Washtenaw County receives $4.3m federal grant to address youth homelessness

Washtenaw County was recently awarded a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. The program supports housing solutions such as rapid re-housing, permanent supportive housing, and transitional housing to address youth homelessness.

"This grant is pivotal," says Pam Smith, the county's human services program administrator. "It essentially increased the overall amount of money that we had by 60% to address homelessness."

Smith shares that the county's win was due to 18 months of dedicated effort from organizations including Ozone House, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, and the Washtenaw Housing Alliance (WHA).

In their grant application they highlighted data from the Washtenaw County Continuum of Care’s Homeless Management Information System, which identified 536 unsheltered, unaccompanied homeless youth between the ages of 11-24 in the 2023 fiscal year. The numbers also showed that 436 Washtenaw County students and families were referred to school homeless liaisons under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, and 811 referrals for individual students in the 2022-2023 school year were received from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District. 

The grant applicants also included data from the Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth from 2021-2022. That report revealed that 2.3% of Washtenaw County students slept somewhere other than their parent or guardian’s home during the past 30 days. It also found that approximately 997 students reported experiencing homelessness on any given night. The grant applicants' estimate is that 2,300 sheltered youth and young adults are either experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness in the county.

"What really made a difference to our submission is that we have an active youth advisory board that shared their own life experiences," Smith says. "They made a short but impactful video that really made a difference in showing our needs."

She adds that the grant is renewable and that the county also scored an additional $600,000 planning grant. Early next year she'll be working with those who were instrumental in writing the grant "to strategically pick apart" how the funds will be used.

"What's really cool about this grant is that there's a planning period where we are required to develop a community plan around preventing and ending youth homelessness," says Amanda Carlisle, executive director of WHA. "Within that planning period, we'll identify, with our youth advisory board and our youth provider committee, where we need to use the funding. Then we'll have [a request for proposals] process for the projects to actually get up and running."

Carlisle says that the application required the county to specify the types of projects that are needed. One of those was a young adult emergency shelter in the county's system of care. Carlisle explains that currently Ozone House has a Safe Stay program for 10- to 17-year-olds. The general idea is that if there's conflict in a youth's home, mediation can be provided in a two-week time period to get them safely back in their home. However, there's no similar emergency shelter for 18- to 24-year-olds.

"They end up at the Delonis Center, which is a large, individual shelter, and there's not as many youth-tailored services," Carlisle says. "Even though Ozone and the Shelter Association have partnered to provide some youth services on site, it's just not the same welcoming environment for an 18-year-old or a 21-year-old to step into."

Aside from high housing costs, both Smith and Carlisle cite a number of causes for local youth homelessness. They are seeing youth who identify as LGBTQ+ having family conflict about their identity. Both say that these youth are more prone to becoming homeless due to family rejection. Another cause of youth homelessness is the lack of support for youth who have been in the foster care system to transition as they reach adulthood. 

"If we can catch youth early, there's a better chance that they don't become part of the chronically homeless population," Smith says. "They can move forward more resiliently with the right help and the right support, and that's what this grant will help us provide." 

"Our community needs to understand that youth homelessness is a real issue here," Carlisle adds. "You might not see a ton of young people sleeping on the streets, but it's been this kind of invisible issue that needs more attention." 

Jaishree Drepaul is a writer and editor based in Ann Arbor. She can be reached at jaishreeedit@gmail.com.