The Primary Prevention Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program

The Primary Prevention Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program provides funding to identify and implement strategies and services for youth between ages 12 and 26 in order to prevent homelessness, including strategies designed to serve youth and young adult populations with a high likelihood of imminently experiencing homelessness, housing instability, or other forms of victimization such as human trafficking to include individuals transitioning out of foster care, the juvenile justice system, or a residential behavioral health system.Funding is made available to State agencies, tribes, counties, cities, or other units of local government, and public and private non-profits for demonstration grants to provide primary prevention services for youth at risk of homelessness and to implement or improve cross-system collaboration with key partners within the community that serve youth at risk of homelessness. Primary prevention efforts should focus on the structures that contribute to a youth becoming homelessness such as a lack of affordable housing, poverty, and family dynamics. Applicants must show collaboration with youth with lived expertise in the project design and implementation, including establishment of local youth advisory boards. The period of performance for the grants will be 18 months, which includes a 6-month planning period. Applicants awarded under this demonstration program will be required to participate in a federally sponsored evaluation.Primary prevention aims to reduce the risk of homelessness for the entire population by addressing broad structural factors that contribute to this risk and by building protective factors. Primary prevention takes the form of universal interventions aimed at entire communities as well as targeted interventions for at-risk communities. Examples of primary prevention are poverty reduction strategies, anti-violence work, and early childhood supports, which build assets, enhance housing stability, and creates social inclusion.Applicants must show collaboration with youth with lived expertise in the project design and implementation, including the establishment of local youth advisory boards. The period of performance for the grants will be 18 months, which includes a 6-month planning period. Applicants awarded under this demonstration program will be required to participate in a federally sponsored evaluation.