RTB LA Stable Housing Cohort 2024

Affordable housing and homelessness

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

According to Institute of Women's Policy Research: 20% of all undergraduates are parents with 181,182 college students in California single mothers, nearly 70% of two-year college students with dependents live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, and that number grows to 88% for single-parent students. According to the Temple University Hope Center, 66% of student parents experience housing insecurity during college, and an additional 16% experience homelessness. Only 11 of the 116 community colleges in California provide housing, indicating an enormous statewide need for stable housing support. Just 8% of single mother undergraduates in the United States earn an associate or bachelor’s degree within 6 years of enrolling in college, compared with 49% of women in college who are not mothers. Research has shown that the on-campus and virtual whole-family programming for any single-parent family who seeks it will dramatically increase graduation rates, among other benefits.

Our programming is informed by University of Minnesota’s Student Parent HELP Center and grounded in their 2019 research conducted by Wilder Institute, which showed that single-parent scholars’ persistence and degree completion dramatically increases when they have strong peer support, and a direct point of contact and support person they can lean on while enrolled in school. RTB serves as that support system, and when combined with financial support, the outcomes have generational impact. This project's goal is as follows: To achieve 90% degree attainment in 2 years at partner community colleges for 25 single-parents and 50 children, with over half being former foster youth with children ages 0-5 in the stable housing cohort, serving as a potential model for future expansion of the program at other community colleges across CA; 2) work on college campuses with an additional 300 single-parents who are not part of the cohort to increase their navigational support and achieve attainment rates for single-parents of at least 25% within 6-years of starting school. With this project, RTB expects to demonstrate proof of concept so that partner colleges will agree to expand the stable housing program and bring it to scale for more single-mother enrollees. We also expect to prove the impact of the on-campus support that will allow us to expand our on-campus services, as well as increase financial investment.

Our goal is to become obsolete. We envision a Los Angeles where our programming is no longer needed because single-parent households have access to the same resources to persist through college and career track training as their non-parenting peers. These resources include access to safe and affordable housing that supports whole family wellness, support to meet basic needs of the family, quality childcare, and to complete an education that leads to a career that offers a family sustaining wage without adding to the financial burden of being the head of household and primary care provider and student. Furthermore, according to a recent report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research Center on Equity in Higher Education, there are substantial returns to single mothers’ college attainment including higher earnings, make significant economic contributions, and make less use of public assistance. Thus, the community of LA will become more equitable and economically sustainable.

Our outcomes and impact take time to measure, but we do track short-term goals that lead to long-term goals. Most notable is access to stable and affordable housing while in the program and support to continue stable and affordable housing post program. Additional metrics include persistence rates, credit attainment, GPA, graduation & transfer rates, family stability, financial acumen and literacy, debt reduction and savings, and career readiness. We use qualitative and quantitative data to measure impact. RTB engages with a third-party evaluator to assess and evaluate all programming to ensure efficacy and sustainability of programs, which is critical to ongoing improvement. We also survey program participants monthly and quarterly and have a student parent council that informs decision-making. Through these measures, we are attuned to timely feedback in an inclusive and nonjudgmental environment.