For-profit colleges, which get most of their revenue through federal grant and loan funds, are increasingly recruiting homeless students to enroll and take on debt to finance their education. 

Over the past decade, grant aid and federal loans awarded to students at for-profit colleges increased from $4.6 billion to 26.5 billion.  At the same time, these loan and grant programs have become the dominant part of the operating budget for these schools.  Federal funds now comprise 86% of the revenue for the University of Phoenix and 87% of the revenue for the Drake College of Business. 

For schools looking to increase enrollment and revenue, low income and homeless students are ideal since they qualify for the most federal grants and loans.  College recruiters, whether out of their own ingenuity or direction from their supervisors, are increasingly recruiting students from shelters and other relief agencies. 
 
While many public community college students are also lower income, they also pay less in tuition and graduate with less debt than students at for-profit institutions.  Annual tuition at many for-profit schools is between $10,000 and $20,000 and is expected to keep rising.  Drake College of Business, for example, increased its tuition by $11,700 this year.

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