Hannah Mulroe said her team feels lucky that St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Koreatown offered its space at a low price for the Trojan Shelter to rent near the USC campus.
By GABRIELA HERNÁNDEZ
Hannah Mulroe grew up in Chicago where her father runs a shelter for homeless people. She knows first-hand what having access to a shelter can mean for someone with no permanent place to call home.
Now a senior at the University of Southern California majoring in Industrial and Systems Engineering, she’s also co-director of Trojan Shelter, a program for the growing number of homeless students on campus.
What makes Trojan Shelter unique is that it’s an entirely student-run program. Mulroe said it began during her freshman year after she took a class called “Nonprofits and the Public Interest.” The president and founder of the Bruin shelter, otherwise known as Students 4 Students, presented their mission to the class. Two classmates who would then become the co-founders of the Trojan Shelter asked about how they could help with the mission.
The president and the founder advised them to start their own.
The classmates organized a team of eight students to start, including Mulroe. Together, they spent the entire year doing research, recruiting volunteers and laying the foundation to start the program.
Mulroe said her team feels lucky that St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Koreatown offered its space at a low price for the Trojan Shelter to rent near the USC campus. All expenses are met through donations and fundraisers for the shelter. The shelter provides a bed, three meals and a place to bathe and study for up to six residents between the ages of 18 to 26 for a guaranteed full academic year.
“But on the flip side, we encourage people to work with their caseworker and find other housing sooner,” Mulroe said. “We always encourage people to do whatever works best for them.”
Mulroe adds that due to the pandemic, “we have had to decrease our capacity to three beds so we can allow for more physical distancing.” They also offer an isolation room if one of those students need to quarantine.
When Trojan Shelter opened in November 2019, about 45 students applied through Students 4 Students, which is connected to the Bruin Shelter. The team keeps a running waitlist, recommending referrals to other programs for those they can’t accept due to lack of space.
Mulroe said several students from other universities have reached out to Trojan Shelter to see if they can replicate the program. The board members are writing up a description that can serve as a model.
“I’d say, our first step was definitely getting a strong team of students that are willing to work on this together,” Mulroe said. “In our case, we had eight of us working together, and we split up tasks so we could take on this big project together as a team.”
She also added that you need to gather student volunteers, make sure the space for rent is up to code, find good resources and know how to fundraise.
Mulroe plans to go back home to Chicago after graduating and help students at universities there create programs similar to Trojan Shelter. Having students directly involved, no matter how small their contribution, inspires her to believe that her generation can overcome the crisis of homelessness in the country.
About the Author:
My name is Gabriela Hernández, and I am an undergrad student at California State University, Northridge. I am majoring in broadcast journalism with a minor in Spanish-language journalism. I enjoy reporting on entertainment news and hope to work on the Spanish entertainment field one day. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with family and connecting with nature.
Tags: college housing insecurity inseguridad habitacional Trojan Shelter University of Southern California USC
