now available to students on a first-come, first-served basis. The fund is administered by the non-profit All Chicago and made possible by an anonymous donor. It seeks to aid students who face unexpected roadblocks that would otherwise keep them from completing their degree by providing students up to $750 per semester. City Colleges is also adding a new housing coordinator, made possible by a $70,000 grant from Chicago Community Trust, who will help connect students to housing resources within sister agencies and community-based organizations.

The #RealCollege survey, which specifically evaluates access to affordable food and housing, began in 2015 under the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, and is supported by the Lumina Foundation. Media contact: Danny Sternfield, dsternfield@ccc.edu, 847.533.2744