In D.C., 5,500 students are homeless. The city is helping some of them take their first steps to college.

His bed was snugly made, and four pair of sneakers formed a neat line beneath his extra-long twin bed. An iron that Dajon Duvall borrowed from his dorm’s residential adviser sat on a wooden desk that was crammed on his side of the room.

Every day, the 18-year-old irons his T-shirts and jeans, a habit he picked up in eighth grade after spending two years living with his mom and younger sisters in hotel rooms in central Florida.