The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has allocated an additional $1.1 million to the agency’s new Foster Youth to Independence Initiative (FYI).
Ten housing authorities will receive this funding, continuing HUD's efforts to assist young adults transitioning out of foster care and who are at risk of homelessness.
In January, HUD awarded nearly $500,000 to the initiative, and then another $260,000 in February.
The program assists communities in ensuring that every young person who has had experience with the child welfare system has access to safe, affordable housing where they are supported to reach self-sufficiency by working toward their education and employment goals.
“The first-ever edition of this program worked so well that further federal support for the Foster Youth to Independence initiative is on its way,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a news release. “Since we introduced the FYI program less than a year ago, we’ve been able to help a number of young people aging out of foster care to avoid homelessness, and that’s an achievement we can all be proud of.”
The tenant-protection vouchers will go to public housing authorities that do not participate in HUD’s Family Unification Program. The public housing authorities must administer a Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program, enter into a partnership agreement with a Public Child Welfare Agency (PCWA), accept young people referred by their partnering PCWA and determine that the referred youth are eligible for HCV assistance.
The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 20,000 young people age out of foster care each year.
The National Center for Housing and Child Welfare estimates that 25 percent of these young people experience homelessness within four years of leaving foster care, and an even higher share are housed precariously.
The grants HUD is awarding include:
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