Look up. Most likely, there is a ceiling over your head. It might seem like a blank abyss. Your eyes aren’t always focused there, but you can trust that it’s relatively strong and fairly reliable. Surrounded by four walls and a sturdy door, you feel safe knowing that if anything happens outside, you’ll be protected.
In the same vein, you also have the ability to reach for any door—you have an escape. But the same doors don’t open, or close, for everyone.
We often think of identity as comprised of parts, like the color of our skin, our gender, and our socioeconomic class. Similarly, privilege is a product of our identity. But we rarely think of privilege as access to basic human rights like food, clean water, and—yes, even reliable—housing. Project HOME, a non-profit that works with the Faith-Justice Institute here at Saint Joseph’s University, works to address homelessness in the Philadelphia region and provide solutions for those experiencing it. According to their facts web page on www.projecthome.org, “The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that during a year approximately 550,000 unaccompanied, single youth and young adults up to the age of 24 experience a homelessness episode of longer than one week.” As students attending a Jesuit institution, we are morally obliged to the pay attention to issues that affect our peers.
It’s almost time for housing selection here on Hawk Hill (applications open on Nov. 1) and housing is an integral part of our experience in college. The age-old question of “who are you living with next year” reappears in your nightmares in tandem with the howls of pick-times and that one person who just won’t make the cut.
But what exactly is the cut and what is worst case scenario for those of us finding housing for the next academic year? Ask yourself—before any kind of drama ensues—what is necessarily worth fighting for, relative to the greater community surrounding Saint Joseph’s borders? In a different vein, more local to our own region, one study taken in 2013 in the Philadelphia public high schools, reported “nearly 1,000 students said they were currently homeless” (Nbcphiladelphia.com). How do you feel about living now in Lancaster Courts, relative to that statistic that some cannot choose to live in Lannon Hall or Rashford Hall?
As students here at Saint Joseph’s, we need to bear in mind that not far from our fences, some young people are having much more serious difficulties than housing selection. Gratitude, on behalf of bystanders—and by extension students at our university who have housing—isn’t going to cut it. We need empathy, education, and action. The question comes down to this: If you had access to a door…
What would happen if you let someone in?
