June 8, 2023 The Youth Homelessness Prevention Subcommittee

The Youth Homelessness Prevention Subcommittee

June 8, 2023

10:00am to 11:30am

Agenda:

1. Open & Introductions
2. Goals of Subcommittee
3. Youth Services and Supports
4. Small Group Exercises
5. Report Back Presentations
6. Public Comment
7. Next Meeting Expectations
8. Closing

Meeting Recording:

Meeting Recording

Presentation:

Homeless Youth System of Care

Meeting Minutes:

1. Open & Introductions: By Tedd Peso 
   1. Tedd welcomed the group and asked everyone to type their introductions in the chat. 
      1. Darius McKinney, Division of Mental Health
      2. Eva Moore, Deputy Director of Aftercare
      3. Johnna Lowe, Corporation for Supportive Housing
      4. Valerie Tawrel, 360 Youth Services
      5. Tyrie Fluker, Regional Administrator of the Placement Team for Aftercare
      6. John Egan, Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
      7. Isabella Hurtado, Governor's Office
      8. Dr. Leo'nard M. Johnson, National Youth Advocate Program/Dir. of Program Adm.
      9. Tedd Peso, Night Ministry
      10. Christine Hammond, Office to Prevent & End Homelessness
      11. Nikita Robinson, Office to Prevent & End Homelessness
      12. Latonia Byrd-Williamson
      13. Sandy Godinez, The Harbour
      14. Melishia Bansa, Department of Healthcare and Family Services
      15. Nick Johnson, Youth Representative
2. Goals of the Subcommittee: Tedd Peso presented the four goals identified in the legislature for the subcommittee. 
   1. To review the discharge planning service plans and discharge procedures for youth leaving custody or guardianship of the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health, and the Department of Corrections to determine whether such discharge planning and procedures ensure housing stability for youth leaving state systems of care. 
   2. To collect data on the housing stability of youth for one year after they are released from the custody or guardianship of the four systems of care identified previously. 
   3. Based on the data collected, the goal is to create a plan to improve discharge policies and procedures to ensure housing stability for youth leaving state systems of care. 
   4. To provide recommendations on community plans for sustainable housing. To create education plans for homeless youth. And to create strategic collaboration between the four state systems of care with respect to youth leaving custody. 
3. Youth Services & Supports: Presentation by Tedd Peso: 
   1. Brief overview of the housing services and support services provided to youth across the state that are unhoused. Basic general overview of the various budgets our programs fall into. 
      1. Drop-In Programs & Street-Based Youth Outreach Teams 
         1. These programs build relationships and provides resources needed to support to youth experiencing homelessness. Drop-in programs are fixed based sites that youth can visit for a wide variety of services. Broadway Youth Center is an example of a drop-in program. It is a great tool for youth experiencing homelessness. 
      2. Emergency Shelter & Interim Housing 
         1. Tend to be short term. Tend to be night to night or short-term stays. 
         2. May be dorm styles, host homes, or congregate. 
      3. Transitional Housing 
         1. Longer-term housing (typically up to 2 years). 
         2. Focuses on life skills education and intensive support while in the program. Provides youth with support to exist into their own apartments and housing. 
         3. Programs may focus on special populations in housing. Can be provided in a variety of ways. At the Night Ministry it is dorm style living and also some community apartments. 
      4. Rapid Rehousing for Youth 
         1. Rapidly moving youth into permanent housing in community. 
         2. Offering short to medium term financial assistance. 
         3. Providing developmentally appropriate case management and support (heavy focus on employment). Not a ton of rapid rehousing for youth based in Chicago. 
      5. Permanent Supportive Housing 
         1. Permanent Housing 
         2. Long term rental assistance 
         3. Individual or a member of a household has a disabling condition. Can be a barrier for youth due to this requirement. 
      6. Permanent Housing 
         1. May or may not come with financial assistance. Long term. 
         2. Youth may have continuing care built in the program or informed of how to connect with after care services. 
   2. Major State/ federal Funding Sources that pay for our programs in IL. Below are the ones that are most popular. 
      1. Illinois Department of Human Services: Homeless Youth Programs 
         1. FY23: $7.2m funding 27 programs 
         2. Outreach, Emergency/ Interim Shelter, Transitional Housing. 
      2. US Department of Health and Human Services: Runaway and Homeless Youth Act Funding 
         1. FY23: $155m funding which includes funding for projects at 14 Illinois organization. Competitive program, in state or national. 
         2. Funds four different program areas. Basic Center Program: provides services and safe shelter on an emergency crisis basis for up to 21 days to minors, those under the age of 18. Works on case planning, safe transitions, and requires contact with parents or legal guardians. Transitional Living Program, Maternity Group Home: transitional living programs for parenting youth, and Street Outreach Program. 
            1. Current grantees: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/grants/illinois-rhy 
            2. National Network for Youth in collaboration with Covenant report on the importance of transitional housing: https://nn4youth.org/resource-center/youth-supportive-transitional-housing-programs/ 
         3. Providers who receive this funding have to ensure that youth have safe and appropriate housing. The rules list what is an appropriate exit is and is not. With this funding it is some debate around providing prevention services for youth to prevent homelessness. In recent years it has been an increase in urgency around organizations having a MOU with child welfare agencies in their communities to cover and delineate the roles/ responsibilities of the homeless youth provider and the child welfare agency will provide. 
      3. US Department of Housing and Urban Development: McKinney Vento Program 
         1. Provides 2.8 billion dollars throughout the country through the CoC competitive process. The CoC's make decisions on where funding goes in the community throughout the process. Depending on where you live your COC may or may not fund homeless youth programs in your community. 
         2. Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project award: HUD identifies communities through a competitive process and supports them as they create and implement a coordinated community plan to reduce the number of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. Suburban Cook County has received this funding https://suburbancook.org/youth-homelessness/ 
