Sorry if this was discussed, but I didn’t see it in a search.
This homeless student rode a bike for 6 hours in order to get to his school in time for early registration. Unfortunately, the dorms wouldn’t be opened for a few days, so he brought a tent with him and planned to sleep there for a few nights. An officer found him, and informed the student that he can’t stay in the tent but the officer then put the student up in a hotel. The town rallied behind the teen, got him a job and even set up a go-fund-me site for him which has raised about 150k.
Reading the story brought up an interesting question to me. I know some of the F/A experts will know how this works. I wondered if he would now lose his future aid since he has all of that money?
His FA is likely FAFSA-based. FAFSA looks at prior-prior years. So no, he will likely not lose his financial aid since his aid isn’t based on what he’s earned this year.
Very sweet story. Thank you @parentofpeople for sharing this. After so many terrible things in the news, it is good to see a story like this. Fred is indeed blessed.
Late to the party. If the student is homeless, he would be automatically independent- although he may have had to work with the aid office to prove homelessness. With the new money, he would no longer be homeless, because he clearly can afford housing - although if he is already set with his aid for this year, and if he was considered homeless for the upcoming year. this won’t affect 16-17. Good for him. It might impact financial aid in the future (or this year, if aid is not yet set), but that probably not an issue now that he will have the money raised for him.
Now … if he does get aid, and if he HAD 0 income/0 assets … he would have had a 0 EFC (not auto 0, as @romanigypsyeyes correctly stated). For the current year, if he has already filed his FAFSA, the money does not have an impact (if he hasn’t yet filed the FAFSA, he would have to declare the new money as an asset). The money is not income, but it would have to be claimed on a tax return next year, I assume. In that case, the income won’t come into play until the 2017-2018 year (due to prior-prior year). At that time, the student could petition for PJ to exclude it from income, as it was a one-time thing. He would, of course, have to claim whatever money remains at that time as an asset.
This is a nice story. I don’t know how go-fund-me works, but is the money just pledged or does it not count until someone enters a credit card? I wonder how much of that money will actually come through.
Whatever he gets, it hopefully will be the kind of help that will change his life. I hope he has someone who knows hot to manage that money so that it lasts through his college and beyond, or that he can handle it himself.
The funds will be linked to an account and you can choose how often it is deposited. It actually is paid but it is “held” by gofundme until you choose a place to have it deposited.
gofundme takes a portion but I can’t remember how much.