Today, the thought of living with roommates comes almost naturally, with the idea of not splitting rent with someone else seeming foreign to most of today’s generation.
Back in the day, living with roommates was a niche that only a few people experienced. Today, that is not the case. According to a 2018 survey from the Pew Research Center, almost one-in-three U.S. adults has an adult roommate who is not their romantic partner or a college student aged 18 to 24.
With WSU Vancouver being a commuter campus and not yet offering dorms, students rely on off-campus housing for a living situation and apartment rates in the area are not cheap. Zillow.com stated the average price for a two bedroom apartment in the Salmon Creek area is about $1,200.
Due to the rise in rent, students are commonly living together or, in extreme situations, homeless. Elias Cohen, an institutional research specialist for campus effectiveness at WSU Vancouver, said that in terms of student homelessness and demographics, WSU Vancouver is close to the national average.
“We all think of 18-year-old undergrads going to Ivy League institutions when we think of college,” Cohen said. “When in reality, when we look at the vast number of students who are getting degrees, an institution like ours is much more typical.”
According to a 2018 survey conducted by the Wisconsin HOPE lab, the national average of students who are housing insecure is 36 percent and 9 percent of these students claimed to be homeless.
“Our numbers are alarming. But, when you look at the national statistics, they’re similarly alarming,” said Cohen. Cohen also acknowledged how this is the first year WSU Vancouver included questions regarding food and housing insecurity in the Campus Climate Survey.
According to the 2018 Campus Climate Survey results, 6.6 percent of WSU Vancouver students did not know where they were going to sleep at night and 4.9 percent said they stayed in an abandoned building or automobile at any given time during the academic year.
As for facilities available on campus, the Cougar Food Pantry is a service where students can confidentially request food for themselves and their families. The WSU Vancouver website has a Campus Bulletin Board for Housing where students and community members post shared living space and roommate opportunities. Housing listings in the area also appear on bulletin boards around campus and in the Oregonian and Columbian.