Federal Demonstration Seeks to Curb Homelessness Among Youth Transitioning from Foster Care

Under a new U.S. Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment (HUD) pro­gram, many young peo­ple tran­si­tion­ing from fos­ter care could receive help with hous­ing. The fed­er­al effort is designed to address the trou­bling trend of home­less­ness among this population.

The new pro­gram is a demon­stra­tion project that seeks to sup­port the hous­ing needs of young peo­ple in tran­si­tion from fos­ter care. Pub­lic Hous­ing Agen­cies (PHA) who have a Fam­i­ly Uni­fi­ca­tion Pro­gram (FUP) and a Fam­i­ly Self-Suf­fi­cien­cy (FSS) Pro­gram may apply for the program.

The demon­stra­tion length­ens the time a youth can receive hous­ing assis­tance from a par­tic­i­pat­ing PHA from 18 to 60 months. It will also pro­vide these youth with an FSS case man­ag­er, who will coor­di­nate sup­port­ive ser­vices, and an inter­est-bear­ing escrow account that par­tic­i­pants can use after grad­u­at­ing from the program. 

The Foundation’s Todd Lloyd, senior pol­i­cy asso­ciate, co-authored an arti­cle with CHS about this excit­ing development.