Eight Communities Join Point Source Youth's Groundbreaking National Youth Homelessness Prevention Initiative

NEW YORK, April 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In a groundbreaking national effort, eight communities, funded by seven philanthropic organizations, guided by the technical assistance support of Point Source Youth (PSY), are joining forces to prevent youth homelessness through direct cash transfers.

As part of this innovative initiative, The Door, NYC; Henry Street Settlement, NYC; Lifeworks, Texas; Youth on Their Own, Arizona; AYA Youth Collective, Michigan; Youth Empowerment Success Services, Georgia; RYSE Youth Center, Contra Costa County, California; and Connected Lane County, Oregon are providing over $1.36 million in cash assistance to more than 450 young people experiencing housing instability to prevent youth homelessness.

Across the United States, unaccompanied youth homelessness is far too common. According to research by Chapin Hall, an estimated  4.2 million youth and young adults  experience homelessness, 700,000 of whom are unaccompanied minors. At the same time, few, if any, interventions exist in most communities to prevent youth and young adult homelessness.

This intervention, known as Direct Cash Transfers as Prevention (DCT-P), builds on the success of the Homeless Prevention and Diversion Fund (HPDF) model developed by A Way Home Washington in 2020, which found that 93% of the young people who received one-time payments ranging from $1,000-$2,000 did not return to homelessness after 12 months.

"Cash assistance has shown incredible promise in Washington state to reduce youth homelessness," said Marie Groark, Managing Director, Schultz Family Foundation. "One-time direct cash payments are a powerful solution that centers and puts young people on a pathway to opportunity. By expanding our work in diversion and prevention to eight communities across the country in partnership with Point Source Youth, we will gather data and learnings that will make a convincing case for more public funding of DCT-P as a cost-effective tool that prevents homelessness and empowers young people."

The DCT-P intervention is a one-time cash payment to young people based on the cost of living in that community with the goal of preventing them from entering homelessness in the first place. Alongside the unconditional cash payment are services provided by a local community-based organization that might include housing navigation, financial counseling, and peer support.

"Everyone needs the safety and dignity of a home," said John Kimble, Senior Advisor to the NYC Fund to End Youth & Family Homelessness. "The Fund is proud to invest in solutions that connect people who are struggling to get by with the resources they need to stabilize their lives and advance their goals. People are experts on their own lives, and our systems work best when they recognize and invest in that expertise. In a housing landscape marred by structural inequity and disinvestment, this program offers a way forward that has proven to be efficient, equitable, and high impact. We need more efforts like this to solve youth homelessness."

This initiative is designed to test and improve upon community models for supporting young people to thrive in safe, stable housing without needing to enter the homelessness system. PSY believes that by trusting young people, removing financial barriers to housing, and offering supportive services before becoming unhoused, we will see more young people avoid homelessness and stay housed long-term. Pilot communities are in the beginning phases of launching DCT-P, and participating community-based organizations have already stabilized 42 young people's housing crises.

"In order to end youth homelessness, we have to invest upstream in preventing it from happening in the first place," said Paula Carvalho, Program Officer of Youth Homelessness at Raikes Foundation. "Direct Cash Transfers as Prevention, which builds on a successful program in Washington state, does just that by offering emergency cash grants to young people facing housing instability. We are proud to be collaborating to bring this innovative, youth-centered approach to preventing homelessness to communities across the country."

The technical assistance provided by PSY will not only center affirming, data-backed, and effective youth-driven prevention practices, but will also focus on nurturing and growing capacity and public will for communities to center prevention in their homelessness systems to ensure the sustainability of this intervention beyond the term of the pilot.

"At Tipping Point, we are excited to test and learn about the effectiveness of new interventions that have the potential to reduce poverty, particularly with populations we know are at higher risk," said Sam Cobbs, CEO, Tipping Point. "Our support of the Direct Cash Transfers as Prevention pilot is an opportunity to learn about different ways that we can support community college students and prevent a student from experiencing homelessness before it happens."

"Trinity Church Wall Street proudly supports the DCT-P initiative to end youth homelessness. We recognize the transformative power of trusting young people and providing essential resources for their stability," said Thehbia Hiwot, Managing Director, Housing & Homelessness, Trinity Church Wall Street. "By investing in early preventative measures, we are working toward a future where no young person faces the immense challenge of homelessness."

