Lancaster County is stepping up the assistance it provides to young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
This fall, the city’s and county’s housing authorities, the county Children & Youth Agency and the county Homelessness Coalition are launching a housing voucher program targeted at individuals aged 18 to 24 who are aging out of foster care.
The vouchers are provided through the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development through its “Foster Youth to Independence” initiative.
Meanwhile, the Homelessness Coalition is partnering with its counterparts in Berks County and York County to analyze and strengthen youth homelessness services in all three counties, using a $990,057 “Youth Homelessness System Improvement” grant from HUD.
“There has been a rise in youth homelessness,” Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Justin Eby said, and the local system is working to enhance its capacity to meet the challenge.
Youth housing vouchers
Nationwide, about 19,000 young adults age out of foster care each year. Their path to a stable life is difficult: An estimated 20% become homeless within four years.
The Foster Youth to Independence program aims to ease the transition by providing stable, affordable housing through vouchers, and combining that with wraparound services, including training in life skills, referrals to physical and mental health services and counseling on securing higher education or job training.
In Lancaster County, the city and county housing authorities both operate HUD voucher programs, while the Children & Youth Agency and the Homelessness Coalition contract with a wide range of third-party providers of supportive services. Setting up the Foster Youth to Independence program was thus mainly a matter of bringing those components together.
Earlier this summer, the four entities signed off on a memorandum of understanding outlining their respective responsibilities.
A meeting has been scheduled in September to iron out some additional details and go over how everything will be coordinated, Audrey Steinmetz, director of tenant and landlord services, told the Housing Authority’s board at its monthly meeting this week. (The county Housing Authority and the Homelessness Coalition are both housed at the offices of the county’s Redevelopment Authority.)
After that, the program will begin applying for vouchers. Initially, it can seek up to 25, Steinmetz said. They will be handled separately from the authorities’ regular voucher programs’, which have lengthy waiting lists. Children & Youth will be in charge of evaluating young adults’ suitability for the program and refer them into it.
As with the regular program, young adults will use the vouchers to secure housing in the local rental market. They will pay a portion of their rent based on their income, with the vouchers making up the difference.
Lancaster County’s tight rental market does make it a challenge to find vacancies, Children & Youth Executive Director Crystal Natan acknowledged, but there are landlords who want to do their part in mitigating youth homelessness, and housing specialists are building a list of potential properties.
HUD supplies the vouchers and the services are in place, so there is no need for any additional local funding, Natan and her colleagues said.
The vouchers are valid for three years and can be extended up to two more years if needed. If the program uses all 25, it can apply for 25 more. At this point, it doesn’t look as though that would be necessary, Steinmetz said: “I don’t expect to see a total of 50.”
It’s good to see agencies collaborating this way, and it’s appreciated, Commissioner Ray D’Agostino said when the MOU was presented to the commissioners earlier this month. They approved it Aug. 14.
“This is very hopeful,” his colleague, Commissioner Alice Yoder said. “… I think it’s going to be successful.”
Youth Homelessness System Improvement grant
According to HUD, the Youth Homelessness System Improvement grants are intended to spur “systemic change.” It’s a new program: Lancaster, Berks and York counties received one of just 38 allocations awarded nationwide, totaling $51 million.
The only other recipient in Pennsylvania was the state government, which received $1.4 million. The grants are purely for research and planning: They cannot be used to underwrite housing or services to homeless individuals.
The three southcentral Pennsylvania homelessness coalitions will use the money to inventory and “map” available youth services; perform a race and gender equity analysis; and develop Youth Advisory Boards to bring the voices of homeless and housing-insecure young people themselves into the discussion.
“Our current youth homelessness response system is limited, and we know there are many young people in need who aren’t being served,” said Elsie McCauley, assistant director of the Berks Coalition to End Homelessness.
“This grant will allow us to finally understand the true scope of the problem. … With that information, we can develop actionable plans to bridge the gaps.”
Pennsylvania’s Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program identifies children and youths through 12th grade who lack a “fixed, regular and adequate” nighttime residence. In 2021-22, the most recent period reported, there were 2,295 such children in Lancaster County, 2,488 in Berks County and 1,653 in York County, for a total of 6,436.
While the Berks County coalition is the lead agency that will administer the grant, Lancaster County’s coalition will head the effort to bring young people into the mix. It is to hire a youth program coordinator to do so, a position funded by the grant. The redevelopment authority’s board approved the arrangement this week.
Youth Advisory Board or “YAB” members will take part in the mapping and equity initiatives, and input from other young people with lived experience will be invited as well, organizers said. A portion of the grant will go toward paying them.
“Their insights will shape solutions that bring about positive change for our vulnerable community members,” Marjorie Shaffer, housing coordinator and youth liaison with the Office of the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition, said in a statement.
Lancaster County already has a YAB, established in 2022. It will serve as a basis for building out counterparts in York and Berks counties, said Deb Jones, director of Lancaster County’s Homelessness Coalition office.
Donovan Arnold is a co-founder of Lancaster’s YAB. In an online “Conversation About OUR Community” earlier this year, Arnold called it “the best thing ever,” saying it provided invaluable social connections and advocacy opportunities.
