Youth Homelessness System Improvement (YHSI) Grant

Award Status: ALREADY AWARDED - Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH) received this grant on June 24, 2024

Geographic Scope: Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery counties, and Galveston County (through partnership with Texas Homeless Network)

Program Background:
CFTH is one of 38 community recipients across 26 states to be awarded this funding as part of a $51.1 million national investment announced in June 2024 to address youth homelessness. This grant represents one of the first of its kind.

Program Purpose:
The YHSI grant is centered around planning and partnerships; it is a youth-specific planning grant for The Way Home local homeless response system. YHSI grants are meant to increase state and local capacity to better serve youth and to create projects responsive to the needs of youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness in the community.

Key Focus Areas:

• Increase state and local capacity to better serve youth
• Create youth-responsive projects
• Enhance collaborations with youth-serving organizations
• Ensure youth voice is the guiding factor in ending youth homelessness
• Build upon success of Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP)
• Support Youth Action Board funding and sustainability

Complementary Programs:
This grant builds on the success of Houston's Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP), through which CFTH and partners were awarded $10.4 million in September 2021 to:

• Build systems to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness
• Provide direct services (e.g., transitional housing, rapid rehousing, and diversion)

Key Principle:
Youth are at the table at all aspects of planning and implementation for both YHSI and YHDP work.

Target Population:

• Youth and young adults at risk of or experiencing homelessness
• Ages 18-24 (including many former foster children who have aged out of the system)

CFTH Manager of Youth Programs: Quana Smith
Main contact: Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County