The MidWeek News
By Diane Strand
Posted July 11, 2007

Homeless kids may have good academic records with promising futures but they can't get financial help for college because they have no way to complete a FAFSA-the form required nationwide to apply for financial aid.

A bill is pending in Congress (HR 601) dubbed the “FAFSA Fix for Homeless Kids” and Diane Nilan wants everyone who cares to call their congress persons. “The Fix,” which has bipartisan support, amends the Higher Education Act to include under “independent student” those who are “unaccompanied homeless youth.” The bill is sponsored by Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., and Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas.

UHYs receive no financial support from parents, have no access to parental information and cannot get a signature on the form.

The standing-room-only crowd in DeKalb City Council Chambers last week saw a three-minute film clip about a dozen young people with good records but no futures because they can't provide a completed FAFSA to open the door to a college education.

The speaker was Diane Nilan who is into fixing things yesterday, if at all possible. The former homeless shelter director has been traveling cross-country in her mobile home talking to homeless families-especially in rural areas, and in particular, homeless youth.

She says there are more than 1.5 million homeless kids in America. But right now, she'd like to fix the FAFSA problem so please call.your representatives.

For the longer term, Nilan founded an organization called Hear Us, based in Naperville, with voice/fax at 630/225-5012 and email at info@hearus.us

Tax deductible donations may be given online or by mail.

Then Nilan moved away from statistics and gave up the floor to a panel of local women who work with homeless kids every day, Deanna Cada, director of Youth Services Bureau, Lesly Wicks, executive director of Hope Haven homeless shelter, and Donna Larson, director of the school district's Alternative Education Program.

Wicks said, “Homeless kids have the same problems the family has. The family's problems are theirs; they worry about how the family will get food, where they will stay. They talk like they‘re 32 when they're only 8. They still have rights-they can go to school even if they don't have a birth certificate; they can still go to school even if they don't have a vaccination report. Generally they come with a garbage bag full of clothes.”

Wicks said Hope Haven tries to send a child to his or her home school, if possible. For example, if a Genoa child is at the shelter, they try to find a volunteer or staff person who will take that child daily to her home school in Genoa.

Deanna Cada, of YSB, commented, “Where we step in is with unaccompanied minors-they are either runaways or locked out kids. Their parents don't want them in their homes any more.”

YSB can support the teen for only 48 hours, but has only one family in DeKalb County willing to take in an older teen for just those two days. The agency then tries to return the youth to their home, or if that is not possible, to a relative or friend's home.

“Sometimes there's just no place where a child can go. Once, we were told to drop a teen boy in Chicago, where the boy could go to a home for unaccompanied youth.”

Larson spoke of more than 20 years in the Kishwaukee Educational Consortium Alternative Education program and she said, “It's really important for me for kids to have clean socks, good shoes, a hoodie (jacket with hood), and a backpack.

“We need to think of what we want for these kids without resources. One school bragged that their homework program was completely online. Well, what about kids or families who don't have a computer?”

Larson continued, “Our curriculum is varied but it's basically: 1) show up every day; 2) be a nice person; and 3) do what you're asked to do. About 10 percent of our kids are homeless...Some have chosen to leave home because they were abused. One girl said simply, ‘My mom ditched us.'”

Indicating how her work leads to an altered value system, she said, “Nobody in the last 20 years has asked me my Grade Point Average or my scores on the ACT.

“There are needs in Africa but there are needs in your own backyard. These kids look like us.”

A minister in the audience computed that there were about 17 or 18 homeless youth in the Alternative Education program.

She noted that there are more than 17 churches in the Sycamore and DeKalb area, and proposed that each church adopt one of those children, providing at least friendship and monitoring.

The panel said the homeless sometimes live in their car-or a parked car, under the bushes, in somebody's garage, in a campground, or in a business or store-some even rent a storage unit because those are relatively cheap.

“If you see a kid in Wal-Mart at 6 a.m. that you saw there last night at 8 p.m., they're living at Wal-Mart,” Larson said.

Nilan and NIU faculty member Linda Vasquez have produced a dramatic film that interviews homeless kids from across the country. It is called “My Own Four Walls” and it is available for $20 plus a donation. For more information, call Hear Us, Inc., 630-225-5012.