Council backs landscape analysis for youth and families, urges equity and compensated engagement

Liz Weber, director of the Housing Stabilization Division, and Emily Edwards, prevention policy and planning analyst, presented a forthcoming landscape analysis to better understand how HSD programs serve unaccompanied youth and households with children. The briefing said the project will examine program outcomes, funding allocations, eligibility rules and national best practices; it will include engagement with young people with lived experience, grantees, and other state agencies.

Staff flagged three 2025 bills that shape the work: House Bill 3970 (expanded Emergency Housing Account eligibility language referencing school-age children and others), Senate Bill 814 (updates to the Rental Assistance for Youth pilot) and Senate Bill 690 (called the 'MOMNIBUS' in the briefing, which directs prioritization for households with young children and requires a legislative report on unsheltered child homelessness). Edwards said the project will include a literature review and seek to incorporate an evaluation of policies such as eviction moratoriums enacted elsewhere.

Council members urged practical, data-driven outcomes and equity-centered engagement. Council member Farrell recommended leveraging educational outcomes already tracked by school districts (reading, math, graduation, attendance) as measurable impacts. Acting Chair Lee and others insisted that the analysis explicitly center racial equity, tribal sovereignty and LGBTQ+ youth experiences and that participants with lived experience be compensated and informed about data use. "We must compensate anyone we engage with to ask them to share their lived experience," Lee said. Staff agreed to return with interim learnings and quarterly check-ins at stages of the work.