DHS Can Better Support Young Parents

Good afternoon Councilmember Frumin and committee members and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today at the Department of Human Services Performance Oversight Hearing. My name is Mary Katherine West, and I am a policy analyst at DC Action and a Ward 1 resident. 

DC Action uses research, data, and a racial equity lens to break down barriers that stand in the way of all kids reaching their full potential. Our collaborative advocacy initiatives bring the power of young people and all residents to raise their voices to create change. We are also the home of DC KIDS COUNT, an online resource that tracks key indicators of child and youth wellbeing. 

My testimony today will provide an overview of how the Department of Human Services can better support young parents in the District through a variety of supports including housing, child care subsidies, financial assistance programs like SNAP and TANF, and opportunities to promote economic mobility for the District’s young people.

Young parents want to build a strong foundation for themselves and their children

Babies of parents under 25 make up about 15% of births in the District each year. We estimate that there are between 2,600 to 3,400 parents under 25 living in the District. The majority of young parents in the District are Black and are more likely to live in ward 7 or 8.

Becoming a parent fundamentally changes someone’s life. There are many joys and new adventures in becoming a parent, alongside logistical challenges: scheduling and attending pediatrician visits; affording a constant supply of diapers and wipes; providing nutritious meals for a growing child; and providing a safe and stable place to live.

These changes are significant for any parent, but especially for young parents who may still be in school and not in the workforce, may not have reliable transportation, and may have not had much experience filling out complex paperwork or making appointments. All this can be overwhelming. In the midst of logistical challenges, young parents are learning how to parent, how to manage coparenting relationships, and meet their own needs as caregivers and as developing young people. While many pregnancies to young parents may not be planned, young people are committed to building a strong foundation for their families. 

In the District, between 2020 and 2023, the DCNEXT! DC Network for Expectant and Parenting Teens connected researchers, service providers, and young parents in the District to develop and conduct research on the experiences and needs of young parents DC Action’s Youth Economic Justice Coalition is excited to uplift their findings to create actionable policy change. DCNEXT!’s Context Team, a group of young parents working to develop, conduct, and disseminate research on the experiences and needs of young parents, is continuing to collaborate with DC Action and share their vision for improved support for new families in the District. 

Housing stability is foundational for young parents and their children

Access to safe and stable housing is critical for positive development for young children and young parents. In 2023, DCNEXT! conducted a survey of young parents in the District and found that 50% reported housing as a top concern. At the time of the survey, 14% of respondents did not have a place to call home, and 30% had experienced homelessness within the past year.  

Young parents experience homelessness at higher rates than non-parenting youth for multiple reasons. Changes in levels of family support and increased financial and mental stress after becoming a parent may lead to housing instability and homelessness. Young people who are already experiencing homelessness are more likely to have higher rates of pregnancy, due to a combination of factors such as engaging in survival sex, lack of family or other support, or resistance to or lack of understanding of contraceptive use. 

Housing instability and homelessness have adverse impacts on both young parents and their children. Housing insecurity and homelessness contribute to chronic stress, higher rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and comorbid mental disorders that can arise during pregnancy. Chronic stress from housing instability can exacerbate or prolong maternal health risks and lead to adverse childhood experiences during a child’s most developmentally important years. DCNEXT! researchers found that, each move or housing disruption a young parent faced correlated with a 23% reduction in the likelihood they reported their family was thriving.

The Continuum of Care is the District’s homeless services system that supports the needs of individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The Continuum of Care includes multiple systems that serve different District populations including single adults, families, and youth. 

In FY24, 309 families headed by a parent aged 18 to 24 accessed outreach services, emergency shelters, and transitional housing. This represents a 6% increase since FY23. 

However, only 96 beds are designated specifically for young parents ages 18 to 24, so more than half of these young people and their children are served in the general family homelessness system. 

Programs designed specifically for young parents are more aligned to the needs of young people than the single adult or family homelessness systems are. In addition to traditional case management, many programs have youth-centered educational resources, job training, and financial empowerment resources, and opportunities for young people to meet consistently to learn about parenting skills and styles, healthy relationships, and mental health. These programs foster community among young parents so they can learn directly from others who share similar experiences, and help them foster independence as young people and as parents.

We know, however, that the need for housing support is even greater than the number served in these specific programs. When the District counts services such as placement in rapid rehousing or permanent supportive housing, the number of young parents served increases to from 309 to 762. 

