During the Presidential debates, then-candidate Donald Trump memorably said he wouldn’t let anyone die in the streets. Now as President, the most effective way to fulfill his campaign promise is by supporting local efforts to prevent young people in their communities from becoming homeless in the first place.
Tonight, and most nights across the country, more than 46,000 young people are experiencing homelessness alone, without a parent or guardian. Every year, 550,000 youth and young adults will experience an episode of homelessness. Thanks in part to the efforts of A Way Home America, a national initiative to prevent and end homelessness among young people and to groundbreaking reports like “Hidden in Plain Sight,” the issue has made its way onto the national radar. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $33 million in funding to ten local communities to demonstrate how to end the problem.
My city, Seattle (King County) was one such recipient. It was in recognition of the far- reaching work that King County has done to increase the capacity of the system now to prevent and quickly end experiences of homelessness for young people. Our community is using multiple data sources and methods to identify unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness including those in our schools and the juvenile justice system. We are investing in prevention and diversion efforts and have a coordinated entry process that can identify and prioritize homeless youth for housing. As a result, both the number of times young people fall back into homelessness and the length of time they are homeless has dropped dramatically.
Our community is using multiple data sources and methods to identify unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness including those in our schools and the juvenile justice system. We are investing in prevention and diversion efforts and have a coordinated entry process that can identify and prioritize homeless youth for housing. As a result, both the number of times young people fall back into homelessness and the length of time they are homeless has dropped dramatically.
Seattle/King County’s hard work has informed progress in Washington State, as well. Earlier this week, Gov. Jay Inslee announced what is the boldest state plan in the nation to end youth homelessness. It involves the creation of an interagency working group and establishing a set of shared goals and accountability across the state. The state is recommending that young people under state care never be allowed to exit into homelessness; and that all schools have proper support to intervene early with students who are facing instability; and that all communities, rural and urban, have a crisis response system that meets the needs of the families and youth who live there.
With President Trump’s support, this approach can be a model for the nation. A critical first step is to endorse the continuation of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness because preventing and ending youth homelessness requires coordinated action on the part of many agencies like Department of Education, HUD and the Department of Health and Human Services. This coordination is precisely the model our state is using to end this problem for good.
We encourage the new Trump Administration to take steps that will end youth homelessness in our country by the end of 2020. We are hopeful President Trump will recognize the cost – to both youth and society – of failing to do so. After all, if not supported to reach their potential, homeless youth are more likely to drop out of school, languish in minimum wage jobs, have children at a young age (who are more likely to end up homeless themselves) and rely on public assistance. Targeting this population of young people is fiscally smart, and prevents homelessness among adults.
But as we wait to see how our new administration establishes and supports its priorities, cities, counties and states can seize the opportunity to take the lead and amplify the ideas – like those in Seattle – that are working elsewhere. We must be unwilling to let our young people live or die on our streets.