One hundred days to house 100 college students is a feat the Santa Clara County District 4 supervisor said is more than achievable, so she made it a challenge.
Susan Ellenberg spoke alongside about a dozen San Jose residents who have joined the 100-Day Challenge Monday during a news conference outside the Santa Clara County Government Center.
“The 100-Day Challenge focuses our community to step up and house the increasing number of homeless college students in Silicon Valley,” Sparky Harlan, CEO of the Bill Wilson Center in San Jose, said.
According to San Jose Spotlight, 189 students contacted San Jose State’s emergency housing service, SJSU Cares, in the past academic year.
Ben Falter, senior student affairs case manager for SJSU Cares, said over the phone he also jumped on board with the 100-Day Challenge team to connect students to the resources offered by the new coalition of organizations.
“We’re creating a pathway for students where we review their cases and determine whether to keep it in house or refer it out to our partners,” he said.
After identifying rooms for rent, Harlan said, the coalition of organizations will connect landlords with housing-insecure students who are eligible.
According to a recent survey commissioned in part by the Bill Wilson Center, 22% of homeless youth in San Jose between the ages of 18 and 25 are currently enrolled in college.
“We are not going to turn anybody away, that’s what we always say at Bill Wilson Center . . . that’s why we have all these other nonprofit agencies who are going to be part of this,” Harlan said. “If we have 200 [students], we’ll house 200. Right now though it’s creating that system.”
The center, which provides temporary housing to many SJSU students, will team up with Santa Clara County, SJSU and the West Valley-Mission Community College District to find residents that may have rooms for rent.
Falter said the process for filing a case to SJSU Cares will remain the same on the student’s end, but will use a wider-reaching plan and more money to support students.
“It will still be the same streamline process, same website, just a bigger roadway,” he said.
As different city leaders and lawmakers took the podium, formerly homeless resident and current Mission College student Elijah Deliz shared his story.
“I was one of the people that you would see sleeping in tents in the side of the road,” he said. “I slept behind City Hall a long time ago, I slept outside of San Jose State in the creeks.”
Deliz, a West Valley-Mission Community College District student, stood beside district chancellor Brad Davis.
Davis said he joined other San Jose city leaders in spearheading the 100-Day Challenge because he wants to share his district’s resources and establish contacts in the community.
“Our district sends about four [400]or 500 students to San Jose State as transfers every year,” Davis said. “What we’re hoping we can do is begin the cycle at West Valley and Mission and help them transition to San Jose State where they can avail themselves to resources as well.”
SJSU President Mary Papazian expressed support for the effort in a statement released Monday by Ellenberg’s office.
“100-Day Challenge checks all the right boxes,” Papazian said. “At SJSU, addressing student housing is a critical part of meeting our students’ overall basic needs, so we are pleased to be part of this important initiative.”
When asked how she would identify housing insecure students, Ellenberg said she would like to “turn that question around.”
“What I would like is to put out a call for is for folks who might be interested in offering temporary housing, who have room in their home,” Ellenberg said. “Empty-nesters, people who could do that for a short-term period while Bill Wilson is working on getting them into the longer-term solutions.”
