According to data, over 4 million youth and young adult families are homeless, which has led to unusual bipartisan action in Congress to increase federal assistance and address the escalating situation.
On Wednesday, Senators Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., will present the Homeless Children & Youth Act, the former’s first significant piece of bipartisan legislation since taking office in January.
According to Alsobrooks, officials must make sure that homeless children may receive the assistance they require in order to permanently leave the circumstance.
“This legislation will begin to close the barrier to services for many young families and is a true action to one of my guiding principles: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ No person deserves to experience homelessness, and HCYA is an important step in ending homelessness in our communities and breaking generational cycles,” she stated.
“No child should be prevented from receiving the critical assistance they need,” Britt continued, adding that the bill will “streamline” the definition of homelessness for all federal organizations.
In order to provide more comprehensive resources, the law aims to provide a more accurate definition of homelessness in a federal framework. Youths who live in motel rooms or live with individuals other than their parents are not counted as homeless under the existing code in some parts of government, even if other federal programs do.
Additionally, supporters claimed that it would “improve visibility and understanding” of the problem because young people are frequently disregarded as a group that may experience homelessness.
According to supporters, the bill will assist communities in ending the cycle by defining the definition of juvenile homelessness and providing greater government resources to those who are impacted.
In the Washington, D.C., area, where Alsobrooks served as the leader of a collar county for a number of years before defeating former Governor Larry Hogan for her current position, youth homelessness has been a problem.
In order to immediately address the situation from the viewpoint of young people, the county formed the Youth Action Board while she served as Prince George’s County executive.
Alsobrooks credited the Department of Housing and Urban Development with another $2 million award in 2024 to support Prince George-based organizations that fight adolescent homelessness.
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One homeless support organization in neighboring Frederick County, north of the nation’s capital, applauded the law.
“Programs like ours could serve these youth immediately upon experiencing homelessness,” said Melissa Muntz of Frederick’s Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership.
“Shortening a young person’s period of homelessness by providing immediate support increases the likelihood that the youth will remain connected to school,” Muntz stated.
“We know that youth who do not graduate from high school are significantly more likely to experience homelessness as adults, making this an early intervention to prevent adult homelessness.”
The act’s proponents claim that at least 15 other advocacy organizations for those facing homelessness have also supported it.
