June 7—BEMIDJI — Thanks to funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, efforts are increasing to make youth homelessness in Minnesota rare, brief and non-recurring.
The exciting news about the secured funds was announced on the stock exchange on Thursday
Northwest Minnesota Foundation
in Bemidji to a room with community leaders by Marion McFadden, HUD’s principal deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development, along with HUD staff from Minneapolis and Chicago.
“We are here to announce the first grant of its kind under our Youth Homelessness Systems Improvement Grant, which we call YHSI,” McFadden told the anxiously waiting crowd. “We are so pleased and proud to provide $2 million to address youth homelessness in Minnesota.”
She added that the team will make announcements for awards nationwide totaling $51.1 million, serving 38 communities representing 26 states, Puerto Rico and Guam.
According to HUD, the goal of YHSI grants is to create a more seamless and coordinated system of care for youth who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. These grants are intended to improve the identification of youth in need and make it easier for them to navigate available services.
These grants can be used to finance projects that:
* Create and build capacity for Youth Action Boards.
* Establish regional committees to direct efforts across multiple systems, including education, justice and child welfare.
* Collect and use data on at-risk youth and youth who are homeless.
* Develop strong leaders within a community.
* Improve the coordination, communication, operation and administration of homeless outreach projects to better serve youth, including prevention and diversion strategies.
“I want to assure you that we are working to address homelessness with the urgency it requires,” McFadden said. “It is a priority for the president and a priority for all of us at HUD.”
She added that while many other partners are working specifically on housing, these funds will be deployed to address resource and policy challenges.
“We have other funds that directly address housing needs, but these funds are different and unique,” McFadden said. “They will help communities build a strong, resilient and equitable homelessness response system. We want it to be less isolated and we want to break down the barriers we’ve heard about from young people in crisis.”
She explained how, in working with those in the housing sector and listening to young people, many have expressed their struggles in navigating the current system.
“People don’t know where to go. They may have to travel very long distances to get help, only to find out they are not in the right place,” she said. “So this $2 million investment will allow you to work together and make closer connections and help you better identify people in crisis so they can get the help we all want them to get faster.”
She also expressed her appreciation for the fact that the
Northwest Minnesota Foundation
The subsidy application was written in collaboration with the
Minnesota Tribal Cooperation
and the
Northeast Continuum of Care.
“The partnership’s submission highlights the needs of Indigenous youth who are unstably housed or homeless,” she said, “and it will work to create partnerships in northern Minnesota to prevent or eliminate homelessness among Indigenous youth unload.”
McFadden emphasized the importance of this fact, as Indigenous youth represent 40% of youth experiencing homelessness in northern Minnesota, yet they make up only 10% of the total youth population.
“Aligning different sectors will bring about change across the country so that young people can focus on building their future without having to worry about where they are going to sleep at night,” she ended. “At HUD, we are proud to fund these new grants to spark change. We recognize tribal sovereignty and are working closely with our Tribal Intergovernmental Advisory Committee to understand how we can better meet our obligations as we work together with our tribal partners.”
Barbara Johnson, homelessness program officer at NMF and coordinator for the Northwest Minnesota Continuum of Care, further emphasized this point.
“Today is a testament not only to the collaboration and partnership between the Minnesota Tribal Collaborative, the Northwest and Northeast CoCs, but also the coordination of all of our partners in this room working together to make homelessness rare, transient and non-recurring for young people in Minnesota.”
According to Homelessness Program Officer Margret Treuer, the Northwest Minnesota Foundation is serving as the cooperating applicant for the
Northwest Continuum of Care,
which puts the organization in a unique position of firsts.
“We are the first, and currently the only continuum of care in the state of Minnesota to be supported by a community foundation,” she explained. “We are the first continuum of care to directly address youth homelessness, developing youth-specific data plans and goals, and the first in the state of Minnesota to receive funding through the Youth Housing Demonstration Project.”
Treuer explained how when she and her colleagues came across this unique funding opportunity, they knew it was the first of its kind and the first source of federal funding to directly address youth homelessness from a systems planning approach.
“Surrounded by three of the largest tribal nations in Minnesota, we know there is a need to address youth homelessness specifically in our Native communities,” she added. “We know we must build a system of homelessness response that advances racial justice with tribal sovereignty at its core.”
According to Treuer, the collective number of Indigenous youth and young adults under the age of 24 experiencing homelessness included more than 39% of the region’s homeless population in 2023. Currently, in northwestern Minnesota, 72% of youth who have been homeless for more than 90 days are Indigenous.
This is just one reason why Tammy Moreland, president of the Minnesota Tribal Collaborative, said now is the time to start real change.
“Now more than ever, we need innovative minds and bold thinkers to step forward and create a future for the next seven generations,” said Moreland. “We have a vision that can transform the world, and we’re not waiting for the right time. We’re making that change happen now. I want to thank the Northwest Foundation and HUD for letting us share our ideas. I’m grateful that we can collaborate with like-minded individuals and start building solutions for tomorrow today.”
NWCoC Youth Action Board member Elizabeth Arevalo shared her experiences with homelessness during her young adult years and why she advocates for funding like the Youth System Housing Initiative.
“What made the difference for me was being connected to a youth-specific program like
The link
and that I was assigned a case manager who didn’t treat me like a number, but really cared about me and helped me overcome all the barriers I faced, no matter how difficult they were,” she said. “I can’t tell you enough how important it is to have accessible housing and services that consider me ‘homeless enough’ and a priority.”
Treuer said that while the organization is still impressed that they have the funding, they are already thinking about the next steps.
“We’re just really excited, I think we’re a little confused right now,” she said with a laugh. “Like, wow, what happened?”
While NMF will receive the funds as a grantee, the funds will be subsidized in partnership with the Minnesota Tribal Collaborative, the Northeast Continuum of Care and the Northwest CoC.
She said their first step is to meet with their grant partners to connect them with current models serving the region’s youth and share information on how they can replicate some of that within their systems.
“It is not our job to tell tribes or other CoCs what to do,” Treuer added. “So we’ll come up with some sort of giant strategic plan and then each sub-grantee will use that information to create their own individualized strategic plan.”
One element Treuer noted that they are working on is protecting the sovereignty of tribal data.
“With this grant, we’re really looking at data sovereignty,” she said, adding that tribal data is owned, managed, managed and protected by tribal nations. “Just because we fund something doesn’t mean we will ask for unsolicited data, so we are now evaluating some of our current data systems and the way we manage youth information.”
She said this new model will give youth access to their case notes and personal information, help them better understand the case conference model used to allocate resources to youth and stay informed with their caseworker.
“The hope is that this will help empower young people to access their own data and understand the process a little bit more clearly,” she added, “because that’s one of the biggest things we’re doing in our region that we hear and know we need to solve. .”
Other funding announced at the event includes a $72 million funding opportunity as part of the eighth round of funding under the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program and Support Services Programs.
These include rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, host homes, and wrap-around services such as education, health care, and workforce support to help youth access and maintain housing.
“The Northwest CoC won a grant in one of the first competitions and now the Northeast CoC is eligible to apply and I wish you the best of luck,” McFadden ended. “Congratulations on your $2 million Youth Homelessness Systems Improvement Grant. I am truly proud of your efforts.”
Learn more about the
YHDP
And
YHSI
grants can be found on the HUD website.
