Platform

 1. Ensure equitable access to services for young people at high risk of experiencing homelessness and competency serving them. 

Youth experiencing homelessness represent a unique subset of the homeless population in Los Angeles. Youth experience homelessness for a variety of reasons; many are escaping abusive homes, emancipating from the foster care system where they have grown up facing systemic racism, homophobia and transphobia and/or were raised on the street with parents who had fallen victim to the cycle of homelessness. Of the more than 4,000 youth experiencing homelessness on any given night in Los Angeles County, the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership estimates that 84% are racial minorities; 43% identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, or questioning; and 9% identify as transgender, gender nonconforming or queer. (source) Per LAHSA’s 2020 Homeless Count: 18% of homeless youth in L.A. county have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness; 18% have a substance use disorder; 8% have a developmental disability; and 9% have a physical disability (source). Additionally, parenting youth have 3x the risk of experiencing homelessness compared to non-parenting peers (source).

These individual circumstances and experiences coupled with extensive trauma histories present a clear need not only for equitable access to services for young people at high risk of experiencing homelessness, but also competent youth programming to meet their complex needs. As such, cultural competency for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ young people in the system of care must be provided at all levels—from street outreach to long term housing solutions. We also need greater investment in getting unsheltered youth off the streets. Young people on the streets have very different risks than adults and are at an increased risk of trauma once they experience homelessness. Not only do we need targeted strategies to address the risks and needs of these populations, but service providers must be able to send a young person to any agency in the system of care and feel confident that they are receiving culturally competent services in an environment that is affirming of their identities and lived experience. 

To ensure equitable access and youth appropriate programming is available to young people experiencing homelessness, we ask for the following:

• Greater investment in cultural competency training for youth service providers 

• Targeted youth-specific outreach strategies 

• An increase in mental health services for youth 

• Low-barrier shelter access for youth

• More TAY bed allocations

• Comprehensive parenting supporting programming for young parents

• Increased substance use and harm reduction programming for youth

• Comprehensive sex trafficking education for youth and youth service providers

• ADA accessibility at youth centers

 2. Invest in TAY set asides as a standard practice with new and existing funding streams

Resources to address youth homelessness should be sufficient to meet the needs of young people without housing and their representational share of the overall homeless population. In the past, this funding has not been proportional to either goal. Given the historic underinvestment in TAY programs, the youth system should receive a minimum 25% set aside of new and existing funding streams related to homelessness.

An analysis of various public funding streams dedicated to homelessness (HEAP, HHAP round 1, and Measure H for FY 2019-20) finds that 5.8% of the total funding has been specifically allocated to TAY, even though the TAY population makes up 7.5% of the local homeless population. Within this analysis, Measure H only designated 2.4% of its funding specifically to homeless youth. What’s more, we know that youth homelessness is largely hidden and the number of young people experiencing homelessness is significantly undercounted, suggesting that these funding disparities are even greater.  

A youth set aside would eliminate this inequity in public resources to address homelessness. Every dollar spent on young people without housing helps prevent chronic homelessness and offsets future costs in the adult system. By investing in young people early, we can reduce lifelong trauma for this vulnerable population. A fair share of funding is also important because youth providers have specialized expertise to serve TAY clients, with interventions that are more effective and developmentally appropriate than the assistance TAY receive in the adult system.

To ensure an adequate investment in preventing and ending youth homelessness, we ask for the following: 

• 25% set aside for young people in all new and existing funding streams related to homelessness. 

• Public agencies that administer funds to address interventions targeting people experiencing homelessness should increase youth-specific funding or set-asides within existing programs. 

 3. Ensure that youth with lived experience have decision making power in ending youth homelessness 

As with any social or economic inequality, those most directly impacted by a problem should have a big say in the solutions being offered. It would be inconceivable for the immigrant rights movement to ignore immigrant leaders, or the LGBTQ movement to ignore LGBTQ leaders, or the women’s movement to ignore women leaders – likewise, youth homelessness will not be solved without a leadership role for young people who have experienced homelessness.

It should be standard practice in the homeless sector to hire young people with lived experience, and not just as peer advocates and navigators. When youth are kept at peer advocate levels, they often feel undervalued and tokenized for their experience of homelessness. In collaboration with funders, nonprofit providers should create pathways for those experiencing homelessness to advance into salaried and leadership positions with livable wages. LAHSA should insist upon youth oversight for contracts and program decisions, including youth with lived experience serving on agency boards and actively participating in meetings regarding young people. Youth should be part of the process, not just reviewing what adults have already decided about programs and services on their behalf.

