Homeless and hungry, but the tuition is paid : a single case study exploring the food and housing insecurity crisis among undergraduate students.

Food and housing insecurities among college students are a growing concern, undermining their well-being and academic and social success. This single holistic case study explored how food and housing insecurities impact students at a mid-sized public university in New York using Tinto’s (1993) student integration framework. This framework suggests integration is key for retention, which guided me to explore the student’s perspective on how these insecurities impact academic and social integration. The purpose of this case study was to understand the student's perspective on how food and housing insecurities impacted academic and social integration. Data analysis revealed that the student perspective is that food and housing insecurities impair their academic integration. The thematic analysis found that scarcity severely obstructed class attendance, concentration, and assignment completion by forcing stressful tradeoffs. However, campus events offering free meals facilitated strong social integration. This study contributed one context-specific investigation among an imperative wider scholarship holding higher education accountable to its highest purpose: enabling all students to thrive. I utilized a qualitative approach to gather data through in-depth interviews with five undergraduate student participants experiencing food and/or housing insecurities. I examined their weekly food and housing logs and analyzed campus event flyers to reveal complex effects on academic and social integration. The interviews revealed that pre-college hardship recursively exacerbated current struggles. Several key themes emerged after coding data guided by Tinto’s (1993) theory. Findings unanimously showed that food and housing insecurities obstruct participants academic performance and integration by impairing focus, inducing stress, and necessitating tradeoffs between academics and survival. Limited on-campus food access exacerbated challenges. Results revealed that food and housing insecurities impacted social integration less as participants reported still participating in activities. However, it was still determined that these insecurities clearly undermine well-being and retention. Ultimately, participants perceived that student health and performance suffered without institutional prioritization of support services, awareness, and resource access. Still, the resilience of this population persisted despite stigma and systemically unequal conditions. Colleges must confront policies and cultural norms blocking the path to degree completion for far too many.