Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act

As an institute of higher education in the state of Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan University offers assistance and resources to any enrolled homeless student* or student in care**. For more information on the role of the University or the HOUSE liaison, please see the Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act.

If you need assistance in the Bloomington-Normal area with critical health and human care programs please call 2-1-1 or visit PATH Crisis Information Page. If you need assistance outside of the Bloomington-Normal area, please visit 211.org to find resources in other parts of the state or country.

In an effort to provide help to students experiencing homelessness and students in care, the following services are provided by the university: 

• For financial aid assistance: contact Scott Seibring at seibring@iwu.edu.
• For housing during the school year and during breaks: please email Office of Residential Life at orl@iwu.edu.
• For students who are in need of additional resources can contact our HOUSE liaison, Dean Kyle Griffith at kgriffit@iwu.edu.
• Reporting will be provided to the State of Illinois regarding services provided to students.

*A homeless student is defined as an individual enrolled in an institution who lacks or is at imminent risk of lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or whose parent or legal guardian is unable or unwilling to provide shelter and care and includes a homeless individual as defined under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. For the purposes of this definition, the term "fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" does not include residence in an institution of higher education's on-campus housing.

**Student in care is defined by the Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act as any person, regardless of age, who is or was 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.