How to Answer the 2026-27 FAFSA Questions About Homelessness

The 2026-27 FAFSA is out now.

Hi, I’m Caleb McKay, and I’m the FAFSA Completion Senior Manager for SchoolHouse Connection. Let’s walk through how to answer the unaccompanied homeless youth questions on the FAFSA.

When you are starting the FAFSA, you need to create an FSA ID, and you’ll answer some questions about your demographics. When you get to the FAFSA, you’ll get to this question that says:

“At any time on or after July 1, 2025, was the student unaccompanied and either (1) homeless or (2) self-supporting and at risk of being homeless?”

When we’re talking about unaccompanied, that means not being in the physical custody of a parent or legal guardian. When we’re talking about homelessness, that means lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This can look like a lot of things. We commonly see examples of staying with other people — maybe they’re couch surfing or in a doubled-up situation. Perhaps they are living in a car. These are all examples of what experiencing homelessness can look like.

The next bucket is self-supporting and at risk of homelessness. That is when a student pays for their own living expenses, including that fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime housing, and when that housing may cease to be fixed, regular, and adequate. For example, a student who’s being evicted and is unable to find their next housing.

For students who are experiencing homelessness with their families, they would not answer “Yes” to this question. They would answer “No” and continue filling out the FAFSA as instructed.

But going back to this question, let’s say you meet this definition: unaccompanied and homeless or unaccompanied, self-supporting, and at risk of being homeless. We’ll answer “Yes.”

An immediate question will pop up and ask:

“Did any of the following determine the student was homeless or at risk of being homeless?”

• Director or designee of an emergency or transitional shelter, street outreach program, homeless youth drop-in center, or other program serving those experiencing homelessness.

• A student’s high school or school district liaison or designee.

• Director or designee of a project supported by a federal TRIO or GEAR UP program grant.

• Financial aid administrator (FAA).

• Or none of these apply.

All of these individuals can provide unaccompanied homeless youth determinations as an authorized entity.

If you are currently in high school or just graduated from high school, you might have been connected with someone called a McKinney-Vento liaison, or a high school counselor, or some other school staff person that knew about your situation. These individuals can provide an unaccompanied homeless youth determination as an authorized entity.

On SchoolHouse Connection’s website, there is a homeless education directory where you can find information with ways to connect with your liaison to get an unaccompanied homeless youth determination.

Let’s say you are connected with your school district liaison, also known as your McKinney-Vento liaison. You would check off this box and hit continue.

This screen will pop up, which will say:

“Based on your answers, you are an independent student. This means you don’t need to answer questions about your parents to complete the FAFSA form.”

After you complete the FAFSA, a financial aid administrator will follow up with you and request your unaccompanied homeless youth determination. If you already submitted your determination, you do not need to do anything else. If your financial aid administrator has not asked for a determination, follow up with your school to see if there’s anything else they need on their end.

Again, any of these entities can provide that determination to you.

Let’s say you do meet the definition of unaccompanied and homeless or unaccompanied, self-supporting, and at risk of homelessness, but you haven’t been working with any of the people and programs listed here. You would answer “None of these apply.”

This screen will then pop up, which says:

Based on your answers, you are an unaccompanied homeless youth. As an unaccompanied homeless youth, you can proceed without parent information.

Let’s take a look at this second-to-last paragraph:

“If you have indicated that you are unaccompanied and either homeless or self-supporting, and at risk of being homeless, the financial aid office at your school is required to make a determination of your status based on a written statement from you or a documented interview with you. Please contact your school’s financial aid office to complete this process.”

So you want to:
(1) Confirm that you meet these definitions, and
(2) Reach out to the school’s financial aid office to request a determination.

On SchoolHouse Connection’s FAFSA page, there are steps and guidance to prepare for an interview or to provide a written statement.

We’re going back one more time to the homelessness question. So say you read this question and you don’t think you meet the definition. So then you say “No.” You then get to this next question that pops up asking about unusual circumstances:

“Do unusual circumstances prevent the student from contacting their parents or would contacting their parents pose a risk to the student?”

