The start of the New Year has started. For many realities for students moving away from their home towns and starting a new chapter in their life in a different city. Having a drastic change in their lives can give students a lot of stress.
Having to do things own their own and to be more independent. With this to say students would have to find roommates and a home to live in. Just a few months and weeks aren’t enough sometimes to find a permeant home. This is why many students go homeless and tend to couch surf. Couch surfing is where people with no permeant homes go from couch to couch.
Trying to find a place to sleep. Even though homelessness isn’t really known within students it still happened. About 70000 students experience some type of homelessness. It is sometimes students lose their jobs. Or don’t have a permeant home at the moment. But all stories are different.
A first-year student named Praise was “kicked out of her home in grade 9, and is jumping
from job to job and house to house for a place to sleep eat and study for the school year”. Right now she is staying at residence signing the overnight paper until she finds a permeant home. She is staying at her friend’s house where she is very willing to give up her space for her friend. Mrinal a second-year student says “if this would have happened to me where I become homeless for a bit, I would want someone to do the same for me as well”.
Homelessness can happen any time to anyone. Homelessness can last for a few months to a few years. As a student, it can feel like forever. Having so many things going on with school, studying, eating, and finding a place can make homelessness feel like a dark hole. Especially if you do not have someone who is willing to give up half their space.
There are other options people struggling with homeless can do as well. People can go to Airbnb’s, they can go on the couch surfing app or they can also go to local shelters. But with Airbnbs they can be a bit pricey. But a local Airbnb owner claims that a lot more students are renting out the place for longer periods of time.
He also hears a lot of stories of students struggling to find a place to stay for the school year. But homelessness doesn’t always mean forever, many students eventually finding places after a few months of constant searching. But it doesn’t change the fact of the struggle and the stress students have to go through before finding a permeant home.