Based on our estimates, this means that between 22% to 30% of youth-headed households in the District accessed DHS housing services in the past year. It is critical that the District work with young parents to ensure that services are responsive to their development and needs and prevent future entry or re-entry into the homeless system. 

Antipoverty programs support the well-being of young parents 

Supporting young families’ well-being must include holistic support in addition to shelter or homelessness prevention. Financial and food insecurity is a major source of stress for many young parents. Of the 2023 DCNEXT! Survey respondents who considered themselves to be suffering, 82.5% reported financial concerns and almost two-thirds reported consistently not having enough to eat. Given the significant economic challenges young parents face, DHS should look at why more young parents are not accessing social safety net programs they may be eligible for. Only 35% of DCNEXT! survey respondents reported using SNAP and just 16% received support through TANF.     

Two-generation approaches center the needs of both parents and child development within the family. Income and nutrition are key aspects of supporting both child development and young parents’ development while they are still maturing physically, emotionally, and socially. 

We also see the benefits of safety net programs in parents’ academic achievement. DCPS reports that, of the young parents in their school-based parenting program New Heights, the more economic support services (such as SNAP, WIC, or TANF) a New Heights student receives, the more likely they are to regularly attend school, earn their credits, and graduate. With incoming federal threats to the social safety net, the District must take steps to shore up the stability of these services and ensure they remain accessible to young parents. 

Invest in economic mobility for young parents

Many young parents have goals and aspirations to provide for their families. Becoming a parent can often be a positive influence on young people as they strive to give their children a good life. 

The 2023 DCNEXT! survey found that young parents want to work. More than two-thirds  of young parents wanted to work more than they already were, and more than one-third of those who were not employed were looking for work. 

The District should support young people’s desire for economic mobility by providing tools to help them reach long-term financial stability and independence. DHS should expand workforce development programming that is tailored to youth who are pregnant and parenting. Including supports like transportation and accessible child care is the first step for programs to be responsive to young parents’ needs. 

Effective workforce development programs must include compensation sufficient to ensure economic stability, alongside scaffolded supports like professional mentorship, behavioral health counseling, and career advising so that young people can advance their professional goals. 

Improved child care subsidy eligibility increases accessibility for young parents

Child care is another support for young parents and their growing children. Since child care is so expensive in the District, many young parents who are still in school or new to the workforce cannot afford it. Many rely on family members to care for children, but this reliance can strain familial relationships, and may not be sustainable in the long term if family members get sick, need to be in the workforce themselves, or become otherwise unable to care for the children. This makes the District’s child care subsidy program a critical lifeline for young parents.

The child care subsidy program, administered by OSSE but with eligibility determined by DHS, makes child care affordable for young parents. DCNEXT! and the Context Team released a report in 2023 that documents how young parents felt intimidated by the District’s lengthy and complex child care subsidy application process, creating a barrier to even starting the application, let alone securing a voucher after navigating the cumbersome process. This report also included recommendations on how the District can make the program more accessible. 

The Context Team was grateful to see that the OSSE’s updates to the Child Care Policy Manual District in Fall 2024 included some of their recommendations. These policy changes strive to make DHS’s subsidy application process more accessible by reducing the wait time to determine eligibility and offering online applications. 

OSSE included specific considerations for special populations, including young parents, parents experiencing homelessness, and parents in the foster care system. These updates waive income reporting requirements, documentation of work or school attendance (replaced with self-attestation), and child care copayment requirements for parents in these special populations. OSSE also introduced presumptive eligibility for parents experiencing homelessness so that they can access care immediately while DHS processes and approves their application. 

We are excited that OSSE has made these changes to support accessibility. Now it is incumbent on DHS to implement these improvements smoothly and uniformly. We hope this committee will ask DHS about their implementation progress, the successes and challenges to date, and the impact they are seeing from the expansion of subsidy eligibility and streamlining of processes. Specifically, we want to know about the data that illustrates young parents’ ability to successfully secure child care vouchers.  

In conclusion, the Council must work to understand and remove barriers to the core public services and supports young parents need to thrive in the District. DC Action – and the Context Team of young parent leaders that we convene – look forward to working with this committee and DHS to mitigate the harms of poverty and homelessness on all children and young people in the District. 

Thank you for your time and I welcome any questions.