Then there are some examples of what that could look like. And then it says right before you answer the question:

“If the student’s circumstances resulted in not having a safe and stable place to live, they may be considered a homeless youth and should review the answer to the previous question about being unaccompanied and homeless.”

The FAFSA is telling you to go back to the homeless question to answer yes — you do meet these definitions and would like to go through the process of an unaccompanied homeless youth. If you need to, replay the part of this video where I talk about getting that determination from a financial aid administrator.

But say if you don’t really meet the definitions for an unaccompanied homeless youth, and you’re not able to report parent information, you will answer “Yes.” And then this next screen would pop up talking about provisional independence. It just reminds students that as a provisionally independent student, you don’t need to answer questions about your parents, but you do need to reach out to your financial aid office to provide documentation to verify your circumstances.

As a provisionally independent student, you will undergo something called a dependency override. The financial aid administrator will have a conversation with you to decide if you meet the definition of a provisionally independent student. Typically, financial aid administrators will ask for documentation or letters from people who know you and can confirm your situation. You’ll want to ask them what they need.

You’ll hit continue and can fill out the FAFSA as instructed. As a reminder, unaccompanied homeless youth and provisionally independent youth are not the same thing and should be treated as different and distinct processes.

So that was a walkthrough of how to answer the homelessness questions on the FAFSA. I hope this was helpful. Please visit SchoolHouse Connection’s FAFSA page for more information.

If you are filling out the FAFSA for the first time and are an unaccompanied youth who is homeless or at risk of being homeless and self-supporting, you will need to provide information about your status. This resource will help you navigate answering the questions about homelessness and how to request an unaccompanied homeless youth determination. 

You will fill out the FAFSA normally and enter your parent/guardian’s personal and tax information. 

Self-supporting is “when a student pays for his own living expenses, including a fixed, regular, and adequate housing.” At risk of being homeless is “when a student’s housing may cease to be fixed, regular, and adequate.” For example, a student who is being evicted and has been unable to find fixed, regular, and adequate housing. 

If you are living in a dorm/residence hall, but would otherwise have nowhere to live, you meet the definition of homelessness. 

A determination stating that you are an unaccompanied homeless youth will allow you to fill out the FAFSA as an independent student without parent/guardian information. 

• School district homeless liaisons or their designee;
• The director or a designee of a director of an emergency or transitional shelter, street outreach program, homeless youth drop-in center, or other program serving individuals who are experiencing homelessness;
• The director or a designee of a director of a program funded under a TRIO or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for an Undergraduate program (“GEAR UP”) grant;
• A financial aid administrator at the current institution or at another institution who previously made a determination.

No, after you provide a determination the first year, you will be presumed to be independent for each subsequent year you’re at the same institution unless your circumstances have changed or the institution has specific conflicting information about your independence. While schools may ask you if your homeless situation has changed, they may not maintain a practice that delays or hinders the awarding and/or disbursement of federal student aid, nor require you to submit additional documentation.

You can send them this link, which has a sample determination form that they can use. 

If you do not currently have a permanent address, you may use another address like a P.O. Box where you can receive correspondence. You can also reach out to your college financial aid office to assist you. 

If you reached out to your liaison/program/other authorized entity and have not received a determination, reach out to your financial aid office by using this email template and request that the financial aid office make a determination. 

Share this information from the U.S. Department of Education that states that unaccompanied homeless youth determinations and dependency overrides are separate and distinct issues. Financial aid administrators are required by law to provide unaccompanied homeless youth determinations based on a written statement from or a documented interview with a student that confirms that they meet the definition, and made without regard to the reasons that the student is unaccompanied and homeless. 

The focus of your written statement should be if you meet the definition of an unaccompanied homeless youth or unaccompanied youth at risk of homelessness and self-supporting on or after July 1, 2024. You can fill out this template and send it to your financial aid administrator. 

If you have been asked to verify your identity, you will need to provide a valid, non-expired, government issued photo ID to the financial aid office before you can receive financial aid. If you don’t already have an ID, National Network For Youth’s I Am Here: Vital Document Legal Hotline provides free, state-specific legal assistance for youth experiencing homelessness. Visit this page for more information on ID verification.