‘Homelessness is a huge issue’ on campus, says homeless liaison for SUNY Oswego
By Stefan Yablonski
SUNY Oswego is committed to helping all students overcome challenges and advocate for what they need to be successful.
“The Office of the Dean of Students works with students who are homeless or housing insecure,” said April Lopez, assistant dean of students, basic needs case manager.
Kimberly Fuqua is the homeless liaison for SUNY Oswego.
“I work with any students that are facing homelessness currently or in the immediate future,” she said.
She started in June 2025. She has a background in higher education in both admissions and residence life and has worked with many students facing homelessness in those roles.
“This time of year is real busy because we have a lot of students coming back and we have to verify if they are actually homeless,” she said. “They have changed the classification; homelessness just doesn’t mean sleeping on the street, it can be couch surfing or if they have no other place to go. Homelessness is a huge issue.”
It is very difficult to identify someone as homeless.
“Not all students identify as homeless. You have to seek them out. Because of the stigma attached, they won’t self-identify,” she explained.
Her office gets a lot of referrals from different departments on campus, she added.
“Students can reach out to us directly. We do work with financial aid to see if anyone has classified themselves as in need. I get a lot of my information from financial aid,” Fuqua said. “We ensure that they have a safe place the entire year. I do an outreach to see who may need housing. We do a lot of outreach.
“I think last year my caseload was around 30 students,” she said. During the summer that number jumped to about 100, according to Fuqua. But when they were investigated it turned out that many of those students were at odds with mom or dad but still actually did have a home to go to. It was their choice not to go home.
Fuqua said she does take student safety into consideration.
“A student who tells me their home environment is not safe, we do take that into consideration as well to try to help that student find secure housing,” she said. “We help them with paperwork — many times they need to do paperwork for financial aid. We refer them to different places off campus to get the help that they need. We also deal with childcare. For students with children, we can connect them with county resources or to the childcare facility here.”
“We can find apartments — we found plenty last year. But they just don’t have that initial $2,000 downpayment. If we had a fund that would help a student pay for that initial downpayment on an apartment, that would be great,” she continued. “Now I am trying to do early intervention. If you are graduating [high school] next year, start saving your money. Come talk to us and see what services we offer. Oswego County has services that can help, also.”
Students can come to their office for help.
“We make sure that during the breaks, winter, spring etc., that these students do have adequate housing,” she said. “That’s the number one thing. But we also triage these students to help them with other things, such as transportation. Any student at Oswego gets a bus pass so they can pretty much go anywhere. Transportation is great here.”
Their work is sustained by donor funding. “We are strictly donor funded. We don’t get any money from the state to do what we do,” Fuqua said. “As far as the amount we are working with for the new semester, that has not been updated just yet.”
She said she wants to meet with all the students — who may be in need — right before breaks to make sure that they have adequate places to go. “I just want to create a space, a safe space,” she explained. “I want to be a safe space for students — so they feel comfortable coming to me with any issue that they are having. My job is to build a rapport with the students and be a support for them.”
SHOP Pantry
“We get a lot of basic needs requests at SHOP. Last year, we got around 330 requests,” Fuqua said.
SHOP — or Students Helping Oz Peers — pantry, located in Penfield Library, is available to all SUNY Oswego students, faculty and staff in need. It’s open every day at different times. It is a volunteer-based on-campus pantry where SUNY Oswego students can access (and campus members can donate) necessities such as food, clothing and more.
“I do work with April on the food stuff. She owns it, I just pitch in when I can,” she added.
“I feel I am a social worker on campus. I listen to all the stories and try to navigate resources for people. There is a lot of need, but there is a lot of opportunity. Telling the stories of the students is very important to me. Educating the campus about homelessness and what that means — it’s not, I am living in my car — it is so many other things. I’m working to support students all across campus.”
Some services available:
• Student Emergency Fund: Students facing an unexpected hardship or an emergency may apply for funds through the Student Emergency Fund.
• SHOP Food & Clothing Pantry: As the first student-run food and clothing pantry within the SUNY system, SHOP offers free non perishable food, toiletries, sexual health products and gently used clothing.
• Break Housing and Dining Scholarships: Residential students may apply to stay on campus during breaks (Thanksgiving, winter, spring and summer). Break housing and dining scholarships are available to students who are facing housing or food insecurity during the breaks.
• Emergency Housing: Residence Life and Housing provides short-term emergency housing for SUNY Oswego students enrolled in classes who have circumstances beyond their control which leads to their need for temporary housing. Contact the Office of the Dean of Students at deanofstudents@oswego.edu to request emergency housing. If you have an urgent request outside of business hours, contact University Police at 315-312-5555.
