Helping Homeless Youth in San Francisco
San Francisco has approximately 8,000 people experiencing homelessness on a given night. Of the 8,000, 1,200 are Transitional Age Youth ages 18 to 24. Sadly, youth homelessness is an issue throughout the country. Across the U.S., one in ten people aged 12 to 25 will experience homelessness in a given year.This is unacceptable and needs to change. Our young people need safe, permanent housing, so they can focus on their education or job, live healthy lives, and pursue their interests — without fear of where they’ll sleep at night.
We have a citywide goal to cut youth homelessness in half by 2023. We’re making progress on that goal, and the number of homeless youth has decreased by over 20% since 2015. But we still have more work to do to get people off the streets and on the path to permanent housing, and prevent homelessness from occurring in the first place.
Why focus on youth?
Young people experiencing homelessness often have a difficult time accessing services, including shelter, medical care, and employment. This is due to the stigma of their housing situation, lack of knowledge of available resources, and a lack of services targeted to young people. It’s important that, as a City, we offer services that are targeted and recognize the specific needs of our young people.
Half of homeless people in San Francisco first experienced homelessness before the age of 25. By helping young people experiencing homelessness, we can prevent chronic homelessness in the future.
Addressing youth homelessness is also about making our city more equitable. Young people who experience homelessness in the Bay Area are disproportionately people of color and identify as LGBTQ.
Here are some of what we’re doing to address youth homelessness in San Francisco:
Rising Up Campaign
In October 2018, we launched the Rising Up Initiative to reduce youth homelessness in San Francisco. Addressing homelessness, specifically youth homelessness, requires a coordinated and collaborative approach. It’s too important an issue for any one organization or government entity to tackle on its own.
Rising Up is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership to prevent and end youth homelessness. The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is the lead government agency and Larkin Street Youth Services is the lead non-profit institution.
The campaign aims to serve 500 Transitional Age Youth who are experiencing homelessness and works to prevent homelessness for another 450 young people who are at risk of homelessness, including foster youth, LGBTQ youth, and youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
Rising Up does this through several strategies, including Problem Solving and Rapid Rehousing. As part of Problem Solving, specialists provide one-time or short-term support — things like a bus ticket home, first/last month’s rent, or food — to prevent homelessness in the first place. Youth who qualify for Rapid Rehousing benefit from an innovative subsidy that offers rental subsidies and housing locators to identify affordable options. Additionally, case managers and the City’s Office of Financial Empowerment provide youth with expert financial counseling.
From January 2019 to December 2019, Rising Up has assessed 688 youth through Coordinated Entry, provided 242 youth with Problem Solving assistance, and helped prioritize 189 people for housing and 47 youth housed through rapid rehousing. 49% of the youth served by Rising Up are Black/African American and 34% of the youth served by Rising Up are Latino.
Proposed Navigation Center for Transitional Age Youth
In January, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and I announced plans to create a Navigation Center specifically for youth 18 to 24 years old. The proposed Navigation Center at 888 Post Street would provide shelter and services for 75 young people at a time, and is part of our efforts to add 1,000 new shelter beds by the end of this year.
In addition to providing shelter and wraparound services, the facility at 888 Post will house a Goodwill Industries job training program on the first floor of the building. Goodwill has partnered with the City in the past to provide job training and workforce development for people who otherwise might have a difficult time finding employment.
The Navigation Center at 888 Post will be a safe place for people to come inside and get the care they need. Since announcing the plans for the Navigation Center, the City has been meeting with the neighboring businesses and residents to get their input. The legislation to approve the creation of the Navigation Center will be voted on by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and if it’s passed, it will go to the Planning Commission for Conditional Use permit approval on Thursday.
Housing and Homelessness
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — homelessness and housing go hand in hand. We can’t solve the issues of homelessness without more housing.
We need more homes for people once they leave Navigation Centers or other shelters, otherwise the issue of homelessness will never be resolved. That’s why we’re creating more permanent housing, scattered-site supportive housing, master leased housing, and rapid rehousing. We’re also working on ways to make it simpler to build housing of all types in San Francisco, so that housing becomes more affordable for everyone.
To read more about the 2019 youth homeless count in San Francisco, go to: http://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2019HIRDReport_SanFranciscoYOUTH_FinalDraft.pdf
