With rising rent costs, homelessness impacts 15% of NC State students

The housing and rental market is not just impacting Wake County residents, but also college students, who are experiencing homelessness at a staggering rate.

"I was living on a mattress on floor a little while," says NC State student Etienne Phillips.

Phillips is just one of hundreds of NC State students who experience homelessness. Researchers at the university found that homelessness impacts 15% of the students.

Some of the students sleep in places like the college library. Others might be sleeping in their car on campus, or parked near campus.

NC State has only enough on campus housing for 1/3 of their students. Even student housing, which runs on average about $3500 a semester, is out of reach for many of the students struggling with home insecurity or homelessness.

To help this housing need, NC State just launched a groundbreaking program called Host. It's the first of its kind in the United States.

"We are asking community members to open homes and become a host," says Libby Stephens, the Host coordinator.

She says to think of Host like an Air B&B.

"It provides the student a temporary place to stay while they work on long-term plans for stable housing on their own," she says.

With the pandemic, the housing boom, and funds already strapped -- Phillips says this is a welcome relief for him and his fellow students.

"Having that assistance is life-changing for students who wouldn’t be able to attend university or get on their feet," he says.

The program will launch for the fall semester, when they are hoping to have 10 host families, then also expand to Shaw University and Wake Technical Community College.