Memo to Members

NLIHC, New America, and SchoolHouse Connection Address Homelessness Among College Students

Jun 29, 2026

By Haadia Hyder, NLIHC Strategic Partnerships & Campaigns Intern  

The Opportunity Starts at Home campaign (OSAH), New America, and SchoolHouse Connection hosted a webinar on June 18, 2026, at 3:00 pm ET, addressing the state of homelessness on parenting college students. Partners discussed the impacts of homelessness and housing insecurity on parenting students and presented various data-driven solutions. 

Speakers included:  

  • Chantelle Wilkinson, vice president of Strategic Partnerships & Campaigns, NLIHC  

  • Julie Walker, OSAH project manager, NLIHC  

  • Richard Davis Jr., policy analyst, New America Higher Education Policy Program  

  • Ewa Obatuase, policy analyst, New America Higher Education Policy Program  

  • Barbara Duffield, executive director, SchoolHouse Connection  

  • Harper, SchoolHouse Connection Scholar 

Chantelle Wilkinson, vice president of NLIHC’s strategic partnerships and campaigns team, opened the webinar sharing the state of America’s affordable housing crisis and covered the foundational idea of cross-sector collaboration at the heart of the OSAH campaign.  

Ewa Obatuase, policy Analyst at New America, presented on the New America Student Parent Initiative, providing an overview on the demographics of parenting students, the challenges they face, their enrollment rates and economic well-being, and the factors that make parenting students especially vulnerable to housing instability and homelessness.  

Richard David, policy Analyst at New America, presented an analysis of data from the 2019-20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), which revealed vital information about homelessness among college students—including parenting students.  

Barbara Duffield, executive director at SchoolHouse Connection, presented data from the SchoolHouse Connection report “Removing Barriers, Building Futures: Data-Informed Policies to Support College Students Experiencing Homelessness”, highlighting issues in how we define homelessness and disparities in self-reporting. She focused on the value of meeting basic needs for students and presented data-based solutions policymakers and institutions can make to support unhoused parenting students.   

Harper, a SchoolHouse Connection Scholar, testified firsthand to the value of higher education homelessness liaisons in schools, who are explicitly placed to seek out and support students who struggle with being unhoused both during and outside of the academic year. She also advocated for explicit and visible policies and parentships that allow unhoused students to stay on campus year-round, much like international students and student athletes. She also highlighted the psychological challenges of unhoused students deal with when they must fight for access to resources while maintaining academic commitments, and how those traumatic experiences stay with students throughout their education and beyond. 

After presentations, Julie Walker, project manager for OSAH, led a moderated panel and Q&A session where speakers spoke on how solutions can be scaled nationwide, how community colleges can provide support for unhoused students, ways to build cross-sector support for parenting students, and local reforms.  

SchooolHouse Connection and New America are participating members of the OSAH campaign’s Roundtable.   

Find the recorded webinar here.  

Learn more about Opportunity Starts at Home here.  

Find additional webinar resources, including monthly calls and reports, here.

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