SILS Emergency Shelter Fund

Charlene Finley is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello SILS family,

My name is Charlene Finley, a PhD student and teaching fellow in the School of Information and Library Science. I am reaching out for your
help relating to an undergraduate student who is homeless. Yes, HOMELESS. I cannot drive by and roll the window up, or drop up a couple of
coins and pat myself on the back. It's real and personal on our campus, and present in our classrooms.

The student is a senior with a Capstone to take this Summer before graduating. Working part-time, the student often picks up 12
hour shifts, while juggling 15 semester hours. And, is a first generation student with very little to none support from his family.
The predicament came about due to an incident with the landlord. The student was renting a room from someone and paid $400 per month
for room and utilities. The son of the person (ie, the landlord) hit the students car, and caused some damage. The landlord asked the student to not
report the damages to the insurance, but he also refused to pay for the damages. The student took the landlord to court, and won the case. However,
the landlord kicked the student out of his room in retaliation. So, for approximately three weeks the student has been living in hotels, on the couches of friends, and even car.

I personally went with the student to talk to the Dean of Students and Student Housing. For the student to receive assistance from the available
student emergency fund on campus, all of his financial aid assistance has to be exhausted. Thus, the student would have to take unsubsidized loan of $1,000 pretty much at the end of the semester. The student is afraid to take any more student loan debt that he has to pay back with
graduation closely upon him. The good news is housing available on campus until the end of the semester for the cost of $1125.00 for a double and $1390.00 for a single. I realize that is a lot of money for one individual, but for the SILS community I feel it's possible. Housing is available as early as
Tuesday, April 5 of the coming week. My goal is to reach this goal by Tuesday, noon. Anything that you can give will be helpful.

Homelessness is a growing, yet silent, epidemic on some of the most distinguished universities and colleges in the U.S. Below I have
provided references to provide a broader understanding of homelessness in academia. Please feel free to contact me personally, if you have any
questions.

References
Hallett, R. E., & Crutchfield, R. (2017). Homelessness and Housing Insecurity in Higher Education: A Trauma-Informed Approach to

Tsai, J., Lee, C. Y. S., Shen, J., Southwick, S. M., & Pietrzak, R. H. (2019). Public exposure and attitudes about homelessness. Journal of Community Psychology, 47(1), 76–92. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.22100
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