Supportive Housing Week
Nonprofits across the country are acknowledging Supportive Housing Week this week to draw attention to the needs and experiences of people experiencing homelessness and how supportive housing can be a solution to their crisis.
The Wilder Statewide Homeless Study estimates that 13,300 youth under the age of 24 experience homelessness on their own every year in Minnesota. This is approximately 40% of the entire homeless population.
For youth in particular, the solution to episodes of homelessness often requires additional supportive services. As a parent of 20-somethings myself, I know all of the ways that I have supported my own children in the process of navigating apartments, landlords, leases, maintenance needs, cleanliness, pets, employment challenges, transportation, education, and all of the other things that young people learn as they transition from youth to adulthood. Those challenges don’t go away when you add housing instability and trauma to the mix…they’re amplified.
Supportive housing combines housing with supportive services that are designed to help young people navigate all of the transitions to adulthood, improving their health and quality of life. This isn’t about helping young people “get themselves together” in order to earn housing. In fact, the stability of having a home is what makes it possible for them to develop healthy relationships, achieve employment and education goals and ultimately move toward independence.
The evidence that supportive housing works is overwhelming. Youth who have a substantial relationship with a case manager are 4.2 times more likely to access and maintain permanent housing. They are 2.6 times more likely to earn a GED or diploma. In every measure or metric, youth who are engaged with case management tied to their supportive housing will perform better than those who are trying to end a housing crisis on their own.
That is what our partner agencies are trying to do. They recognize that a home is more than four walls – it is a foundation from which they can achieve their goals and transition successfully into adulthood. Youth in crisis need and deserve a pathway home and they need and deserve trustworthy adults who will stand with them and help them to more forward.
It is so important to highlight supportive housing as a successful model for ending youth homelessness. In a time when the federal government is shifting funding priorities, we need to advocate for programs and models that work. Supportive housing works and we need to continue to invest in it.