Basic Needs Grant Application

• You must be experiencing serious financial hardship that has been directly caused by recent, serious, unexpected circumstances beyond your control. In other words, something severe has recently happened that has resulted in your financial hardship. For example: you’ve been in an automobile accident, and you’re now in financial crisis due to out-of-pocket repair expenses that you cannot pay.
  (Applications that only speak of financial need – for example, I have bills or rent to pay, I owe tuition, I only have a little in the bank – without detailing what serious, unexpected circumstances have happened that have led to that financial need will not be considered.)
• You must be able to provide a detailed statement of those recent, serious, unexpected circumstances.
• You must be able to provide clear documentation that verifies (proves) the circumstances that you detail in your statement. For example: pictures of your vehicle that’s been in an accident, with license plate showing, plus registration showing you as the owner of the vehicle, plus auto repair estimate showing your name, plus insurance statement showing out-of-pocket repair expenses you must pay.
• You must be able to detail how your financial hardship is directly impacting your ability to be successful in school. For example: as a result of my auto accident, I will have difficulty getting to campus and classes until my car is repaired.
• Priority will be given to applicants who, because of their financial hardship, are struggling to meet basic needs – e.g., not having enough to eat, lacking secure housing, not able to purchase basic hygiene items, not able to get to campus for classes. Note: this grant is not for students needing some extra money, needing help paying credit card bills, etc. 

The documentation you upload should: 

• provide clear verification (proof) of the recent, serious, unexpected circumstances beyond your control that you have written about in your application
• be from a third party (e.g. auto repair shop, insurance company, police department, hospital)
• reflect a dollar amount or prove financial hardship and include your name or other personally identifiable information – if the documentation relates to another person, not yourself, please include this information in your written statement
• be clear and complete - no cut-off pages or blurry images/writing

If the file name of the verification documentation you upload does not include your full name and CIN, it cannot be matched with your application, therefore review of the application is not possible.

If your application is approved, and you are signed up for Eagle Express Direct Deposit (/finance-onestop/financial-aid-disbursements-and-student-refunds, click on Deposit), you will receive your funding via direct deposit. (This is the fastest and safest way to receive the funding.)  If you do not have Eagle Express Direct Deposit set up, a paper check will be mailed to the address you have on file in GET.

The answer to this can vary depending on many factors (including the number of applications being received), but a general timeline is 3-5 weeks from submission thru review to disbursement of funding if approved. Applications are pulled weekly and distributed to a team of reviewers. The review team's goal is to review applications within two weeks of submission and send approved applications to the Financial Aid office for their review and disbursement. Funding is then disbursed according to the Financial Aid Disbursement Schedule.

Due to the high volume of applications received, we cannot notify individuals of their application status. Students who are approved and reviewed by Financial Aid, and are eligible for funding, will receive their funding either via direct deposit or mail. Students who are denied will not receive any communication.

It is always good to confirm the sender’s affiliation with the university before you send personal information, and once you do that, please respond to the person who reached out to you. Sometimes the review team receives an application that may be missing a crucial piece of information in order to be reviewed. The review team will only reach out to you using a Cal State LA email address affiliated with an employed individual or department office (e.g., Dean of Students Office). 

It is very important to keep in mind that an approved application is just the first step in this process. The review team consists of Student Life staff, and they do not have access to your university financial records. They only approve or deny applications based on the information submitted by the student. Once an application is approved, it has to go through Financial Aid to confirm eligibility for funding and disbursement. There may be factors (including exceeding Unmet Need/Cost of Attendance, and enrollment status) that will prevent funding from being disbursed.