H3 Initiative

Housing is Critical for Success

For more than 150 years, Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) have been providing diverse learning environments — from students to faculty to administration — ensuring that every student has a chance to succeed.
Recently, HBCU students have expressed their concerns about the issues related to HBCU housing.
Student Housing of America H3 Initiative Expressing Concern about Issues related to HBCU housing
For more than 150 years, Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) have been providing diverse learning environments — from students to faculty to administration — ensuring that every student has a chance to succeed.
Recently, HBCU students have expressed their concerns about the issues related to HBCU housing.

SHA’s HBCU Healthy Housing (H3) Initiative

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country are experiencing a significant increase in attendance. Unfortunately, this also magnifies the issues that they face in terms of student housing. HBCUs are important. They represent 9% of college enrollment nationwide and are responsible for 1 out of every 5 Black college graduates overall. However, due to a lack of investment by federal and state government, they have faced decades of underfunding and neglect which creates a significant negative impact to HBCU students especially in how they live.

A recent study showed that students at HBCUs struggle to maintain safe, affordable housing, and many of them said they were homeless in the last year. Moreover, certain groups of students, including those who are female, LGBTQ or low income, experienced housing and food insecurity at higher rates than their peers.

Student Housing of America’s mission is to help students be successful throughout their college career by providing safe and affordable housing designed for their scholastic needs and creating a positive environment for achievement through our various support programs. We work hand in hand with HBCUs, corporate partners, and other organizations to address students’ needs and provide for their well-being.

We are proud to announce our HBCU Healthy Housing (H3) Initiative.

Through our initiative, we partner with HBCUs to renovate distressed properties near the university to provide state of the art, safe, and affordable housing for college students. Our tax-exempt status allows us to do this in a cost-efficient manner for the benefit of all stakeholders including 3rd party property owners. As part of our initiative, we provide multiple support programs to create not only a stable living environment through need-based grants, zero-interest loans, and food security, but also a pathway to success through informational videos and seminars on various subjects such as mental health, physical wellness, financial management, and security so that students can also succeed. At our properties, SHA provides rent insurance so that student residents are not affected by bad credit stemming from unpaid rent and can have a future with no setbacks.

Additionally, SHA’s support programs extended to our partner universities so that students who live on-campus or at other student housing properties can also benefit from our initiative.

Housing and Food Insecurity

Students at historically Black colleges and universities experience high rates of food and housing insecurity, according to a new report released by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.

The center, which is based at Temple University, surveyed nearly 5,000 students from 14 private and public HBCUs in fall 2020 and found that 46 percent of students lacked sufficient food a month prior to when the survey was taken. More than half of the students, 55 percent, said they struggled to maintain safe, affordable housing, and 20 percent said they were homeless in the last year.

SHA partners with Emet Capital Management to provide new student housing at Albany State University.
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