Category: Investigative Journalism

“The reason I got down here is because me and her kind of had a split up. I’m talking to you now because, now I’m coming from my heart, because its hurting me to have to give up everything I had built to get down here. I got down here because I got stressed out. I didn’t want to be around, but I still think about her. But I just couldn’t be around her. So when I got down here, I had nowhere to go.”

Emmanuel Williams came to Rock Hill with nothing, leaving his old life in Anderson, S.C. behind. He, like many in Rock Hill, had to sleep in the woods with strangers because he had nowhere else to go. 

“You don’t want to be out there in the streets. You know, because its dangerous out there,” Williams said. “The time when I got here, and I had sleep in the woods with a friend that I didn’t know. But he looked out for me, and I respect him. I still respect him today.”

Many people just like Williams live in Rock Hill, finding shelter where they can. Some stay in the woods, like Williams; others sleep under highway overpasses; while still others stay with relatives, having no place of their own. In 2020, York County was ranked number eight on the top 10 counties with the highest Point in Time (PIT) count responses, a measure used to track people who are homeless, according to the 2020 South Carolina State of Homelessness Report. 

The report, created by the South Carolina Interagency Council on Homelessness, says in York County 162 people experienced homelessnes in March of 2020, of which 36% were unsheltered, meaning they “were residing in places not suitable for human habitation” while 64% were sheltered, meaning they “were residing in emergency or transitional housing.”

People may become homeless for a number of different reasons, but according to the study “Using K-Means Cluster Analysis and Decision Trees to Highlight Significant Factors Leading to Homelessness,” people often do not become homeless due to a single hardship. Often, several different hardships, such as medical bills, food instability, housing instability, overdue utility bills and disabilities combine to make it difficult to stay housed. According to the most recent census, 12.6% of people in Rock Hill were in poverty and 11.2% did not have health insurance at the time of the census. 

In York County, 24% of the population lived in a household that spent at least half of their income on rent and utilities, or had no income at all, according to the 2013-2017 American Community Survey. 

The average wage in York County was $12.54, which is $7.23 short of what the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) calls the housing wage, the amount of money per hour a person would need to make to spend less than 30% of their income renting a two bedroom apartment at fair market rent, according to the NLIHC Out of Reach Report in 2019. 

In 2016, South Carolina had the highest number of evictions in the country, according to the South Carolina Housing Needs Assessment by SC Housing. While data was not available for York County, “for every 1,000 renter households statewide, 187 received a notice and 89 were forcibly removed. These figures are dramatically higher than any other state in the country; Delaware and Virginia, the states with the next highest rate, had 51 evictions per 1,000 renters.”

South Carolina Housing Needs Assessment also highlights an affordable housing shortage happening in South Carolina. In York County, 15,395 renters are eligible for housing assistance but do not live in an assisted unit. York County is also in high-demand for new construction, having a real estate market “where affordability was likely to be a particularly serious challenge going forward,” according to the assessment. 

The hardships people who become homeless face are often the result of structural barriers, not a person’s individual choices, according to Sara Brallier, professor of sociology at Costal Carolina University. Brallier, whose research focuses on homelessness in the Myrtle Beach area, said often times people who are homeless were not afforded the same opportunities as other people.

“One of the biggest problems is that folks think that it’s because they have made bad choices. You know, something that someone said about a kid that was successful is, you know, ‘Well, he made good choices.’ And someone retorted, ‘Well, he had good choices to make.’ And so, you know, I think about that all the time. Lots of these folks didn’t even have good choices to make, right?”

Williams became homeless because his wife was financially taking advantage of him, he said. After they split up, he had to leave everything behind and move away. But before he was homeless, Williams was a supervisor at a factory in Anderson. 

“I’m going through this course, and this man that worked there was a supervisor named Roger, kind of an older guy. He said ‘I need a good man that’s going to work every day and don’t be out.’ I said, ‘Yes sir, I’m your man.’ So he put me on this machine with this lady named Cindy. She’s training me with the machine,” he said. “So once I got used to it I could start it up myself. And, you know, I’m doing really good.”

Williams almost got fired over a background check but was allowed to keep working after his supervisor’s boss chose to ignore it. Over time, he started learning more machines.

