Chant’e Catt is the off-campus housing coordinator at Humboldt State University located in California. Catt is a first-generation student at Humboldt State University (HSU) currently working toward a master’s in social work. She led a successful movement to raise awareness around university homelessness and to provide more resources for homeless undergraduates at Humboldt and throughout our national collegiate systems. She participated in the Stand Against Stigma campaign where she gave an account of her time as a homeless teenager in their “I Am/Was Homeless” video. She then suffered homelessness again when she transferred to Humboldt State as an undergraduate.
She helped to create a student club that has since turned into a student-run nonprofit called the Student Housing Advocate Alliance. Because of their social justice advocacy, Humboldt County higher education campuses created a 24-hour safe space for homeless students and two off-campus housing liaison positions, one at the local community college. Ms. Catt was hired to be the off-campus housing coordinator located at the HSU campus. In this position, she focuses on helping students meet their basic needs as a case manager and advocates for housing as a human right.
Ms. Catt has been featured in Now This Reports, “A Day in the Life of a Homeless College Student at California’s Humboldt State,” Chronicles of Higher Education, “Hungry to Learn,” Humboldt The Magazine of Humboldt State University in the Fall 2017 issue as student advocate of the year. This past year she spoke at the CSU Basic Needs Initiative Conference in Sacramento.
In her presentations, she speaks about her own experiences as a homeless teen and undergraduate, the root causes of homelessness, needed supports for people experiencing housing insecurity and how she helped spark a successful grassroots movement to address homelessness at HSU.
Her main pastime is to help create comforting community events and activities that bring integrity to our neighborhoods. With the above said, maintaining balance with her beautiful child, her goals, dreams and all the intricate daily details it takes to maintain them.