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Student Life

Housing and Opportunities that are Useful for Student Excellence (HOUSE)

Homelessness and College StudentsÌý

Wisconsin's HOPE Lab completed the largest national survey assessing the basic needs security of university students. The results are troubling. The survey found that 36% of university students were housing insecure and 9% were homeless. In 2022 the state of Illinois passed theÌý Ìýin an effort to provide assistance to students experiencing homelessness and students in care. This legislation created the Housing and Opportunities that are Useful for Student Excellence (HOUSE) liaison.

Do you qualify as homeless or student in care?

    • Are you an enrolled student who lacks or is at imminent risk of lacking a fixed, regular, or adequate nighttime residence?
    • Are you an enrolled student whose parent or legal guardian is unable or unwilling to provide shelter or care?
    • Are you living in a shelter, park, motel, hotel, public space, camp ground, car, abandoned building, or temporarily living with others?
    • Are you fleeing an abusive parent?
    • Are you unaccompanied (not living in the physical custody of your parent or guardian)?
    • Are you or were you under the care and legal custody of the Department of Children and Family Services, including youth for whom the Department has court-ordered legal responsibility, youth who aged out of care at age 18 or older, or youth formerly under care who have been adopted and were the subject of an adoption assistance agreement or who have been placed in private guardianship and were the subject of a subsidized guardianship agreement?

What to expect from the HOUSE liaison

We will work with you and other departments on campus to reduce homelessness and at-risk-for-homelessness barriers to success.Ìý We will provide information on local, state, and federally available resources.Ìý

  • We will first connect you with the Financial Aid Office. A member of this team will meet with you to go over your FAFSA/Alternative Aid Application and any other financial documents as well as discussing your situation from your perspective. The Financial Aid office will determine your financial aid eligibility and let the HOUSE liaison know if there is a determination of homelessness/at-risk/student in care.
  • If you are determined to be homeless, at-risk, or a student in care, the HOUSE liaison will provide information on resources available to you to meet your situation immediately and offer assistance in connecting to those resources that will be useful to you.
  • You will receive information about on-campus housing regarding the availability of and accessing on-campus housing during academic breaks at no cost (i.e. Thanksgiving break, winter break, spring break, etc. This does NOT include the summer term.) Students working with the HOUSE liaison are granted priority for on-campus housing.Ìý

Navigating on-campus housing during academic breaks

Once identified as someone who needs housing barriers removed, the HOUSE liaison will contact you about various resources. You will receive an email from them well in advance about signing up for on-campus break housing. This will include how to access the sign-up form, as well as dates to be aware of. University Housing and Dining also has this information on their Break Housing page. The HOUSE Liaison and Director of University Housing and Dining Services work together to identify students that are eligible for no-cost break housing as well as students who have been identified as eligible, but have not signed up. The HOUSE liaison will contact you regarding your break housing plans if you have not signed up for on-campus housing to make sure you are aware of availability of housing during these times.Ìý

Once you sign up for break housing, you will receive information about your room from University Housing and Dining, along with move-in/move-out dates and dining hall information.Ìý

How to access the HOUSE liaison

There are three main ways to access the HOUSE program and liaison:Ìý

  1. Undergraduate, graduate, and International students who are experiencing homelessness can complete a.
  2. Students can self-refer by contacting FinancialÌý Aid for a meeting with a Financial Aid team member, who will then contact the HOUSE Liaison.
  3. Students can contact the HOUSE Liaison directly, outlined below.

Â鶹Éç Illinois University's HOUSE Liaison is:

Jacquelyn Price
Director of Student Development and Success Center
125 Memorial Hall
309-298-1884
jm-price@wiu.edu

Quick Resources

Financial Aid and assistance:
Health and Wellness:
  • Illinois now offers the . This is one form that determines the following needs and eligibility for assistance.
  • is a program designed to support low-income individuals have access to nutritiousÌýfoods.Ìý
  • can be in the form of Medicaid and/or CHIP. This is outside of student health insurance and many of our at-risk, in care, and homeless students quality for these.