Housing and Homelessness in 2018: A Year in Review

Our primary focus in the US has been being the on-ramp for the movement to prevent and end youth homelessness. In 2018, we launched an additional 9 100-Day Challenges in communities across 2 diverse cohorts.

HUD Cohort 2, which launched early in the year, consisted of 4 rural communities across the US. Over the course of their 100-Day Challenge, 188 youth and young adults were housed into safe and stable housing, in addition to strengthening their coordinated community response to youth homelessness. For a full list of these communities’ goals and results, view their dashboards here.

As we announced in our last newsletter, HUD Cohort 3 launched in November 2018. These 5 communities just recently passed the 50-day mark, and the results so far have been amazing. Check out the ambitious goals they set, and their dashboards outlining their progress.

We also want to give a huge shout-out to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for funding this work, HomeBase and A Way Home America for being our partners in the movement, as well as NAEH and the True Colors Fund for bringing awareness to this heartbreaking issue. We couldn’t do it without you!

Over the course of the 16 completed Challenges so far, over 1900 youth and young adults have been housed into safe and stable housing. And we aren’t done yet! Cohort 4 will be launching in early 2019, with another to follow shortly after - so be sure to stay tuned for our official announcement on the participating communities soon. Together, we can #EndYouthHomelessness!

In mid-2018, we partnered with the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative to launch 100-Day Challenges on system-involved young people and families in Albuquerque, NM and Sarpy County, NE. In Albuquerque, some very significant improvements were made to the systems that connect young people with adults, the community, education, and how the different organizations collaborate. In Sarpy County, not only did they make improvements to their local coordination, but 51 young adults and families increased their financial stability - exceeding their original goal. 

Over the past year, we partnered with Youth Collaboratory, formerly known as MANY, to help facilitate the Coordinated Entry Learning Collaborative. The CELC began in 2016 with 9 communities, to provide a space for discussion on how to overcome some of the challenges that were being faced with their coordinated community response to youth homelessness. In 2018, 19 communities joined the CELC and RRI supported the great learning and discussions that took place. The CELC convenes in person on February 20th, and we look forward to continuing to support the effort! 

In October, with funding from the Harry C. Trexler Trust, we launched a 100-Day Challenge in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania to help address homelessness within their community. Check out the segment by PBS39 outlining their Challenge so far. Lehigh Valley’s 100-Day Challenge officially wraps in February, and a full summary of results and learning will be forthcoming!

An important part of our work is learning from every experience, and applying this into our ever-evolving curriculum. With funding from the Melville Charitable Trust, we strengthened our programs and developed a new training model, which is being adapted for use in the Statewide Youth Homelessness 100-Day Challenges being launched in March 2019.

And as you know, the end of the 100-Day Challenge is just the beginning for sustainable system change. With funding from the Butler Family Fund, we made significant additions to our post 100-Day Challenge work, in order to better support leaders, teams, and communities on their continued journey.