To ensure young people with lived experience have decision making power in addressing youth homelessness, we ask for the following: 

• Develop pathways into salaried and leadership positions across county and nonprofit agencies  with support in place for them to be successful in the position. 

• Pay young people a sustainable livable wage for their work  

• Hire a minimum of one salaried young person per SPA funded through LAHSA  

• LAHSA contracts should require that there’s at least one youth with lived experience on agency boards with decision making power

• Multiple youth from diverse backgrounds and experiences should be present at any meetings regarding young people.  

• City Council and Board of Supervisors should fund a salaried position for a young person with lived experience of homelessness in each elected official’s office 

 4. Invest in youth-specific services to prevent long term homelessness

Youth experiencing homelessness require specific attention that addresses their unique needs. The pathways into youth homelessness and the vulnerabilities of this population are unique and require specific intervention and services. Young people often have compounding factors contributing to their experiences of homelessness, including disruption from family, significant early life trauma, mental illness,  criminalization, and discrimination.  Youth homelessness often begins with a loss of connection to caregivers due to foster care involvement, family instability, or rejection (Source). Losing their connections at an age when they are transitioning to adulthood often makes it challenging to exit homelessness. In fact, 92% of homeless youth cite fragile social networks as their cause of homelessness, making LA’s social strengthening programs even more critical. 

To exit homelessness permanently, youth require housing and support services tailored to their unique developmental needs. Young people’s brains are still developing at this age and they often lack experience with independent living and have difficulty accessing housing due to lack of rental history, employment history, and credit. In cities like Los Angeles, the lack of affordable housing options presents another challenge for young people who often have minimum wage jobs. We know that young people aren’t served well by the adult system and often don’t feel comfortable or safe accessing services in the adult system because because they contain many vices homeless youth try to avoid: drugs, alcohol, violence, fighting, and sexual assault. 

Investing in age-specific services for the TAY population is a critical prevention strategy in the fight to end homelessness.  The longer that young people experience homelessness, the harder it is to transition out of homelessness and contribute to stronger families, communities, and economies. When we can provide more intensive upfront, age and developmentally appropriate services to the TAY population, we have the opportunity to prevent adult homelessness and save money in other systems. 

Youth must have access to age- and developmentally appropriate services across the city and county’s continuum of care. We ask for the following: 

• Young people should be able to choose from a menu of housing options that offer a continuum of choices that are tailored to their needs. These should include permanent supportive housing, transitional housing programs, housing vouchers, low barrier options, safe immediate housing options, and housing options that are not controlled by providers. 

• Program outcomes for all services offered to young people need to be developmentally and age appropriate

• In addition to housing, we need specialized mental health, education and employment services, positive youth development, and support networks

• Support services need to be available for youth aging out of the foster care system to prevent entry into homelessness

5. Decriminalize homelessness

Los Angeles has been leading with criminalization in its response to the homelessness crisis and young people are particularly at risk of being impacted by policies that disproportionately target and penalize the unhoused community often for doing things necessary for basic survival. In Los Angeles, there are several policies that criminalize the experience of homelessness. Recently, the City of Los Angeles enacted a law that bans sitting, lying, or sleeping in certain areas.

Criminalization policies are not only inhumane, they are also ineffective and expensive. The focus of this legislation is to criminalize homelessness, a strategy that wastes millions of city dollars while accomplishing very little. Legal scholars have argued that these ordinances constitute cruel and unusual punishment and violate basic human rights. Jones v. City of Los Angeles ruled that enforcing the bans on sitting and sleeping in public violate the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause. Despite these rulings, Los Angeles has continued to lead with criminalization in its response to the homelessness crisis. This is actively counterproductive toward reducing homelessness. The criminalization of homelessness has a devastating impact on the young people we serve for the following reasons:  

• Citations, arrests, and fees are impediments to obtaining employment, housing, and other needed resources.

• Displacing people can disrupt relationships with homeless outreach and caseworkers, who are necessary to enter into stable housing and services. 

• Encampment sweeps by police and sanitation workers result in the loss of important possessions: documents, items of personal value, even medication. 

• When documents are confiscated, people applying for housing and other services are set back—ID cards and certain forms are often needed to obtain assistance.

• When medications are confiscated or thrown out by police, the consequences can be fatal. 

We must change the current approach to addressing homelessness that has resulted in the overcriminalization of vulnerable young people. We ask for the following: 

• City Council must stop passing ordinances that criminalize homelessness and instead focus on addressing the root causes of homelessness 

• Law enforcement needs to participate in cultural competency training to better understand the unhoused community and learn when it’s appropriate for providers to intervene.