This page is a one-stop spot for youth, and those who help youth, to find housing. This page lists all HUD homeless programs and initiatives that can be used by youth and youth serving providers to help prevent and end youth homelessness, as well as resources, publications, and relevant links to other agencies and organizations.
Additionally, this page provides an explanation of how HUD programs currently serve homeless youth and how HUD works together with other agencies to combat this problem.
Through the office of Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS), HUD funds projects that provide housing and an array of services designed to prevent and end homelessness in America. While HUD does not fund youth specific programs through SNAPS, homeless youth are an important subpopulation served competitive and formula grants and initiatives. To learn more about SNAPS programs and how and why they serve homeless youth, choose from the list of topics below.
HUD has been busy over the past two years planning, collaborating, and implementing new tools and methods for preventing and ending youth homelessness. Together with other federal agencies, state and local governments, and private organizations we have developed demonstration housing projects, coordinated a youth focused point in time initiative, developed joint guidance for cross-sector service providers, and incorporated new youth sensitive reporting requirements. Click on the link below for a more complete list of our projects, efforts, and achievements.
View Projects, Efforts, and Achievements
Youth Count! is an initiative to help develop strategies so that communities can better count and understand their homeless youth population. HUD is working in collaboration with Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the US Interagency Council on Homelessness in 9 sites to learn from their process how to better use their existing HUD Point-in-Time Count to better target and identify this population. Together with federal and local partners, HUD has developed resources that can be downloaded and accessed by clicking on “View Youth Count! Resources” below. Additionally, the National Alliance to End Homelessness has useful webinars about youth-inclusive point-in-time counts, which can be found by clicking on "View NAEH PIT Resources." This initiative is designed as an ongoing learning process, and so we hope to post new resources, tools and best practices, as our research continues and as more and more partners experiment with exciting innovations.
HUD has produced several documents that may be useful for current youth homeless service providers and those interested in serving youth. Choose from the documents below to get started.
Housing and Education Collaborations to Serve Homeless Children, Youth, and Families
This brief is designed for staff of homeless assistance programs and members of Continuums of Care (CoCs) funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as for State Coordinators for Education of Homeless Children and Youth and local school district homeless liaisons who operate under the guidance of the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
Category 3 of Homeless Definition Guidance
This Notice provides guidance to Continuums of Care (CoC) and applicants to the FY2012 CoC Program for Transitional Housing (TH) or Supportive Services Only (SSO) projects, regarding the limitations imposed by the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act.
HUD's Homeless Definition as it Relates to Children and Youth
To assist providers and stakeholders that serve homeless youth and have questions about eligibility, this document provides an overview of HUD’s definition of homelessness, how it affects eligibility for emergency shelter and other resources, and the documentation that HUD requires.
HUD partners with a number of different agencies and organizations in an effort to prevent and end youth homelessness. Many of those partners have resources available that may help you or your organization.