Homeless youth status on the FAFSA

What the question is asking

The form asks whether you are an unaccompanied youth who is homeless, or who supports yourself and is at risk of losing your housing. Unaccompanied means you are living outside the care of a parent or guardian. Homeless in this sense covers more than a shelter bed: staying with others because you lost your housing, or living in a car, a motel, a campground or transitional housing can all count.

A yes answer, once it is confirmed, makes you independent on the FAFSA, so your parents' income and signatures drop out of the application. Living in a residence hall can still leave room for a yes when you would have nowhere to go once the hall closes, so describe that to the aid office. Students who are already 24 or older are independent for other reasons and can skip this route.

Who can confirm your situation

Three kinds of people can make the determination. A McKinney-Vento liaison from a school district can do it for students they worked with in high school. The director of a shelter, a program for runaway and homeless youth, or a housing program for people without homes can write a letter as well.

The college's financial aid administrator can also decide, and that matters most for students who have no liaison or shelter to turn to. Many aid offices make the decision after talking with you and writing down what you describe. A plain account of where you have been sleeping and why you cannot live with family is usually where that conversation starts.

Many aid offices make the decision after talking with you and writing down what you describe.

Keeping the status from year to year

You file a new FAFSA for each award year, and the homelessness question comes up each time. A determination made by your school's aid office can generally carry forward at that school unless your situation changes or the office holds information that conflicts with it. Ask the office how it handles the following year so you know what to expect.

Changing schools means a new aid office reviews your file. Keep copies of any determination letter, with its writer and date, because the next office may use it to decide sooner.

When a decision is slow to come

Ask for the name of the staff member handling your file and a date by which you can expect an answer. If classes are about to start, tell the office plainly that your housing and food depend on the aid. The dean of students can often help with a short gap meanwhile.

Write down every contact with the office, including the day, the person and what was said. That record saves you from repeating your story to each new person.