“So this man, my supervisor … he was so cool, so understanding. He believed in second chances,” he said. “So he gave me a second chance. But when he started training me on all these machines, man, I’m learning them.”

Eventually, Williams rose to be his supervisor’s lead man and, eventually, became a supervisor himself. 

“See, this how life feels sometimes. Life moves so fast. And your mind, your mind ain’t ready for it, but you think you ready for it. But you’re not,” he said. “So I became a supervisor, and I met this beautiful woman on the job. Me and her got married, but she had kids, but I don’t care. I loved her. 

“And I think that she was wanting more out of me because I was in the [National] Guard and I was a supervisor. I think she was thinking that she can get anything now she wants because she know I love her.”

Black people, like Williams, are more likely than white people to be homeless in South Carolina, according to the 2020 South Carolina State of Homelessness report. In a statewide PIT count, 53% of homeless people were Black, despite making up only 27% of the population, according to the census.

In South Carolina, the number of people experiencing homeless may be growing. According to an article by WIS News in Columbia, S.C. titled “SC homeless shelter seeing ‘tsunami’ of people in need after eviction moratorium ends,” since the end of the eviction moratorium, where landlords were barred from evicting renters due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations like Homeless No More are at capacity. 

“Normally we will see 10 phone calls a day from families who are at risk of homelessness. In the past 10 days, we are now at 20 to 30 phone calls each day from families who have received notice of evictions and will be homeless in the next 24 to 48 hours,” Homeless No More CEO Lila Anna Sauls said, according to the article.

According to a report by STOUT prepared for the National Council of State Housing Agencies in 2020, “Analysis of Current and Expected Rental Shortfall and Potential Evictions in the U.S.,” an estimated 150,000 – 210,000 renters were unable to pay rent with a rent shortfall of an estimated $329,000,000 – $429,000,000 in January 2021, when the eviction moratorium was originally going to end. 

While there is no recent data for homeless adults in 2021 in Rock Hill, data on the number of homeless children in Rock Hill public schools was obtained through open records requests. During the 2018-2019 school year, 101 children in Rock Hill public schools experienced homelessness. During the 2020-2021 school year, that number rose to 162 children, a rise of around 60%. 

College students also experience homelessness but are often overlooked, according to the article “College Student Homelessness: A Hidden Epidemic” by Chad Klitzman. 

“To many, the term ‘homeless college student’ sounds like a contradiction,” the article says. “However, in 2013, nearly 60,000 applicants for federal financial aid under the age of twenty-one self-identified as homeless; given that this figure does not encompass students over the age of twenty-one, the number likely eclipses 100,000.”

Josie Pope, a senior mass communication and English dual major at Winthrop University, became homeless senior year of high school after her mother kicked her out of the house. 

“Like any queer person, you know, there’s a time in your life when your family becomes more and more suspicious of you as you develop as a person,” she said. “And for me, you know, that turned out into a large heated argument, which I think the pandemic kind of exasperated in a way. And my mother just simply literally just kicked me out in the middle of the night because of the fact that I was too queer, and she had accused me of being trans.”

According to “LGBT People and Housing Affordability, Discrimination and Homelessness,” an article by the UCLA School of Law, Williams Institute, family rejection is a major contributing factor to the high levels of LGBT youth experiencing homelessness. Between 20% and 45% of homeless youth identify as LGBT, which is two to four times more than the estimated percentage of all youth who identify as LGBT. 

Pope stayed with friends and family until eventually she was able to move in with her grandparents. However, she said they are only marginally more accepting than her mother. 

“My grandmother has a strong sense of family, and I guess that kind of overrides her feelings about trans people,” she said. “They let me live there because we’re family. Sometimes there can be a strain for them, with me being trans.”

People who identify as transgender such as Pope face economic hardship at a higher rate than people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. According to “LGBT People and Housing Affordability, Discrimination and Homelessness,” nearly half of LGBT adults own their homes, compared to 70% of non-LGBT adults. LGBT adults have 15% higher odds of being poor than non-LGBT adults after controlling for age, race, employment status, education, disability and other factors that affect risk of poverty. 

“This is all I can do financially. I don’t have a car. I don’t have really anything to my name. And with being homeless, I have not had the ability to actually have a job. Because I don’t have car, I have to walk places. And so that really is dependent on where I’m living, what my living situation is,” Pope said.

