This page provides guidance documents from HUD and identifies agencies and organizations with whom HUD partners to assist homeless youth service providers.
SNAPS Partnering with YHDP TA Webinar
SNAPS and its technical assistance partners hosted this recorded webinar focused on how to best utilize technical assistance if your community is awarded YHDP funding.
Date Published: May 2021
Ending Youth Homelessness: Building Blocks of a Youth System Webinar
SNAPS and technical assistance partners ICF and Homebase hosted a webinar that focused on the core components of developing a coordinated community response and how communities can start now on youth system planning. It also reviewed the components and actions needed for the development of a strong youth homelessness response system.
Date Published: April 2021
SNAPS Building Your Youth Planning Team Webinar
SNAPS and its technical assistance partners, True Colors United and Abt Associates, hosted this webinar focused on building an effective system to end youth homelessness.
Date Published: January 2021
COVID-19 Homeless System Response: Special Population Rehousing Strategy: Youth and Young Adults
This document discusses rehousing youth and young adults as a critical component of an Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) recipient's COVID-19 response and an important factor to consider when awarding funding provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Date Published: August 2020
Ending Youth Homelessness: A Guidebook Series
This series of three guidebooks are designed for CoC stakeholders and practitioners to use directly and to engage essential local partners in efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness. The guidebook topics include:
Coordinated Entry for Youth Brief
This brief provides an overview of the four Coordinated Entry core elements (Access, Assessment, Prioritization, and Referral) to Continuums of Care and youth housing and service providers.
Date Published: May 2017
Using a Housing First Philosophy When Serving Youth
This brief provides an overview of the Housing First philosophy and how it applies to youth-serving projects.
Date Published: May 2017
Rapid Re-Housing for Youth Suite
This suite of tools and products on Rapid Re-Housing for Youth includes a Jump Start Tool, a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and a Checklist. Coming soon will be a Toolkit.
Date Published: May 2017
Ending Youth Homelessness: Flyer Announcing Additional Products
This marketing flyer announces the suite of products, current and upcoming, geared toward ending youth homelessness.
Date Published: May 2017
Emerging Practices in Supportive Service Only Projects
YHDP has created an opportunity for communities to develop new Supportive Service Only (SSO) projects dedicated to meeting the needs of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. This spotlight highlights SSO projects in YHDP.
Date Published: December 2021
The Youth Collaboration 102 Roadmap is designed for communities, agencies, individuals, or housing service entities that have already developed an understanding of the core principles of Youth Collaboration. The roadmap discusses funding, recruitment and retention, undoing adultism, and leadership from within.
The Youth Collaboration 201 Roadmap is designed for communities, agencies, or entities that have already developed an understanding of the core principles of Youth Collaboration. This roadmap discusses equity in youth collaboration, Youth Action Board (YAB) governance best practices, YAB sustainability, and power sharing.
Date Published: February 2021
This document spotlights two communities for how they have been able to foster youth leadership, as well as for lessons learned that may provide guidance for other communities seeking to establish effective youth collaboration in their local communities.
Date Published: February 2021
The Magic at the Table: Building Your Youth Planning Team
Ending youth homelessness in any community requires significant planning. This document covers how to assemble a team to lead an inclusive and far-reaching planning process.
Date Published: February 2021
SNAPS Youth Collaboration 201 Webinar
SNAPS and its technical assistance partner, True Colors United, hosted this webinar focused on equity in youth collaboration, Youth Action Board (YAB) governance best practices, YAB sustainability, and power sharing.
Date Published: December 2020
SNAPS Youth Collaboration 102 Webinar
SNAPS and its technical assistance partner, True Colors United, hosted this webinar focused on funding, recruitment and retention, undoing adultism, and leadership from within.
Date Published: December 2020
The Gab on YABS: Community Fact Sheets
In the fall of 2019, the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC) surveyed seven communities to ask about the role and functioning of youth leadership in their efforts to address youth homelessness — their strengths and challenges, as well as the small details that push them forward like facilitation practices, budget, and recruitment efforts. The results are shared in this series of downloadable community fact sheets and topic spotlights, showing diverse strategies, challenges, and opportunities.
Date Published: January 2020
HUD and True Colors Fund hosted a webinar that explored youth collaboration in housing instability and homelessness.
Date Published: November 2018
Guide for Engaging Youth in Decision Making
This guide provides guidance on how to engage youth in the decision-making process and in the development of projects.
Date Published: May 2017
View the YHDP page for all YHDP Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) related information.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113)
The authority to launch YHDP comes from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113), which appropriated $33 million to HUD "to implement projects to demonstrate how a comprehensive approach to serving homeless youth, age 24 and under, in up to 10 communities, including at least four rural communities, can dramatically reduce youth homelessness." The act also appropriated $5 million to HUD "to provide technical assistance on youth homelessness, and collection, analysis, and reporting of data and performance measures under the comprehensive approaches to serve homeless youth, in addition to and in coordination with other technical assistance funds provided under this title," and a further $2.5 million to HUD "for homeless youth program evaluations conducted in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services."
Date Published: December 2015
YHDP Reporting Guidance for the Sage HMIS Reporting Repository
YHDP projects funded in round four and forward must provide quarterly reports. This document provides guidance on completing YHDP APRs and QPRs.
Date Published: January 2023
YHDP APR, QPR, and Collaborative Dashboard Webinar - Session 1
This webinar focused on YHDP APR submissions for community members who are new to Sage or who will be completing the APR report in Sage.
Date Published: December 2022
Introduction to Youth Specific Data
This document covers how the use of quality data can help inform virtually every part of a community’s work in preventing and ending youth homelessness.
Date Published: March 2021
Indirect Cost Toolkit for CoC and ESG Programs
This toolkit has been developed to assist recipients and subrecipients under the CoC and ESG programs to better understand indirect costs—such as facility or administrative costs—and how they can be calculated and charged under these programs. Recipients can use this toolkit to make an informed decision concerning the best method for computing and seeking reimbursement for indirect costs under ESG and CoC program grants.
Date Published: March 2021
The YHDP HMIS Manual is intended to support data collection and reporting efforts of HMIS Lead Agencies and YHDP recipients. This manual provides information on HMIS program setup and data collection guidance specific to YHDP.
Date Published: November 2019
SNAPS In Focus: Preventing and Ending Youth Homelessness
In this SNAPS In Focus message, HUD provides community examples, best practices, and resources to assist communities with preventing and ending youth homelessness.
Date Published: April 2018
SNAPS In Focus: Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program
This SNAPS In Focus message discusses the publication of the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program NOFA.
Date Published: October 2016
CoC Competition Focus: FY 2016 Policy Priority to End Youth Homelessness
In this message, HUD provides guidance on strategies to effectively end youth homelessness, one of the policy priorities for the FY 2016 CoC Program Competition.
Date Published: June 2016
SNAPS In Focus: Youth Homelessness
This SNAPS In Focus message discusses HUD's work with federal partners to improve the federal response to youth homelessness.
Date Published: October 2014
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.
Determining Homeless Status of Youth
This guide uses hypothetical scenarios to help providers understand how youth meet HUD’s definition of homelessness and what documentation is needed to establish homeless status for youth.
Date Published: October 2015
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.
Date Published: October 2014
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.
Date Published: January 2012
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.