<p>Hi all, long story short I'm enrolled for fall but I'm going to be homeless. No parents, financial aid isn't interested in getting in touch with me, and I've pretty much contacted every department that would be helpful. Anyone else been in this situation? Don't troll please. </p>
<p>Can you provide more information?</p>
<p>I haven’t been in the situation, but with more info, perhaps someone here can be helpful to you.</p>
<p>Is it a money thing? Have you contacted local churches or social service agencies?</p>
<p>That’s really terrible. Who have you contacted so far? I would try contacting the College dean (lives in Riepe). He is incredibly nice and could help you navigate the bureacracy. It is incredibly helpful to have an ally in a similar position since they can get answers.</p>
<p>@Kandcsmom - local churches and social service agencies don’t provide housing. In Philadelphia, the wait to get into public housing is YEARS. Even to get into housing offered for homeless people through different charity organizations would take longer than 6-7 days. Not a viable option. </p>
<p>It’s a financial issue, and I’m not getting a response from people at the University that have the ability to help me. My adviser and a f</p>
<p>I thought they might help you find services or provide some money. </p>
<p>Have you tried the dean of CAS yet? Or maybe the house dean of where you lived last year. I’m saying this because if you get someone with power to advocate for you, it makes it much simpler (they’ll listen to you). Pre major advisors can be pretty useless, I would go higher up.</p>
<p>Can you tell me the name of the college dean that lives in Riepe?</p>
<p>I assume you are in the college right? I am talking about Deturck. Since you say you are unable to reach your pre major advisor, it may make sense to try him. If you are not in the college, you could still try to contact him, but it may make sense to contact the dean of your undergrad school (not sure who it is for Wharton and SAS) or the faculty master from where you lived last year (I assume you were in a dorm). The faculty I have met who live in the college houses are all very nice and I am sure they would do their best to help you.</p>
<p>@ Yaypenn I would also contact the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman’s job is to assist and advocate for students in difficult situations and helping them when they can. </p>
<p>Here is the link: <a href=“Home | OMBUDS”>Home | OMBUDS;
<p>The university chaplain is a senior officer of the university. His name is Dr. Charles Howard, and he has an office at 3643 Locust Walk (215-898-8456). I know him; he’s very nice and is an expert at connecting people with resources.</p>
<p>For emergency housing, call the outreach team at Project HOME, 215-232-1984. This agency is the gold standard here and has a range of services. The University City district also has an outreach team on duty until 3 am; Try 215-243-0555 </p>
<p>Please take advantage of the help in the neighborhood and the Penn resources. You can connect to the UCD until 3 am. Start now. And good luck!</p>
<p>Wordworker
Penn Alumna and Long-Time University City Resident </p>
<p>Thank you all. I’m just really discouraged right now. It’s ridiculous that the particular admin I need to speak with literally won’t get back with me unless I get another admin to email him. It’s been a constant struggle attending here because of things like this. </p>
<p>I’ve just done a cursory read of the posts here, I’m shocked that the FA office is behaving in this manner. Each & every time I called them in the spring, they were incredibly helpful and bent over backwards to help us! I hope it works out for you. Good luck. </p>
<p>@Yaypenn Difficulty cutting through the bureaucracy and dealing with bureaucrats is exactly the type of problem that ombudsmen specialize in. </p>
<p>You have gotten some advice on who you should contact to discuss your situation. I am very sorry that you have been going through all of this. Clearly, you were hit with some catastrophe between the time you applied to UPenn and right now. You need to relate what has happened to you and get together some evidence of what happened, so that some professional judgment can be made as to what to do. However, the financial aid office is probably not the first place to go with these issues. You need to talk to some of those at the college as others have indicated that can come up with some emergency relief if warranted, or advise you to take off the year until you get things settled. If your parents have died or some other horrorific event has occurred, there will likely be precedence in these sort of tragedies that the school will use as to what they do. </p>
<p>If all of this is due to your parents kicking you out of the house, and that is the main event that is causing all of your issues, schools get this all of the time, It does not excuse the FA department NOT getting back to you, but be aware that this is a very common event. Usually the answer to such a thing is to give the student and family time to resolve the conflict and offer up a gap year unless extreme abuse is in the picture and just simple say so is not necessarily going to do for such accusations. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that colleges are not necessarily going to step in to become the new home and haven and providers for students when things go amok, even schools that guarantee to meet full need. That guarantee is based on their definition of need and their way of dealing with things. It’s been my observation that schools like Penn will step up when some cataclysmic event occurs, but it has to fit in with what they define as such. </p>
<p>Did you apply as an independent student? What is the situation with your parents? Did they die, become terrilbly ill, incapacitated, incarcerated, disappear? Or have they cut ties with you for their own reasons, and their situation is exactly as it was when you applied and were accepted?</p>
<p>My parents haven’t been in my life since prior to my matriculation into Penn, so that’s not the issue. The issue is that I am poor and cannot afford to pay my balance to be removed from financial hold. That is what’s going on. </p>
<p>I don’t expect the school to take care of me but I do need some assistance, and as long as they pretty much discourage me from having assets if I want to obtain reasonable FA, I don’t know what to do (not that I would be able to even obtain a good amount of assets anyhow given my life situation.)</p>
<p>I emailed VPUL and some other admins. Hopefully it’ll be resolved. </p>
<p>Being homeless is awful and while I’ll check out Project HOME and the other info provided sometime tomorrow, I’m afraid of going to a shelter. Worst case scenario, I will sleep on a park bench or in a church doorway. Much safer. 
Definitely not what I was expecting by coming to Penn. Sorry for my ranting, I’m just really discouraged right now and I don’t think Penn or SFS will actually get back with me. I can’t be homeless and take classes at the same time. It’s too much.</p>
<p>@yaypenn Did you contact the Ombudsman? Were they helpful?</p>
<p>The ombudsman here was unable to help in the past, so I don’t place much stock in them being able to assist me going forward. I have a meeting with a different department next week.</p>
<p>Do you know about the University City Hospitality Coalition? It’s a group of churches (and Penn Hillel) that host a rotating free dinner every night. You can get the list and addresses on the website. There’s no means test other than showing up. Penn also sends supervised grad/professional students one night a week, and they offer free advice and referrals. Food Not Bombs also serves vegetarian dinners, I think twice a week. They used to be at A Space (4722 Baltimore) and somewhere in Powelton.</p>
<p>Remember that FreshGrocer and McDonald’s are open all night. So is the ER at HUP. I’m not sure about Houston Hall or the libraries. 30th Street station may stay open, too.</p>