Durham Could See Funds to Fight Youth Homelessness

North Carolina received more than $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to battle youth homelessness.

In a LinkedIn post, Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams indicated that about $1.66 million will be allocated to the Triangle.

“Homelessness and housing instability does not stop at the border of your city or county,” Williams wrote. “Therefore, we must be at the least, regionalist!”

The funding comes in partnership with the Central Pines Regional Council.

In January, Durham officials conducted a point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness, which focused on two groups:

• Those staying in emergency shelters and transitional housing dedicated for occupancy by homeless people.
• Unsheltered people.

The count found that the number of chronically homeless people increased from 76 to 102, a jump of 34%.

Those with severe mental or substance abuse illnesses also increased, by 23% and 31% respectively.

The number of homeless children increased by 58%.

Funding from HUD comes in the form of Youth Homelessness System Improvement (YHSI) grants to 38 communities across 26 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The agency also released a $72 million funding opportunity for the 2023 Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP).

“We know that preventing and ending youth homelessness takes a full community effort that requires support from all of our partners,” said HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “HUD’s YHDP and YHSI grants will provide communities with necessary funding to address this issue head on and help build more seamless systems to help youth find stability, opportunity, and success.”

The first of their kind, YHSI grants focus on systemic change to either improve or create response systems for youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness. These grants fund projects that:

• Create and build capacity for Youth Action Boards.
• Establish regional committees to direct efforts across multiple systems, including education, justice, and child welfare.
• Collect and use data on at-risk youth and youth experiencing homelessness.
• Develop strong leaders within a community.
• Improve the coordination, communication, operation, and administration of homeless assistance projects to better serve youth, including prevention and diversion strategies.

The goal of YHSI grants is to create a more seamless and coordinated system of care for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness. These grants aim to improve the identification of youth in need and make it easier for them to navigate available services. By helping communities build strong, resilient, and equitable homelessness response systems, YHSI grants reduce silos and break down barriers for youth in crisis. Recognizing that systemic change often extends beyond a single continuum of care, HUD has incentivized statewide or cross-community project proposals to emphasize the importance of coordination across communities.

Both YHSI Grant recipients and YHDP selected communities will be provided technical assistance to support their community planning and project implementation processes. Technical assistance materials shared on the HUD Exchange are available to everyone and help to proliferate the promising practices learned through YHDP and YHSI Grants.

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