Good afternoon Committee Chair Frumin and members of the Committee on Human Services. Thank you for the opportunity to address the Council today with respect to the performance of the Department of Human Services as it related to youth experiencing homelessness.
I am Dr. Crystal Robinson, a pediatrician working in Washington, DC and currently collaborating with DC Action as a Policy Fellow. At DC Action, research and data are used to break down barriers that stand in the way of all kids reaching their full potential. One of our major focus populations include youth who are experiencing homelessness, with the goal to facilitate successful transition into stable and productive adulthood.
As a pediatrician, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of housing instability on the physical and mental health of our young people. There are high rates of mental health challenges, with suicide being the leading cause of death among youth experiencing homelessness (1). Youth experiencing homelessness are disproportionately targets of exploitation and abuse. One in three youth report exchanging sex for housing, food, or drugs (2). They are also more likely to become pregnant, develop HIV, and struggle with substance use disorder compared to housed counterparts (3). Existing medical issues are often exacerbated without access to stable housing and medical care.
This issue will not disappear without consistent and robust intervention. There has actually been an increase in youth homelessness. The 2024 Point In Time count found a 13% increase in youth homelessness between 2023 and 2024 in Washington, DC (4). Since 2020, there has been an increase each year in youth homelessness.
We know that by investing early and helping young people find stability, we are cutting off a primary contributor to chronic adult and family homelessness. Youth deserve a fully funded and stable youth homelessness sector that can meet the holistic needs of housing insecure youth. However, in recent years, youth homeless services providers have been flat funded, preventing organizations from keeping up with inflation, cost of living adjustments necessary to retain staff, and scaling up to meet the intensified mental health and physical safety needs of teens and young adults. Should budget cuts occur, it will ultimately mean reducing the number of youth served, much longer wait times to get clients into housing, more young people forced to sleep on the streets or engage in survival sex.
Fully funding the youth homelessness sector is a matter of equity. We know that Black youth and LGBTQ+ youth – and Black and brown transgender youth in particular – disproportionately make up the majority of youth experiencing homelessness. Children involved in the foster care system, as well as justice system-involved youth, are also disproportionately represented. A solution to mitigate the impacts of youth experiencing homelessness is by creating pathways to economic freedom in the form of targeted workforce development opportunities that result in long-term employment with a livable wage.
The release of Solid Foundations in 2017 represented an important prioritization of a data-driven analysis of youth homelessness to guide much needed intervention. The resultant Coordinated Community Plan in 2020 outlined an extensive youth-specific strategic plan to reduce youth homelessness by 2022. However, these critical findings and recommendations were left partially fulfilled, or never initiated, with no current plan to build upon this critical work. Despite being further away from ending youth homelessness today than we were at the release of Solid Foundations in 2017, the Interagency Council on Homelessness has asserted that there are no plans to assess and update the critical strategic plan. How can we solve a problem with no plan? Our youth deserve our unwavering commitment to them. Youth must remain a top priority.
In times of uncertainty and disquiet, it is often our children and youth who are left without an advocate. It is our duty to highlight their unique challenges and provide effective solutions.
We urge the Council to ensure the youth homelessness continuum of care is fully funded and free of destabilizing budget cuts, and to allocate resources for an updated Coordinated Community Plan. We hope to increase our capacity to provide all the services that youth so desperately need to end youth homelessness.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I would be happy to answer any questions.