ARCS
Affordable Rents for College Students
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Housing Insecurity Creates Barriers
Oregon’s college students are experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity at all-time highs with some local colleges seeing homelessness among students up to 20%. According to a recent #RealCollegeSurvey of 17 Oregon colleges, 41% said they had been food insecure during the previous month while 52% were housing insecure. The ARCS program collaboration seeks to make a direct impact on these problems by providing subsidized housing, low barriers to entry, and a highly supportive environment focused on supporting student success.
The ARCS program seeks to provide homeless or housing-insecure students with stable, affordable housing in order to help them succeed in college. Based on data from a similar program — Tacoma Housing Authority’s College Housing Assistance Program (CHAP) — the ARCS program aims to (1) increase graduation rates among participants by 20-30% and (2) increase participant GPA by a minimum of 0.25.
A Program Creating Stability
ARCS (Affordable Rents for College Students) is a program in collaboration with Portland Community College, Portland State University, New Avenues for Youth, Native American Youth and Family Center, and College Housing Northwest that provides housing with rental assistance to students experiencing homelessness and/or housing insecurity.
Objectives Driven By Holistic Data
The ARCS program seeks to provide homeless or housing-insecure students with stable, affordable housing in order to help them succeed in college. Based on data from a similar program — Tacoma Housing Authority’s College Housing Assistance Program (CHAP) — the ARCS program aims to (1) increase graduation rates among participants by 20-30%, and (2) increase participant GPA by a minimum of 0.25.
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Low Barriers
As well as subsidizing the cost of housing, the ARCS program seeks to reduce some of the most challenging roadblocks students often experience when securing housing.
- Waiving Deposits & Application Fees
- Providing Free WiFi
- Lowering Utility Costs
- Not Requiring Guarantors
Initial Funding
College Housing Northwest is contributing $75,000 as part of the ARCS program pilot to provide a 50% rent subsidy for up to 20 students for the pilot period. This 50% subsidy is applied to CHNW’s existing rental rates, which are, on average, 15% below market. This initial funding is intended to demonstrate the extent of the need as well as the efficacy of the program’s approach.
Program Funding
The ARCS program is seeking to assure that sustainable, ongoing rent subsidies are available to Portland metro area students who are experiencing housing as a critical barrier to their higher educational success.
$10,000 is the estimated annual investment needed to provide stable, affordable housing for one year for a student experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity in Portland.
On Average, an ARCS College Graduate Will...
- Save $35,000 in housing debt
- Contribute $381,000 more in taxes
- Earn $1 million more over their lifetime
- Contribute 3.5x more to charities
Lost in the Shuffle
Read more about the growing need to support college students through investments in affordable housing.
News/Media
News, articles, and stories featuring ARCS in the media. Read, share, enjoy!
Interested in Learning More?
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at arcs@chnw.org if you have any questions about the program.