Financial Crisis Support

HOPE Response Team (Financial Crisis Support)

HOPE connects SF State students experiencing a financial crisis, that could potentially derail their educational success, with resources, referrals, and solution pathways. HOPE’s goal is to help students overcome an unexpected financial crisis and remain on track to graduate. 

HOPE is a collaboration between the Dean of Students Office, Financial Aid, SF State’s Basic Needs Initiative, and Food+Shelter+Success. The committee meets once a week to review cases.

As a reminder, the following expenses are expected as part of your academic journey and do not automatically qualify for HOPE Response support:

  • Tuition and fees
  • Housing/food/Living expenses
  • Books and school supplies
  • Technology for school
  • Travel/transportation/commuting expenses (check out the Gator Pass for info on transit benefits!)

This means that students are asked to consider expected costs of attendance related to the request, and be able to demonstrate unexpected financial crisis within their request.

HOPE Crisis Application

HOPE FAQs

HOPE provides support based on a student’s individual needs. Common support includes:

  • One-time emergency funding
  •  Referrals to on-and-off campus departments, programs and resources
  •  Support navigating University barriers

Please note HOPE emergency funding provides small, one-time awards.

We encourage all SF State students in need to reach out for support. HOPE Response is here for students experiencing a financial crisis that could derail their path toward SF State graduation.

Basic eligibility requirements for most services include:

  • A student must be enrolled at SF State University in the current, or upcoming semester
  • A student must be experiencing an unexpected financial crisis, that has the potential to derail their educational opportunities
  • A student must explore other forms of support or resolution prior to requesting HOPE support, and demonstrate attempts to resolve your crisis independently.
  • Other eligibility requirements may apply

As a reminder, the following expenses are expected as part of your academic journey and do not automatically qualify for HOPE Response support:

  • Tuition and fees
  • Housing/food/Living expenses
  • Books and school supplies
  • Technology for school
  • Travel/transportation/commuting expenses (check out the Gator Pass for info on transit benefits!)

HOPE Response encourages students who are experiencing a financial crisis to reach out for referrals and resources. The team will review and respond to all applicants

Applications are open with the first review being on Thursday, February 8th. Please note that there will be no application review over Spring Break (March 25th to 29th). For more information, visit: https://dos.sfsu.edu/hope-crisis-fund

It may take up to a week for the committee to review your request, and a few more days depending on the volume of requests that week. Depending on the nature of your request, we will assign your request to one or more staff members, and those staff members will be responsible for communicating with you.

If you are experiencing a crisis that needs immediate attention, for example, you do not have a safe space to sleep tonight, please email basicneeds@sfsu.edu. **

**please only email basicneeds if you are actively houseless, not to check on the status of your application. When more emails reach our inbox, it is hard to address the urgent cases. Basicneeds does not oversee all HOPE cases, and requests are addressed on a case-by-case basis. It depends on the staff member assigned to your case, and oftentimes it is not a Basic Needs staff member. Thank you. **