Funding for this initiative is provided by a powerful consortium of seven philanthropic organizations and entities: Tipping Point, Raikes Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, Oregon Department of Human Services, Trinity Church Wall Street, The NYC Fund to End Youth & Family Homelessness, and The American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact.

This DCT-P initiative marks a critical step forward in the movement to end youth homelessness. By trusting young people and providing them with the resources they need to thrive, DCT-P has the potential to transform lives and tackle the crisis of youth homelessness by addressing root causes. This collaborative effort led by Point Source Youth, alongside 15 community-based organizations and philanthropic entities, is heralding a new era of collaboration, innovation, and youth-centered interventions in the youth homelessness space. Learn more by visiting www.pointsourceyouth.org

About Point Source Youth
Point Source Youth (PSY) works with communities large and small, alongside local youth advocates to ensure that experiences of youth homelessness are rare, brief, and non-recurring. The PSY team advances affirming, data-backed solutions such as rapid re-housing, host homes, and direct cash transfers that place power and resources directly in the hands of youth experiencing homelessness—with a focus on QTBIPOC youth who are disproportionately impacted.

About the American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact
The American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact is a venture capital firm and partner of choice for exceptional entrepreneurs who are building scalable, sustainable businesses in a long-term effort to close equity gaps in America. It also recognizes that capacity building and supporting organizations and experts that have been working toward social causes are equally important in making a positive impact within our communities around the country.

About The NYC Fund to End Youth & Family Homelessness
The NYC Fund to End Youth & Family Homelessness is a collaborative philanthropic initiative led jointly by foundations and advocates with lived expertise of homelessness who share the belief that all New Yorkers need the safety and dignity of a home.  To realize that vision, the Fund works with lived experts, advocates, service providers, researchers, and public sector partners to transform New York City's housing and homelessness systems to center equity and lived expertise and operate to prevent and solve homelessness rather than reactively crisis manage it.

About the Raikes Foundation
At the Raikes Foundation, we believe that when we work together and center the voices of young people, we can build a fair society for all. Our goal is to bring people together to break down barriers that prevent communities from thriving and to support solutions that allow all of us to determine a fair and just future for America. We make grants in four core areas: education, housing stability for youth, racial equity and democracy, and impact-driven philanthropy. Through our grants, we seek to redefine financial impact, support individuals, and promote community agency and solutions to build a more just and inclusive society where all young people have the support they need to achieve their full potential. To learn more about our work, visit https://raikesfoundation.org.

About the Schultz Family Foundation
The Schultz Family Foundation's mission is to create greater opportunity, accessible to all. Our work is deeply rooted in the lives and values of our co-founders, Sheri and Howard Schultz, who believe talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. We seek to apply the lessons they have learned over the decades to seed innovations and scale solutions to help young people successfully navigate the transition to adulthood and positively impact the trajectory of their lives. We are investors in unleashing potential and unlocking opportunity, working in partnership with employers, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and governments that share our aspiration of enabling everyone to access the full promise of America. For more information about the Foundation and its work: www.schultzfamilyfoundation.org.

About Tipping Point
Tipping Point finds, funds, and strengthens the most promising poverty-fighting solutions so one day everyone in the Bay Area can prosper. Since 2005, Tipping Point has invested over $410 million in community interventions, policy change, and new ideas. Last year, our grantees provided life-changing services in housing, early childhood, education, and employment to nearly 90,000 of our neighbors across the Bay Area. Visit www.tippingpoint.org to learn more.

About Trinity Church Wall Street
Trinity Church Wall Street is a vibrant and growing Episcopal parish of more than 1,600 members. Over the past 325 years, Trinity has been guided by its mission to share God's love for all people. Trinity's programs seek to offer shared encounters with the holy, to cultivate compassion, to deepen knowledge and spiritual practices, to work for justice rooted in essential human dignity, to provide places of solace and healing, and to inspire a desire in all people to be conscientious contributors to the life of New York City and the world. More than 20 worship services are offered every week online and at historic Trinity Church and St. Paul's Chapel, the cornerstones of the parish's community life, worship, and mission.

SOURCE POINT SOURCE YOUTH