Pope now has a job at Starbucks and receives financial help from Winthrop. However, she said she still has a hard time feeling comfortable anywhere, even in her dorm. 

“Because the way I became homeless was a very violent and quick experience, I think, since then I’ve had trouble recognizing places as a living place,” she said. “At all points, I could probably pack up myself in 30 minutes and be out of that place … I don’t recognize it as like a living space or like a place that’s my own to, like, personalize or do that thing where people like decorate their places. 

“And so I don’t see it like that. I don’t see it as like a actual home or place that is safe. It’s just somewhere I go to bed and wake up and leave.”

Rock Hill has many nonprofits dedicated to helping the homeless population in its city. Pathways, a nonprofit itself, houses many of these organizations with the purpose of creating an intake and referral agency and single point of entry for those in crisis, poverty or who are homeless. 

It uses a continuum of care model to “outsource” help that people need to other nonprofits that specialize in meeting the specific need, such as transportation, clothing, housing, identification, food, financial help, education, employment and health. However, all associated nonprofits are housed on site, which “provides a multifunctional community center where agencies unite to accomplish one goal: to provide services for those in need at a single point of entry facility,” according to their flyer.

Williams is no longer homeless because of Pathways. He was able to find a house, get furniture and get back on his feet because of the nonprofit.

“This lady on the bus wanted to know where I was going. I said, ‘I don’t know where to go.’ She told me about Pathways. On the bus, she told me, ‘I’m going to show you where Pathways is,’” he said. “All the ladies in here, we talked, and I told them, I said, ‘Hey, I don’t know nobody. I don’t know where to go.’ And so I went to Bethel [Men’s Shelter], and they gave me a bed.

“But the people out there in the street, they are struggling. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to go. I mean, they don’t know if they are going to be around the next day, or if they are going to be living. They don’t got no clue.”

According to Brallier, nonprofits aren’t able to do enough on their own to combat homelessness. 

“They simply can’t meet the need. The two that I work with are both focused on food insecurity. So it’s a food pantry and then a community kitchen in Conway, which is technically the city that the university is is located, and both of them do a great job. But there, there’s only so much that nonprofits can really do,” she said.

Governments should be doing more to try to curb homelessness, according to Brallier. There are plans that are working in other places, she said, and more governments should consider using them.

“One of the things that is really working in other places that we do not do comprehensively here is the housing first model, where they have a supply of no cost or low cost housing, and they put someone in housing,” she said. “It’s hard to treat someone’s addiction when, you know, they go back to the streets. Whereas if they have a safe place to stay, then we start working on mental health, physical health, addiction, finding jobs [and] training.”

According to the Fiscal Year 2020 Year-End Strategic Plan Performance Report, Rock Hill met their goals to:

“Complete the full build out of Arcade by 6/30/2021.” The build out was completed in Fall 2019.

“Provide annual updates on the implementation of the Housing Development Corporation strategic plan.” According to the report, “The HDC continues to work around ‘Buy, Fix, Keep’ and provides an annual report in the Fall of every year.”

However many goals outlined in the report were not met. They include:

“Develop a comprehensive analysis of housing conditions, affordability, inventory, vacancy rates, occupancy trends, etc. in the neighborhoods surrounding Knowledge Park by 12/31/2019.”

“Attract mixed income housing units to Knowledge Park by permitting at least 75 new mixed income units by 6/30/2021.”

“Develop a mixed income housing incentive pilot program by 12/31/2019”

Brallier said that cities will pay for homelessness one way or the other, either through programs to combat it or through people who are homeless utilizing public services.

“You pay for it regardless of how you pay for it. You’re either going to pay for it by having these folks utilize public services, or you’re going to pay for it by sheltering them,” she said. “And eventually, it would cost less if we could get them sheltered and at least partially financially independent, you know, having some employment. Because it’s a lot easier to work when you have a place to go at night, have a place to store your stuff. You can sleep, you can shower. All of those are barriers to employment.”

(Rock Hill, S.C.) – Student enrollment at Winthrop University is down by almost 500 students since the 2017-2018 school year, which has led to budget cuts, layoffs and smaller course sizes across campus, impacting faculty, staff and students in many ways.

