Six residents will move into USC’s Trojan Shelter housing unit, which opened last weekend, in Koreatown on Friday, Nov. 15.
The unit will house homeless college students at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on South Mariposa Avenue, according to USC junior and Director of Staff Hannah Mulroe.
Trojan Shelter is a student group that focuses on managing the funds and operation of college-enrolled student housing in Los Angeles. The organization also trained student volunteers to serve as staff, cook dinners and act as resident assistants within the unit.
“In the coming months, I’m looking forward to having our residents move in, which is so exciting,” Mulroe said. “We just had our staff training two weeks ago. So we had all 56 volunteers in the shelter, going through different scenarios, going through rounds, learning about cooking. So it’s been really exciting to finally make those big steps and in a couple of weeks we’ll have people actually working shifts in the shelter, which is really cool.”
The student housing unit is one of two shelters operating under Students for Students, a youth-led organization aiming to shelter and support college students experiencing homelessness. Though Angelenos of all ages experience homelessness, Trojan Shelter will provide a space where students will care for similar-aged peers. Mulroe explained that this interaction will make it a more personal environment for the residents and shared how much it means to her.
“Growing up, my dad was in homeless services,” she said. “And so I've always had a passion for finding ways that I can get involved and use my resources and skills to help others.”
California has the largest numbers of homeless unaccompanied youth under 25, accounting for one-third of all unaccompanied youth in the country, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A study by California State University found that students who were food insecure, homeless, or both reported poorer mental health than students who were food secure or housed.
These are the issues that Trojan Shelter is trying to alleviate, according to USC senior and Director of Media Matthew Lee. He explained that the shelter promises housing to its residents for a full academic year, thus eliminating the housing insecurity associated with dwelling at a more temporary shelter.
“If you're a student, you know how hard being a student is, keeping everything covered,” Lee said. “ So even if you have three days covered, you may have to figure out where you’re going to be sleeping after that term ...You could fall behind in your schoolwork. And so kind of our program is designed for you only to worry about school, at least for that term and then for us to find a way to find you more stable of environment after the term at the shelter.”
The Trojan Shelter housing unit consists of two rooms that can house three people each. Residents will be accommodated with beds, showers and individual storage lockers, as well as daily communal dinners and breakfast to-go foods, according the organization’s website. Each resident will also have access to two case managers, one from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and another from the USC Keck School of Medicine, who will check in throughout the year and assist transitioning into permanent housing.
For some volunteers, student homelessness is an especially personal issue. USC sophomore Cindy Syren said she is looking forward to offering her time and effort to the organization as it opens its doors to residents in the coming weeks.
“It is a cause very close to me because my best friend was homeless for a little while when she was in college,” Syren said. “It's probably one of the hardest things you can deal with… Getting a post-secondary education is so difficult, and on top of that not having a place to live and having food insecurity is almost impossible.”
Trojan Shelter will provide three meals daily: a to-go breakfast, a sacked lunch and a home-cooked dinner. In addition, residents will receive case management led by Keck medical students, according to a press release issued by the organization in October.
“We haven’t even had our residents move in yet and we’ve created such a buzz,” Mulroe said. “It’s really exciting because people from all over with all levels of ability are here to help out, and have been reaching out to us and asking how they can get involved. I think it’s awesome. We can really see the campus coming together and addressing this issue altogether.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the number of Trojan Shelter volunteers. It is 56.