Planning For The Prestigious Poor

Celebrating the graduates in my 2024 Senior Project class at Cal Poly Pomona Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Today we uplift this researcher:

Planning for the Prestigious Poor: A Critical Analysis of Cal Poly Pomona’s Initiatives Addressing Student Homelessness and Housing Instability

By: Eileen Ramos

Excerpt:

This study assesses the ability of housing-insecure college students at Cal Poly Pomona to access support services to meet their needs. It identifies successes, limitations, and areas of improvement within the existing support system.

I will be coining the term the ‘prestigious poor’ in this research, which is in conversation with the concept of The Privileged Poor coined by Anthony Abraham Jack. Jack explores, “the experiences of those who live in poor, often segregated communities but enter college from elite boarding, day, and preparatory schools like Exeter, Choate, or Dalton those whom I call the Privileged Poor.” In contrast, I approach “The Prestigious Poor” from the lens of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable student populations in any university setting. I define the “Prestigious Poor” as college students who lack basic necessities like housing and food while simultaneously working towards a degree to better their socioeconomic status. While the concept of the ‘privileged poor’ portrays the struggles faced by low-income students in contrast to their Ivy League legacy wealthy students, the ‘prestigious poor’ encompasses all disadvantaged students facing critical disruptive instability like homelessness compared to secure students.

Questions driving this research are: “Do the resources provided by Cal Poly Pomona fulfill the needs of students facing housing instability?” and “How can Cal Poly Pomona make these resources more accessible to students in need?”