Winthrop — like many schools — is heavily dependent on enrollment, as tuition makes up the majority of the university’s revenue and it’s estimated to be 67.5% of fiscal year 2022’s overall budget, according to Associate Vice President for Finance and Business Jeremy Whitaker. Tuition made up 70% of the overall budget in fiscal year 2018.

Winthrop’s operating revenue — once $122.5M in fiscal year 2018 — dropped by 7.8% to an estimated operating revenue of $113M in fiscal year 2022.

To offset the difference in revenue, the university has asked asked faculty and staff to leave, allowed contracts to expire and permanently retired positions after those holding the positions leave or retire.

“The goal of the university is to match revenue and expenses every year. In fiscal year 2020, compensation was 78.5% of the divisional allocations, therefore, as revenues have gone down, the university has had to reduce expenses by making tough decisions,” Whitaker said.

Staff members have been let go at a higher rate than faculty, but faculty at the lower end of the hierarchy, like adjunct professors, also have to worry about their positions, according to Brandon Ranallo-Benavidez, assistant professor of political science.

According to Ranallo-Benavidez, the large number of staff members let go will have effects throughout the university.

“We need to have instructors, of course, but also, we’re a liberal arts college, and so we need to have the whole scope of wraparound services. So whenever we’re seeing people, like the staff members, be . . . let go or having their positions unfilled once they leave voluntarily, it causes problems that then reverberate throughout the whole system,” Ranallo-Benavidez said.

Quality of Services

Infrastructure has been identified by students and staff as a campus problem that needs to be addressed immediately.

James Grigg, associate vice president of facilities management, held a talk on Oct. 20 about ongoing projects and the issues facilities management knows about.

WU Students for Change, a campus advocacy group, held a protest on Dec. 3 demanding, among other things, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and the removal of mold from residence halls.

On Tik Tok, the account “WU Anarchist Student Society” posted a video showing what appears to be mold in a shower, mushrooms growing out of a carpet and rotten wood on the outside of buildings, among other things.

Text on the video reads “Winthrop University is the most expensive public college in S.C. This is what we are paying for…” The post has over 292,000 views and 39,000 likes.

According to Whitaker, “Finance and facilities have been working diligently to address the deferred maintenance needs of the University. The University currently has roughly 17 projects with costs over $35 million that will be executed over the next two to three years. In addition, we received another $9 million of renewal replacement funds from the state in fiscal year 2022.”

He said those funds would be used to upgrade classrooms, update cameras, to improve Winthrop’s network and complete other technology projects.

Fewer Services

Counseling Services is another point of concern according to WU Students for Change.

“We demand that Winthrop University expand its mental health resources, including the onboarding of better, more inclusive, and more sensitive therapists and counselors in the Health and Counseling department, to ensure that students have access to the care they need. Students shouldn’t be waiting months for counseling appointments,” the group said, in a petition posted on Change.org.

According to Gretchen Baldwin, the clinical coordinator for Counseling Services, her and her staff are at capacity, despite appointments being down by almost 50% since fall 2019. 

“Everybody is absolutely at capacity. Like we’re plugging people into our case management time. And, you know, we just can’t really add more in a day,” Baldwin said. “In an ethical and responsible way, you know, there’s only so many people that you can treat in a day and still have the resources internally to continue to provide good treatment.”

Counseling Services uses a same day model to appointments, meaning a student can get an appointment on the same day they contact Counseling Services for help. 

“We have that model because in the past prior to that, somebody would have to wait two to three weeks before an intake session,” Baldwin said. “We transitioned to a same day model of intake because it’s really more of like a get your foot in the door kind of an assessment type appointment.

“Then we can – based on what the person is needing and their level of clinical urgency – we can either schedule them for another same day that week or help get them connected to the community or schedule them for the next available appointment.”

Baldwin said she is looking to hire a new counselor with a multicultural specialty to replace a staff member who left at the end of October. 

“The goal of that position is to provide focused outreach to the community especially targeted at BIPOC students and be able to reduce stigma and encourage, you know, representation among our staff members in order to kind of allow people to feel safe and comfortable coming into counseling services and to feel heard and seen in a comfortable way,” Baldwin said.

