Students who live in Southern Scholarship Foundation (SSF) homes pay $0 for rent. As a non-profit, SSF has provided rent-free, cooperative living housing for students who lack financial resources, demonstrate excellent academic merit and exemplify good character since 1955.

Our goal for FSU's Great Give is to provide one student who has experienced homelessness a rent-free home for one year—and help him/her in the journey to attain a higher education. While most SSF residents have not struggled with shelter, some know housing instability as their ‘normal’, moving from apartment to apartment in the night, sleeping in vehicles, or traversing a never-ending series of couches.

Residents pay for their food and utilities only, while also being accountable to manage the household budget, cook and clean for each other, and take on leadership positions. Each house, on average, is home to 17 students. SSF operates 15 houses in Tallahassee, and 10 additional houses around Florida. Compared to other housing options SSF saves each resident about $13,200 annually, making a college education affordable and attainable.

In SSF homes, the experience stretches into lifelong impacts. As one SSF alum wrote, "I have given my life totally to helping others and trying to make life better for them... The care and concern for others, stimulated in the scholarship house, were a major contributing factor in my life's work." -Julian Larsen, August 15, 2017; SSF Resident, 1960-1964.