The Need · The History · The Question
Amir Is Still Unhoused
What does access to education mean if a student still lacks the basic stability needed to learn, belong, and thrive?
Amir represents a question, not a claim about one identified person's life.
History of access
How Land-Grant Education Began
1862
The First Morrill Act
The Morrill Act used federal land grants to help states establish colleges focused on agriculture and mechanical arts. It expanded educational opportunity for many people, but Black students were often excluded by racial barriers. The original land-grant system was also built on Indigenous land dispossession, a history that must not be erased.
1890
The Second Morrill Act
The Second Morrill Act required states receiving specified federal land-grant funds to admit students without racial discrimination or maintain separate land-grant colleges for Black students. It helped create and support historically Black institutions while permitting a segregated system whose resources were not always equal.
From access to stability
Access Is Only the Beginning
A college seat is not the entire promise of education. Students also need safe housing, food, connection, support, and the conditions to focus on learning. Historic racial exclusion and present-day student homelessness are distinct issues, but studying them together helps us ask a necessary question:
Who has the resources to fully participate in an education?
Why "Amir Is Still Unhoused"?
This campaign connects educational history with the realities of student housing insecurity. It asks communities to look beyond admissions and enrollment figures and recognize dignity, belonging, and stability as part of opportunity.
Close / invitation
What Does a Student Need to Thrive?
More than admission. More than a classroom. Stability, belonging, access, and people committed to making room for them.
The proof isn't simply that we got in. It's what we build so the next student can stay, learn, and thrive.