She believes this vacancy, as well as a lack of Office of Victim Assistance (OVA) counselors, has contributed to the high work load for her and her staff.

“I think some of this may be reflected by OVA counseling, in that we had three individuals practicing in OVA counseling in 2019 who looked like two full time staff members as far as hours went,” Baldwin said. “OVA experienced 100% turnover because staff members were overworked. And so we’ve really tried to be very, very cautious with staff self care in OVA to protect their well being. And now we only have the one and the part time person, but we will soon have two full time people there”

To be able to grow, Baldwin said her department would need a mix of resources.

“The university would need to be able to identify a full time staff members salaries, salary and benefits. And we would need space. We don’t have space to grow here in this building,” Baldwin said.

Fewer Classes Available

Budget concerns are not the only negative impact of declining enrollment.

Faculty have to worry about meeting enrollment quotas in the courses they teach. If a course has less than 12 students enrolled, it is possible the course will be canceled for the semester. 

“Courses that previously would never have an issue getting enough students to actually enroll in them for them to make. . . the minimum,” Ranallo-Benavidez said. “You could probably look through the spring of 22 course catalog right now and see dozens if not even close to 100 courses across the university, that should have at least 12 and don’t.”

In the political science department alone, over 30% of courses have less than the 12 required students enrolled at time of writing.

Ranallo-Benavidez said this is the first semester he won’t meet his four course requirement for his tenure track. 

“I’ve never had an issue up until now. Next semester, my second section of American government – because I’m supposed to be teaching two of them,” Ranallo-Benavidez said. “The first one has 20-something, it’s fine. The second section only has seven, and so I don’t think it’s going to end up making. So that’ll be the first time for me that one of my four courses… is not probably going to have high enough enrollment to make.”

Students could also be impacted by this change, as the classes they intended to take could be changed last minute due to low enrollment.

However, Ranallo-Benavidez said at least in the College of Arts and Sciences, exceptions will be given to graduating students.

“If a course is required for a student to graduate, and they are graduating that semester, you can either make a petition to run the course under enrolled. So if you have like a senior capstone, and it only has 10 in it instead of 12, you can submit a petition, it’ll probably pass to teach it,” Ranallo-Benavidez said. “And then if it’s only one or two people, like it’s a really low enrollment, then you can (make it an) independent study, so that student could do an independent study with you.”

Competition for Undeclared Students

Competition is heating up between departments, according to Ranallo-Benavidez, to draw students into certain majors while making sure to not discourage other majors.

“So every undeclared student is going to be a free for all, in our especially those general education courses at the lowest levels, things like American government for political science, or, you know, intro to sociology or psychology or some of these other similarly situated majors, there’s going to be a lot of pressure to try to pull those students into your own courses,” Ranallo-Benavidez said.

“I think… it’s going to be more like, ‘please, consider our courses, come take them with us. And if you’ve enjoyed this class, consider declaring a major or a second major or a minor,’ and those types of things, really pushing students into your courses.”

If a major consistently has it’s classes canceled due to low enrollment, it is possible that major will be changed into a program, only offering minors or only being a part of an individualized study, while some departments may also be fused with others, resulting in combined majors and classes.

Enrollment & Retention Declines

Enrollment has two factors to consider: (1) the number of new students arriving on campus and (2) the number of students that return.

The Office of Admissions is in charge of attracting, recruiting and accepting new students. From there, University College is in charge of student retention by helping students academically stay on track.

During the fall semester 2017, Winthrop had 5,014 undergraduate students enrolled. By the fall semester 2021, that number had dropped to 3,973 undergraduate students enrolled, a decline of 1,041 or almost 21%.

Freshman enrollment matches this trend, with 1,050 freshman enrolled in 2017, but that number dropped to 818 freshman enrolled in 2021; a dip of 22%.

Joseph Miller, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing, said changing demographics and economic downturn were already impacting the number of students looking to go to college, and the COVID-19 pandemic have made these problems worse. 

“COVID-19 really accelerated what we saw coming. What many people would have anticipated, not for another five years, and some pretty steep enrollment declines across the country, and particularly within South Carolina,” Miller said. “90% of our students … at Winthrop University are from the state of South Carolina. So it’s really important that we monitor the metrics and this you know, sort of the landscape of what’s happening in the state but also understanding how some of our out of state primary markets are working as well.”

