Youth Lead Efforts to End Homelessness in Atlanta and Baltimore

Accord­ing to Chapin Hall, 1 in 10 young adults — or 3.5 mil­lion peo­ple in the Unit­ed States between the ages of 18 and 25 — expe­ri­ence some form of homelessness.

As part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s efforts to ensure the needs of youth and young adults are bet­ter met, it sup­ports young adult lead­er­ship and engage­ment through nation­wide Con­tin­u­um of Care pro­grams devel­oped by the Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment (HUD). These pro­grams sup­port local gov­ern­ment and non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions in their efforts to end home­less­ness in Casey’s home­towns of Atlanta and Bal­ti­more.

Below, you’ll learn about the Casey-fund­ed, youth-led work of Part­ners for HOME’s Youth Action Board in Atlanta and the Bal­ti­more City Youth Action Board.

Part­ners for HOME Youth Action Board

Since 2015, Part­ners for HOME has coor­di­nat­ed a com­pre­hen­sive response sys­tem to fight home­less­ness in the city of Atlanta. Its sev­en-mem­ber Youth Action Board (YAB) leads focus groups with local care providers to devel­op a coor­di­nat­ed com­mu­ni­ty plan to end homelessness.

“The mem­bers of Atlanta’s Youth Action Board have been pas­sion­ate advo­cates for their com­mu­ni­ty,” said Aman­da Jacquez, a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foundation’s Atlanta Civic Site. ​“It’s inspir­ing to see them work togeth­er and draw on their own expe­ri­ences with hous­ing inse­cu­ri­ty and home­less­ness to ben­e­fit oth­er young peo­ple in Geor­gia.”

Recent Atlanta YAB efforts include:

• devel­op­ing a youth provider rat­ing sys­tem for Atlanta-area orga­ni­za­tions that work with young peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing homelessness;
• cre­at­ing a youth resource guide that helps young peo­ple nav­i­gate local hous­ing sys­tems and oth­er sup­port services;
• par­tic­i­pat­ing in pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment work­shops focused on top­ics like hous­ing advo­ca­cy, pub­lic speak­ing and net­work­ing; and
• hold­ing month­ly recruit­ment events to increase board mem­ber­ship and com­mu­ni­cate with the pub­lic about their work.

Kyra Stoute, a cur­rent stu­dent at Geor­gia State Uni­ver­si­ty who serves as the chair of Atlanta’s Youth Action Board, describes her time in the role as ​“trans­for­ma­tive.” ​“It has allowed me to bet­ter advo­cate for home­less youth in Atlanta, ensure their voic­es are heard in pol­i­cy deci­sions and col­lab­o­rate with key stake­hold­ers to cre­ate long-term solu­tions,” she said. ​“I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly proud of the work we’ve done to devel­op the con­tin­u­um of care youth resource guide, which will empow­er youth to over­come the chal­lenges they face.”

Bal­ti­more City Youth Action Board

Cre­at­ed in 2017, the City of Baltimore’s Youth Action Board is a com­mit­tee of Baltimore’s Con­tin­u­um of Care and a key leader in the coor­di­nat­ed com­mu­ni­ty plan for the Youth Home­less­ness Demon­stra­tion Pro­gram (YHDP). Cre­at­ed by HUD, YHDP enables com­mu­ni­ties to devel­op more effec­tive and sus­tain­able plans tai­lored to the needs of youth and young adults expe­ri­enc­ing or at-risk of home­less­ness. The board is com­prised of young peo­ple between the ages of 16 and 24 who have expe­ri­enced home­less­ness and their young allies.

“Sup­port­ing the Youth Action Board mem­bers as they par­tic­i­pate in sys­tem-lev­el dis­cus­sions and deci­sion mak­ing has been extreme­ly reward­ing,” said Aliza Sollins, a pro­gram asso­ciate with the Casey’s Bal­ti­more Civic Site. ​“It is a joy to work in part­ner­ship with this cohort of young adults who are pas­sion­ate about increas­ing hous­ing sta­bil­i­ty and over­all well-being for them­selves and their peers in Bal­ti­more City.”

Recent Bal­ti­more City Youth Action Board under­tak­ings include:

• advis­ing the Mary­land Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Com­mu­ni­ty Devel­op­ment on a suc­cess­ful $2 mil­lion Youth Home­less­ness Sys­tem Improve­ment grant to improve data col­lab­o­ra­tion and build the capac­i­ty of youth action boards statewide;
• cre­at­ing a youth resource guide that helps young peo­ple nav­i­gate local hous­ing sys­tems and access resources such as food, shel­ter, employ­ment and men­tal health ser­vices;
• edu­cat­ing pol­i­cy­mak­ers at the state and city lev­el on issues impact­ing home­less youth and young adults;
• help­ing estab­lish statewide rental assis­tance for Bal­ti­more; and
• launch­ing the Bal­ti­more Youth Impact Pod­cast, which ampli­fies youth voic­es on top­ics that affect Bal­ti­more residents.

Da’Mel Ross, chair of the Bal­ti­more City Youth Action Board, ini­tial­ly got involved because of his per­son­al expe­ri­ences with hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty. ​“It was [so] that I could help oth­er young peo­ple who are fac­ing hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty — paired with the fact that this was a space where I could work with oth­er peo­ple my age who share my expe­ri­ence of being unhoused,” said Ross. ​“Youth in Bal­ti­more spend so much time try­ing to sur­vive, but when do they get the chance to live? The Bal­ti­more City Youth Action Board rec­og­nizes that often over­looked real­i­ty and works toward the change that this city’s young peo­ple deserve.”

Learn more about Casey’s efforts to pre­vent and end youth homelessness