In October, a campus-wide survey on housing insecurity and homelessness will be distributed at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus. The survey aims to increase awareness of how many students face financial difficulty and to remind them there are resources are available to help.

The team behind the survey is called the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP). The group includes Kristen Burton, Kathy Craney, Carol Elsen, Julia Rowehl and Noelle Wilharm.

“We want those people who need resources to reach out so we are able to let them know what resources are available,” Burton said. “We’re hoping that overall increases in order to figure out how widespread it is.”

The project all started because of a book, “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond. It is a non-fiction piece based in Milwaukee. According to Rowehl it shows how the cycle of eviction and poverty in the city can send people’s lives in disarray and create a domino effect of hardship. Inspired by the book, LEAP started doing research and interviews of departments in January of 2018.

The LEAP team wants to let people know that there are funds available to help students who may be struggling financially.

“I think we assume this kind of thing doesn’t happen here at Whitewater,” Craney said. “We didn’t even realize it was, but it really is. There are people here who are affected by homelessness too.”

The survey is projected to go out sometime in October, and the LEAP team hopes they will get the information they have been looking for.

“Hopefully this will give us a better idea of the size of this issue,” Rowehl said. “And this makes people more aware of their options.”