Competition for New Students

The number of high school graduates was projected to rise until the 2025-2026 school year, and then begin to lower again. However, the number of high school graduates do not always correlate with the number of graduates looking to go to college, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I think COVID proved to us that that decline that some call it the demographic cliff, that demographic cliff actually got scooted five years forward now. And it’s not because of any change in the number of students who graduated high school, I think it has everything to do with the fact of the changes in family finances,” Miller said. “A lot of families, you know, parents were furloughed, they were unemployed or underemployed. So any sort of family reserves financially, aren’t being prioritized for higher education right now.”

Outside competition is also contributing to lower enrollment, according to Miller.

South Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that is projected to grow in the number of college-going students. In addition, the Charlotte metropolitan area is one of only four metropolitan areas in the country expected to grow greater than 7.5% in college-going students. 

“So the competition has become increasingly competitive and fierce for students in South Carolina,” Miller said. “It’s the ultimate zero sum game, right, if other colleges pull market share away from Winthrop University, that’s fewer students that the university has to recruit.”

The number of freshman enrolled did increase in 2019, which Miller attributes to new technology.

“The college at that point realized that it needed to make some investments in technology. That was the 2017-2018 year, which didn’t get fully implemented until 2019,” Miller said.

“As the new guy, having looked at the past couple years of admission, financial aid and enrollment trend history for Winthrop. I have no doubt that fall 2020 was on record to be the absolute very best year in freshmen enrollment for Winthrop University,” Miller said.

Student retention has similarly suffered. 468 students enrolled in spring 2021 did not return in fall 2021, with only 67, or 14%, indicating they would be transferring. This is up from last year, when 429 students enrolled in spring 2020 did not return in fall 2020. 

Vice Provost for Student Success and Dean of University College Jamie Cooper said he believes this drop is mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite prior drops.

“I would say, the last three years, we have been at about 69% retention rate. And so this year went down to 67.9%. So we went down two points,” Cooper said. “I think that was definitely an impact of COVID. But I think we fared better in terms of the declines that we saw than many other institutions did.”

Previous drops, Cooper said, can be explained by the lack of programs, like the Learning Excellence Academic Practice (LEAP) program. According to Winthrop’s website, the program “is designed to assist students in making a successful transition from high school to college” and “provides academic guidance and support to a select group of freshman students at Winthrop University.”

“So we have reinstated that program for this year. And that program was not active the past few years when we saw the lower levels of retention in our freshmen students. So we’re hoping that some of the technology, some of the new outreach that we’re doing and also that program in particular is going to help us improve our retention going forward,” Cooper said.

Efforts to Improve Retention

Cooper recently submitted a request to administration and the Board of Trustees to purchase a retention platform, as Winthrop is one of only two public institutions in South Carolina that does not already have one. The retention of 13 additional students would pay the annual cost of this platform. 

“On our side, we can see: Which students are going to aren’t going to class? Who’s not enrolled? Who’s not advised? When we see a student who is in distress, we can actually see all the information about the students. So we can see: Who’s their professors? Do they live in the residence hall? Which residence hall is it? Are they in TRiO? Are they an athlete? 

“So right now, all those pieces of information about a student are in different places. So nowhere does all the information exist about a student. And these are systems that really pull all that information together,” Cooper said.

To drive applications for the Fall 2022 semester, the Board of Trustees allocated $500,000 to University Communications and Marketing to “do a multi-phase marketing campaign to help generate more applications, to help foster relationships with students and also to assist with student retention,” according to Miller. 

A campaign is already underway in the Columbia area, where $50,000 was used to create billboards, targeted digital advertisement and direct mailing campaigns. Miller said he believes the efforts undertaken, such as new admission policies and the marketing campaign, have already had an impact on future enrollment. 

“We’ve made some changes in the way that we’re admitting students this year. So in previous years, the college didn’t start admitting students until Dec. 1, but we’ve accelerated that timeline, and we began admitting students at Oct. 15 for this upcoming year.” Miller said. “So currently, we’re at 24% ahead on admissions for this upcoming year than we were at this point in time last year for our fall 2021 class.”

This story was written for and posted to The Palmetto Report on Feb 2, 2022.