Reform Efforts
Youth Supports Reform Efforts
In an attempt to weave together the support and services available for youth to thrive, the homeless response system and other human services systems have attempted a series of reforms to break down barriers to access and offer more youth-driven services. These efforts have had varying levels of success in ensuring more quality supportive services that lead to thriving young people but are still embedded in racist systems that cause harm to many Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Queer youth.
Example of Youth Support Reforms
Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) has embedded positive youth development, housing first, and more robust budgets for supportive services like education and employment services in many programs. It has also led to increased cross-system partnerships to broaden access to employment and health services within the workforce and health care system. Many providers are still struggling to move the YHDP principles forward and to prioritize service funding when so many housing units are needed. The funds are also often still going to larger non-profits that are not representative of those they serve such as Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Queer youth. And though cross-system partnerships have increased, the workforce system is underfunded and not built to meet the specific needs of youth, the health care system still requires access to health insurance, and higher education remains financially unattainable for most marginalized communities.
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act gives states and local school districts funds to serve children and youth experiencing homelessness in school. Some districts have used these funds to coordinate services across the homeless response and social services system, giving young people access to housing and support needed to remain housed or quickly regain housing. However this program has been historically underfunded leaving most school districts with too few dollars to offer robust services or to coordinate with other systems and community organizations, leaving many youth in schools experiencing homelessness unserved.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) gives states and local areas funds to deliver a comprehensive array of services to help prepare in-school and out-of-school youth ages 14-24 for post-secondary education and employment opportunities, attain educational and/or skills training credentials, and secure employment with career/promotional opportunities. Out of school youth and in-school youth are the target populations and both include homelessness status as eligibility criteria. A minimum of 75% of the youth funds allocated must be used to provide services to out of school youth with extended eligibility criteria. This has had a positive impact by creating new employment support opportunities for youth but the services still have numerous access barriers for many Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Queer youth.
Affordable Health Care Act created a stronger safety net for unaccompanied homeless youth by expanding access to health care insurance and ensuring parity for behavioral health treatment. The ACA requires all states to provide Medicaid coverage for most youth aging out of foster care until the age of 26. Additionally, the ACA prohibited insurance companies from excluding children (through age 18) from coverage based on preexisting conditions. Although this increased access for some young people, large numbers of young people are still not able to access through their parents or on the open market leaving thousands without coverage and at risk of health issues and financial debt.
FAFSA offers pathways to student aid for young people who have experienced homelessness in high school. This had led to young people accessing low-interest government loans to pursue higher education. However, there are still many barriers to access FAFSA, proving homelessness status, and accessing other financial supports needed to pay for supplies, food, and other needs.
One-Stop-Shop: Several communities have moved towards offering an array of supportive services from case management to employment support through one single entry point (virtual and/or physical) in order to more quickly connect youth to services across systems.