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County staff outline youth‑homelessness services, report HUD youth grant and rising school homelessness counts
Summary
The youth services coordinator told the committee about a county network of youth homeless services, data on youth need, the HUD Youth Homelessness Demonstration funding and gaps in crisis respite for 18‑year‑olds.
At the Sept. 3 committee meeting, Rick Elvort, coordinator of youth services, gave a wide‑ranging briefing on youth homelessness in Tompkins County, distinguishing unaccompanied youth (generally under 18) from young adults (18–24) and outlining the network of services available.
Elvort said agencies working with youth include Open Doors (Family and Children’s Services) which operates a 24/7 warm line and a host‑home program; the Village in Ithaca (which operates Village House); Tompkins Community Action, which operates permanent supportive housing (including Amici House and other units); Catholic Charities; the Human Services Coalition; Learning Web’s drop‑in services; and others. Open Doors maintains two transitional apartments for 16–18 year olds and is working to expand host‑home effectiveness.
Elvort said the county has leveraged the federal Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YHDP) funds to expand permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing pilots. He described the YHDP amount as approximately $1.6 million that local agencies used to seed new programs and permanent supportive housing units through a youth‑led planning process that began in 2021.
Elvort gave a snapshot of need and capacity: 73 youth and young adults were on the coordinated‑entry list at the time of the presentation, an estimated 150 young adults are in unstable housing or couch‑surfing, and school‑reported homelessness has tripled over three school years (Elvort reported 232 homeless students in K–12). He reported 92 permanent supportive housing (PSH) units, 24 transitional housing units for young adults and two host homes available to age 21 (noting host homes are short‑term/respite, up to 30 days).
Elvort described a persistent service gap for 18‑year‑olds needing crisis respite and said county staff are working with mental health, probation and children’s services to design a multi‑purpose respite solution. He said efforts include a kinship care payment to encourage families to host youth and rapid rehousing rental assistance managed by Learning Web.
Committee members asked about overlaps in counts and utilization; Elvort acknowledged overlap and the difficulty of counting a mobile population but said coordinated entry and the county’s HMIS provide better data tracking than in the past. He said the county’s goal is to make youth homelessness “rare, brief and 1 time.”
The presentation was informational; no committee action was recorded.
