Skip to main content
Associated Students Associated Students
  1. HOME
  2. Senate
  3. The Poverty Project

The Poverty Project: Uprooting Class & Racial Discrimination in Student Housing

Mission Statement

The UC San Diego Poverty Project is an Associated Student Senator project designed to engage students in activist research focusing on a racial lens to the student housing crisis through a $5,000 scholarship, host a backpack drive for unhoused UC San Diego undergraduates, and a humanizing information campaign through a virtual database.

Blue, white, yellow poverty project logo.

The Student Housing Crisis Information Resource Database

The Humanize the Unhoused Campaign aims to educate, destigmatize, and promote solutions to the issue of homelessness that face UC San Diego undergraduates, graduates, and San Diego residents through a virtual database (below or select logo). 

The Poverty Project Research: Undergraduate Students

The AS Office of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion and Campus-Wide Senator Green have allocated a scholarship grant of $5,000 towards The Poverty Project. The scholarship will provide support housing, travel, equipment, and other costs associated with these endeavors.

The research projects are designed to guide students through the process of: 

  1. assessing the needs of low-income and unhoused students and the ability of local agencies to meet the needs of racial inequities in student housing; 
  2. educating community service organizations and the general public about these needs; 
  3. creating fundraising and educational opportunities to help agencies and the general public to serve unhoused students of color better.

This project provides students with valuable experience in conducting qualitative research. The project proposal must be independent research, creative expression, or service above and beyond the normal course of study unless the project overlaps with research associated with a senior honors project or independent/special studies.

Congratulations to Samantha Chan for being the recepient of the innaugural research scholarship.

Samantha is a third-year undergraduate at Marshall College, who is majoring in Public Health and minoring in Public Service and Biology. Working as an EMT and leading advocacy-based study abroad programs, her passion for advancing equity lies at the intersection of health and community. With experience in event planning for Marshall College and in qualitative public health research, Samantha aims to continually learn about not just the community she is in, but how to best uplift a sense of community as well. Future plans include advocating for the accessibility and affordability of healthcare, and eventually working as a physician to provide patient-centered care.

Resource Distribution: UCSD Backpack Drive with the Basic Needs Hub

The Poverty Project Launch Day was a celebratory and community-building event in collaboration with The Poverty Project Team, Associated Students of UC San Diego, the Homelessness Hub through the Department of Urban Studies & Planning, and the Basic Needs Hub. We will be celebrating the selected Poverty Project Scholarship recipient and participating in a backpack drive for unhoused, low-income, first-generation, and BIPOC undergraduate students.  

  • Backpacks
  • Hygiene & Feminine Items 
  • Food Items 
  • First Aid Kits
  • Poverty Project Merchandise
  • Housing Informational Pamphlet

Poverty Project Resources

Below are official resources provided by the project. A special thank you to AS Senators Christina Marie Green (founder) Génesis Quetzaly López Morales, Jared Blackwell, Ryan Corea, and Sofia Di Stefano.

Backpack Pick-Up Form

There is a limit of one (1) backpack per undergraduate student who fill out the form, unless otherwise requested. Backpacks are first come first served.

Sign Up

Crisis Information Database

Location and resources of San Diego homeless centers/shelters, public bathroom/shower locations at the UC San Diego campus, Associated Students Office, and Hub Centers. 

Learn More