Bill Text: IL HR0135 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges the boards of trustees of every public university in the State of Illinois to adopt a program that provides housing scholarships to college students that are registered as homeless and to include funding for this program in their appropriations requests to the General Assembly.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Passed) 2015-05-30 - Resolution Adopted [HR0135 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2015-HR0135-Introduced.html
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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, Homeless youth have a higher crime rate than those | ||||||
| 3 | with stable housing; an estimated number of approximately | ||||||
| 4 | 26,400 youth experience homelessness in Illinois over the | ||||||
| 5 | course of a year; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, In 2005, a state-wide study of homeless youth | ||||||
| 7 | found that 22% had been kept in juvenile detention, at the | ||||||
| 8 | average cost of $53,645 per student annually; and
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| 9 | WHEREAS, One method of mitigating this growing problem is | ||||||
| 10 | to get homeless youth active in pursuing post-secondary | ||||||
| 11 | education; homeless youth are severely underrepresented in the | ||||||
| 12 | university population and are often held back due to the lack | ||||||
| 13 | of funding for housing, leaving a cycle of inhibition; and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, In order to combat this trend, an initiative has | ||||||
| 15 | been proposed that would provide housing scholarships to | ||||||
| 16 | students in undergraduate colleges and universities who | ||||||
| 17 | self-report as homeless; the program would give these students | ||||||
| 18 | aid in paying for non-campus housing, which would allow for | ||||||
| 19 | these students to attend a university without the worry of | ||||||
| 20 | finding funding for housing; applicants would be required to | ||||||
| 21 | get a Homeless Status Certification from the Secretary of State | ||||||
| 22 | Driver Services department and be full-time students; and
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| 1 | WHEREAS, This program would allow some of our most | ||||||
| 2 | vulnerable citizens to receive a quality education and become | ||||||
| 3 | productive members of society; therefore, be it
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| 4 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | ||||||
| 5 | NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we | ||||||
| 6 | urge the boards of trustees of every public university in the | ||||||
| 7 | State of Illinois to adopt a program that provides housing | ||||||
| 8 | scholarships to college students that are registered as | ||||||
| 9 | homeless and to include funding for this program in their | ||||||
| 10 | appropriations requests to the General Assembly; and be it | ||||||
| 11 | further
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| 12 | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be sent | ||||||
| 13 | to the boards of trustees of the 9 public universities in the | ||||||
| 14 | State of Illinois.
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