         3. Hud funding does have a heavier focus on permanent housing models and less of a focus on transitional housings and services. 
      4. More information on funding sources listed on what the programs look like through out the country or state. 
         1. IDHS: https://www.dhs.state.il.us/page.aspx?item=30772
         2. HHS: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/runaway-homeless-youth 
         3. HUD: https://www.hudexchange.info/homelessness-assistance/resources-for-homeless-youth/ 
         4. National Network for Youth: www.nn4youth.org 
         5. Youth Collaboratory: www.youthcollaboratory.org 
         6. SchoolHouse Connection: www.schoolhouseconnection.org 
         7. Runaway & Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center (RHYTTAC): www.rhyttac.net  (Resources Tab) 
         8. A Way Home America: www.awayhomeamerica.org 
         9. Point Source Youth: www.pointsourceyouth.org 
         10. National Runaway Safeline: www.1800runaway.org 
         11. Illinois Collaboration on Youth: www.ICOYouth.org 
         12. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless: www.chicagohomeless.org
         13. Homeless Hub (Canada): https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/population-specific/youth 
   3. Anything to add or questions? 
      1. Question: Will you be sharing these slides? And are the services temporary housing services or in state only? 
         1. Yes, we will share the slides. Most of our housing and shelter programs are temporary. It depends on funding. An issue that the monitors often have is there another funding source that needs to be paying for these services. 
      2. Comment: I know that YHDP is not an important funding source in any place but Suburban Cook County, but it is important in Suburban Cook County. The applications are open right now. Has it been any outreach to the CoCs so that they know about this? Has the office reached out to the CoCs to see if they will apply? And do they know if they need any help? 
4. Small Group Break out: To have a deeper dive into what you think that the systems of care would need to do to start collecting data? What are some of the entities or resources needed to support youth entering into housing stability? 
   1. Division of Mental Health 
   2. Department of Children and Family Services 
   3. Juvenile Justice 
5. Report Back presentation. What was highlighted in your small group break out conversations? 
   1. DCFS: We have brought this up before around data sharing with the continuums. Legally a lot of youth don't want to know that they are or were a part of the child welfare system. One question was if we could legally share the information. The ability to share information might be much easier if we can legally share. Sharing with the CoC is more difficult. If we share information Department of Children and Family Services and say here is why but can only be done based on if they have been aged out of care. See what the youth may say. They may say no. We would still need the information from the CoC to share information. Can we share with DCFS and see if they systems could talk with each other. It would have enormous benefit if we could. 
      1. Are you wondering if sharing information with CoCs across the state and asking an assessment question if those youth are involved in any systems of care? 
         1. Yes, that is what we are wondering about. We think it would work best if it came from the CoC. We are still at the age that they could still be in our care. If the CoC asks that question it may identify youth that could get resources from a program that DCFS runs itself or have the ability to make referrals to local housing authorities. 
      2. The other question was around shop resources. Are there specific resources that DCFS need to better help support youth into housing stability? 
         1. The resources are there at DCFS. We can make referrals to the local housing authority if they have a housing choice voucher program. It is a lot of counties that don't have housing choice voucher, but we can assist that youth if they are not yet 23 for a voucher. We could serve youth who have not yet turned 23, but when they turn 23 or 24 then DCFS cannot provide help around housing services to them unless they are parenting. We ask the CoCs to provide those services, but the CoCs struggle with that funding source for that. 
      3. You mentioned more funding to support that, what about a policy change? 
         1. Policy change is federal. The state of Illinois stops funding at the age of 21 for DCFS. We have family advocacy centers, and they have alumni centers. The alumni centers can serve any youth until the age of 30 who was a part of or in foster care. They have a cash assistance program, and some resources that can be provided up unto the age of 30. We would like to look into supporting youth who get one of the vouchers until the age of 26. 
            1. It could be beneficial that most homeless youth centers are serving unto the age of 25. There is a gap on what ages. But collaborative approach could be helpful. 
   2. Juvenile Justice: We talked about tracking youth on the front end. Looking at what brought them in and beyond the committing offense. It would help to provide data on the long-term needs. Talked about having a discharge coordinator, who would provide tracking beyond the age of 21. Follow the youth for roughly a year to focus on the housing, mental health, substance abuse, psychiatric needs. Talked about coming back in and having an assessment tool. That could be a tool that we could use in tracking the homelessness piece if present. Homelessness that leads to DCFS involvement. Talked about dually involved population who are dropped from DCFS care at the age of 18. Talked about training aftercare teams to do the assessment to evaluate them to address homeless need. We have tons of resources through vendors, agencies, and MOU's. We do a really good job of linking those resources prior to discharge. Aftercare piece, you never want to just drop off a kid at a shelter. The goal is to reduce the youth homelessness through the resources we provide. 
   3. Mental Health: The Harbour shared with us that they have forms that are used and needing a platform to be able to talk to other agencies through. That would allow access and have the security to share data. Tapping into the IT data specialist to see if expansion of data basis can be used. Having MOUs to share and the legality of what that looks like. And having a specialist that can live within DMH and tap into the CoC, and know what resources are available to support. 
   4. Our goal is to use this information to provide recommendations on how to move forward and the resources we can suggest. 
   5. Question: Were the people in this committee invited to the Summit next week? 
      1. Yes. 
6. Public Comment: Any comments or questions? 
   1. N/A 
7. Next Meeting Agenda: 
   1. August 3rd at 10am. Any suggestions on things to include on the agenda for the next meeting? 
8. Closing 
   1. Closing at 11:27am CST