NYU summer program--housing?

Are you sure this is the Tisch summer program? Housing at NYU is a requirement for that and is included in the fees. Your friend may have gotten into a summer program offered separately by one of the studios and that has nothing to do with Tisch or NYU, and that is why there's no housing guaranteed. Summer housing has likely been full for a while now. It is very late to be looking for it in May. I would tell your friend to inquire with the studio he/she is going to be attending. I would imagine that they have resources for information about housing. This is really something they should have been investigating long ago.