Seattle Housing Authority’s Pioneering Foster Youth Wraparound Services Highlighted
HUD announced $12.7 million will be available to PHAs on a competitive basis through HUD’s Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) Initiative to provide housing assistance to young adults transitioning out of foster care. These FYI vouchers will be used to provide housing assistance to young adults in between the ages of 18 years and not more than 24 years old who left foster care or will leave foster care in the next 90 days and are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Eligibility requirements to apply for the FYI Competitive vouchers can be found here.
FYI makes Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) assistance available to PHAs in partnership with Public Child Welfare Agencies (PCWAs). This funding helps connect youth and young adults in foster care with stable housing and mitigate experiences of homelessness during their transition out of foster care.
Questions regarding the FYI Competitive Notice of Funding Opportunity for Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 should be directed to FYICompetitive@hud.gov.
HUD’s new Northwest Regional Administrator and former CLPHA Board Member Andrew Lofton made the announcement in Seattle at an event with the Seattle Housing Authority. In nearly 15 years of working with youth exiting the foster care system, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has developed an integrated model to provide personalized wraparound services designed to equip youth with the housing and education, training and employment services they need to stabilize and build toward self-sufficiency. Based on its success, and a regional network SHA partners with, it was one of the first housing authorities to receive an allocation of Foster Youth to Independence vouchers, followed by a second allocation approximately a year later. SHA’s funding flexibility through HUD’s Moving to Work program has also enabled SHA to extend the time frame for voucher and service support to formerly foster youth who are actively working to establish independence but need a little more time to be successful.