Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) to address the troubling problem of youth homelessness. The first round of awards was made to 10 diverse Continuums of Care (CoCs) to plan, develop, and implement coordinated community responses aimed at preventing and ending youth homelessness. The demonstration required CoCs to collaborate with Youth Action Boards (YABs), child welfare agencies, and other community partners in developing and implementing comprehensive community plans to end youth homelessness. Approaches included developing or improving ways to identify and reach out to youth in need of assistance, provide resources to prevent homelessness for at-risk youth, offer services to support the broad array of needs youth may have while homeless, and offer a variety of housing options, including crisis housing as well as permanent housing options. HUD contracted with Westat, an independent research firm, to conduct a longitudinal cross-site evaluation of YHDP. The evaluation included cases studies tracking the 10 CoCs’ efforts in shaping communities’ coordinated systems responses and their effects on the population of youth experiencing homelessness. The evaluation aimed to isolate the role that YHDP played in creating those changes by including data on two bases of comparison: (1) case studies of the experience and outcomes of three peer CoCs that did not receive YHDP awards and (2) results of a web survey conducted at two points with CoCs across the country.

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Report

Henderson, K., Rog, D., Bhattarai, H., Gilbert-Mongelli, A., Silveira, B., & Jorge, E. (2022). Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. https://www.huduser.gov/portal//portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Evaluation-of-the-YHDP-Final-Report.pdf