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Benjamin Pearcy wakes up, crawls out of his sleeping bag and emerges from the protection of some bushes. Shifting his backpack, he blinks in the daylight and strides off to get breakfast. Pearcy’s not camping.

His resting place for the night was a church property near downtown Phoenix. He’ll grab breakfast at the HomeBase Youth Services center and then he’ll head over to Phoenix College for his first class of the day, ENG061.

Pearcy is homeless and attending college. He is not alone. Others like him move through the city like ghosts seeking a place to rest. Nineteen-years-old, Pearcy has been on the streets of Phoenix and Tempe for six months; since he was laid-off from the call center job he last held. He was forced to vacate his Tempe apartment when he couldn’t find another job. He stayed with a neighbor in an apartment upstairs for a few days and then, storing some personal possessions with another neighbor, he took to the streets.

“I walked to a police station and asked if there was anyplace I could get help,” Pearcy recalls.

Derek Crowell, 25, attends PVCC and studies social sciences. Two-and-a half years ago, Crowell was homeless, living in his car in Wickenburg. Working as a cook after high school, he traveled to Puerto Rico and then Portland, OR, where his job and luck ran out. He returned to Arizona but his parents had just lost their home in the midst of financial problems and Derek had to fend for himself.

Crowell parked at night in alternating campgrounds to avoid police, often fearing for his safety alone in the desert. Friends from high school fed him and he got food boxes from local charities. He resorted to pan-handling when things got desperate.

“As time goes on, it feels futile. I was dirty and my attitude changed, so it was hard to go apply for a job,” Crowell says. “You get a survivalist, feral edge.”

Today, Crowell participates in the Emerging Leaders Program at PVCC whose focus is service learning. Last semester he volunteered at Andre House in Phoenix, which serves the homeless.

His experience, “gave me an insight to the hopelessness and helplessness,” Crowell says. “It still serves as a reminder that the primary causes of homelessness are societal.”

After six weeks on the streets, Crowell’s father was able to help him get an apartment and a friend helped him get a job.

“If I hadn’t had someone to lend a hand, I wonder what could have happened,” Crowell muses.

Crowell shares his experience to help “destroy the misconception that all homeless people are lazy winos.”

Kajuan Mitchell, counselor at HomeBase in Phoenix, sees 35-40 kids each day seeking services or just a safe place to hang out and get off the street. HomeBase, at 1301 E. Almeria, is a non-profit agency. It offers breakfast and lunch, showers, clothes washers and a medical clinic as well as counseling and referrals to other agencies and services.

“They’re all welcome here,” Mitchell says, reiterating a primary message of HomeBase and its mission, which targets young adults, 18- to 21-years-old.

Transitional housing is available through HomeBase and some other agencies, but this is usually for only a couple of weeks. Without a job, permanent housing remains elusive for the clients Mitchell serves. Some, like Pearcy, use GED preparation assistance to get into college and plan their future.

Pearcy is taking 12 credit hours this spring, his first semester at PC. He wants to get a nursing degree. Financial aid is in progress and he is learning to budget to rent an apartment and meet expenses. He’d like a part-time job that doesn’t interfere with schoolwork.

For now, he reads while riding the light rail and does homework at the library and in the airport waiting areas. He’s learned that if he asks politely, TSA officers allow him to sit and study quietly or nap, blending in with passengers in transit. Light-rail and bus passes provided by HomeBase also allow Pearcy to keep in touch with homeless friends in Tempe where, “we look out for each other.”

Known as a “straight-edge,” Pearcy doesn’t do drugs or use alcohol; he’s seen the effects on other homeless kids and adults. Pearcy lost his parents , then siblings in separate accidents before he was five years old. With no other family to take him in, he survived group and foster homes, getting into minor trouble as a teen. At 18, he was turned out on his own.

Lack of family and able parents is a common thread among the youth that become homeless according to Mitchell.

Debra Hughes, another PVCC student, had a close brush with homelessness a little later in life. Now 52, Hughes was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. Following a double mastectomy she underwent chemotherapy. When she lost all her hair, the management at her apartments, afraid she was dying, evicted her with 30-days notice.

Hughes had enough money to pay her rent but unable to work during her medical treatment, she couldn’t qualify to rent elsewhere. The local chapter of the American Cancer Society arranged for a lawyer who convinced the landlord to give her 90 days so she could qualify for housing assistance through the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Hughes almost fell through the cracks in the system, she says.

“They told me at welfare they couldn’t help me until I was on the street. Then I could go to a women’s shelter and my teenage sons would be able to go into foster care,” Hughes recounted.

Hughes is studying social work and human services, with the goal of working with youth.

Donna Mosher, PVCC counselor, hears stories like these from students juggling school and life.

“One of the biggest concerns of students is, ‘How can I afford it?’” says Mosher. “I help them look at all their resources.”

PVCC’s counseling center provides contacts and resources for any student needing help.

“Sometimes there is shame and embarrassment they need to overcome,” Mosher says, and we can help.”

Benjamin Pearcy has a lighter step these days leaving HomeBase and going to a class, “I’m homeless; but I don’t consider myself unfortunate,” he says.