SOUTH CAROLINA– Today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $51.1 million in Youth Homelessness System Improvement (YHSI) Grants to 38 communities across 26 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. See list of awardees here. Additionally, HUD released a $72 million funding opportunity for the FY 2023 Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) and supportive services programs. These include rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, host homes, and wrap-around services such as education, health, and workforce support to help youth access and maintain housing. HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Marion McFadden made the announcement alongside local leaders in Bemidji, Minnesota.  South Carolina's Eastern Carolina Homelessness Organization, Inc. received $1,991,525.

"We know that preventing and ending youth homelessness takes a full community effort that requires support from all of our partners,” said HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “HUD’s YHDP and YHSI grants will provide communities with necessary funding to address this issue head on and help build more seamless systems to help youth find stability, opportunity, and success.”

The first of their kind, YHSI grants focus on systemic change to either improve or create response systems for youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness. These grants fund projects that:

Create and build capacity for Youth Action Boards.

Establish regional committees to direct efforts across multiple systems, including education, justice, and child welfare.

Collect and use data on at-risk youth and youth experiencing homelessness.

Develop strong leaders within a community.

Improve the coordination, communication, operation, and administration of homeless assistance projects to better serve youth, including prevention and diversion strategies.

The goal of YHSI grants is to create a more seamless and coordinated system of care for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness. These grants aim to improve the identification of youth in need and make it easier for them to navigate available services. By helping communities build strong, resilient, and equitable homelessness response systems, YHSI grants reduce silos and break down barriers for youth in crisis. Recognizing that systemic change often extends beyond a single Continuum of Care, HUD has incentivized statewide or cross-community project proposals to emphasize the importance of coordination across communities.

“HUD and our partners have been listening to youth across the country who are homeless or struggle with housing insecurity, said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary McFadden. “One thing that emerged is frustration and confusion young people experience when navigating the many agencies, sectors, and services available to support them. This funding will allow communities to create a more seamless and coordinated system of care and enable better identification of youth and make services easier to navigate.”

The FY23 YHDP Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) directly supports the implementation of coordinated community approaches in select communities, including providing direct assistance for tailored housing and services interventions for youth experiencing homelessness. This community planning approach supports the foundations outlined in a December 2022 plan by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness: All In and will guide communities in designing solutions that match their specific needs with an emphasis on creating equitable strategies to assist youth who are most vulnerable, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and youth with disabilities. All YHDP communities establish Youth Action Boards, where young people with lived experience of homelessness lead the community effort to design, implement, and improve programs and policies to end youth homelessness in their communities.

This is the eighth round of funding under YHDP. Through the first seven rounds, HUD awarded YHDP funding to 110 communities, representing a $440 million investment into preventing and ending youth homelessness. Funding has supported innovative projects such as Host Homes and kinship care models, Permanent Supportive Housing for youth, peer navigators- youth with lived experience of homelessness who guide program participants as they maneuver complex systems of care.   

Both YHSI Grant recipients and YHDP selected communities will be provided technical assistance to support their community planning and project implementation processes. Technical assistance materials shared on the HUD Exchange are available to everyone and help to proliferate the promising practices learned through YHDP and YHSI Grants. 

The YHSI Grant awards, and this latest round of YHDP adds to the suite of HUD initiatives that support young people in gaining and maintaining stable housing.