Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act

As an institution of higher education in the state of Illinois, Methodist College complies with the Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act. As such, we offer assistance and resources to any enrolled homeless student* or student in care**.

Students who need housing and other resources (such as emergency housing, housing between breaks, or food insecurity resources) can contact our IBHE House Liaison, Tricia Fox, Director of Operations, at tfox@methodistcol.edu.

Our goal is to provide wraparound assistance to students experiencing homelessness and students in care; therefore, the following services are provided by the College: 

Financial aid assistance- Contact ARobinson@methodistcol.edu

Mental Health assistance- Contact TPoppenga@methodistcol.edu

ADA/Title IX assistance- Contact Karli.Johnson@methodistcol.edu

Reporting will be provided to the State of Illinois regarding services provided to students.

If you need off campus assistance in the Peoria area with critical health and human care programs/services please call 2-1-1 or visit Heart of Illinois United Way 2-1-1. The Home for All Continuum of Care is also available to students. If you need assistance outside of the Peoria area, please visit 211.org to find resources in other parts of the state or country.

*A homeless student is defined as an individual enrolled in an institution who lacks or is at imminent risk of lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or whose parent or legal guardian is unable or unwilling to provide shelter and care and includes a homeless individual as defined under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. For the purposes of this definition, the term "fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" does not include residence in an institution of higher education's on-campus housing. 

**Student in care is defined by the Higher Education Housing and Opportunities Act as any person, regardless of age, who is or was under the care and legal custody of the Department of Children and Family Services, including youth for whom the Department has court-ordered legal responsibility, youth who aged out of care at age 18 or older, or youth formerly under care who have been adopted and were the subject of an adoption assistance agreement or who have been placed in private guardianship and were the subject of a subsidized guardianship agreement.