A panel discussion featuring guests from Seattle was held at the Student Innovation Center. The introduction speaker of this event was the College of Design Dean Luis Rico-Gutierrez. 

“I’m really talking about the lenses of our own experiences, the lens of privilege or marginalization, the lens of security or insecurity,” Gutierrez said. “I think this symposium is about asking what happens when we try to see the world through someone else’s lenses. When you really look right here in Polk County, lots of people will not know if they will have a roof over their head when they go to sleep tonight. Not in some far away metropolitan area or some far away country, but right here, that’s us. National data tells us around 9% of college students experience homelessness.” 

Here locally at Iowa State, there has been some aid provided to these students who experience home insecurity. 

“Once students walk through the door, we better have systems to catch them when they stumble because they will, we all do when we are out of our comfort zones.” Gutierrez said.  “No student should have to skip meals to make rent. Which is why we support the Cyclone Food Pantry.”

Along with the food pantry, Iowa State has established the Student Emergency Fund and temporary housing assistance through the Department of Residence. Iowa State has made strides to assist students who are struggling financially. 

One of the speakers featured on the panel was Seema L. Clifasefi, a graduate student at the University of Washington Information School and Program Supervisor at “Doorway.” Doorway is a Washington state-funded initiative that is dedicated to serving alongside communities that are experiencing homelessness, mainly focusing on youth and young adults, specifically in Seattle. 

“I’ve been working alongside individuals with lived or living experiences of homelessness, and these individuals are not typically invited to the table to talk about research or develop ideas,” Clifasefi said. “So their idea was really to bring everyone together and honor their wisdom and their lived experience as part of the process. The goal is to challenge more traditional models of assisting with housing insecurity, to bring people in who know what it is like to be homeless and take their knowledge to create action steps for assistance.”    

Typically, with funding, people utilizing homelessness resources are told they need to be sober or they will be kicked out.

But this new model called “Housing First” provides homes for people with no conditions attached and no expectation of sobriety. The program was set up for people with alcohol-related problems. Since being provided with housing, many people have ended up being sober.

“With the provision of shelter, people seemed to get better because sometimes people were drinking to stay warm,” Clifasefi said. “People were using substances to cope with being on the streets. Immortality with providing shelter we saw those significant decreases and their related problems going down. Significant decreases in jail days and jail holding in a two-year follow-up period.” 

A new take on aid provides many more solutions for the community. Instead of punishing and putting restrictions on homeless people, they are given free will. This leads to real results and improvements within the community. 

So what comes next? That’s where the Doorway program comes in. Clifasefi and her colleagues sat down with people who have experienced substance abuse and curated a plan to help called the Leap Program. 

“We came up with these three components that define the Leap Programming, so things like leadership opportunities,” Clifasefi said. “So we found that the leadership advisory board and having community board meetings to find what the residents wanted to happen in their spaces. We also learned that meaningful opportunities are really important. Coming in and moving inside and taking away that need for shelter slowly allows people to reconnect with things that are meaningful to them.”

Clifasefi used her resources at the University to provide these services to aid people. Oftentimes these people don’t have those resources or connections easily accessible to them. Through this program, it becomes easier to receive those things. Clifasefi has been working to fight homelessness for about 20 years now and hopes to continue to find new ways to help people.