Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program: Technical Assistance

The challenge:
Youth homelessness is an incredibly complex, multi-faceted issue. While promising solutions to homelessness are emerging, there is still a need for innovative, youth-centered practices and further coordination of resources.

Background to know:
In 2017, HUD launched the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP), investing $33 million in communities committed to ending youth homelessness. As part of the demonstration, 10 communities across the country are receiving funding and intensive technical assistance to build comprehensive systems to prevent and end youth homelessness. In 2018, this program received another $43 million investment from HUD for use in 11 communities across the country.

Our response:
Innovation in communities around the country is what is going to end youth homelessness. Thinking bold locally allows us to test new approaches and demonstrate what works so that every community can benefit. 

Through this program, Youth Collaboratory works with communities around the country to:

• Assess a community’s current efforts relative to ending homelessness among youth.
• Develop a plan for each community that coordinates local resources according to a youth’s needs, including housing and other services.
• Recruit local partners to enact the community’s coordination plan.
• Collaborate with these local partners to identify and solve high-priority challenges to enactment of the plan.
• Coordinate with these local partners to capture and analyze data, leading to new insights and innovation around the challenge of youth homelessness.

To learn more about the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program and our Technical Assistance Services, contact Meredith Hicks at meredith@youthcollaboratory.org.