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Housing and Homelessness: About this Area of Focus
The Link Between Child Welfare and Homelessness for Children, Youth and Families
Thousands of children each year are separated from their families or unable to leave foster care because their parents are homeless, live in inadequate housing or because the family is displaced due to domestic violence. Unfortunately, young people preparing to age out of the foster care system are also facing homelessness and critical housing needs upon their discharge. Although the affordable housing crisis is placing a growing burden on the child welfare system, child welfare professionals are rarely trained to assist youth and families with the difficult tasks of finding adequate housing.
Without stable homes, it is often difficult for struggling families to engage in and benefit from the services provided by child welfare agencies. As a result, children remain at risk for abuse and neglect. In addition to families, thousands of young people age out of the foster care system each year without solid housing plans, resources and familial supports, making it challenging, at best, to build successful lives. Child welfare agencies must have the tools necessary to address the housing problems of the youth and families they serve.
The Housing and Homelessness Unit provides child welfare agencies with the tools necessary to assist families, youth and children in the child welfare system access and maintain safe, permanent, affordable homes.
Guiding Principles
The Child Welfare League of America's Housing and Homelessness department is committed to building the resources and capacity of the child welfare system to ensure that:
- No child will be placed in out-of-home care as a consequence of their primary caregiver's inability to afford a home;
- No child will remain in out-of-home care because of their primary caregiver's inability to afford a home;
- No child will linger in foster care because of an otherwise eligible family's inability to accommodate them in their home; and
- No child will age out of foster care without a solid plan for obtaining and maintaining safe, stable and affordable housing.
Current Initiatives
- Keeping Families Together and Safe: The Child Protection-Housing Connection
This initiative, supported by Freddie Mac and the Daniels Fund, seeks to increase the number of families who are able to stay together by developing and implementing an education and training initiative for child protection workers and housing professionals.
- Strengthening At Risk and Homeless Young Mothers and Children Initiative
This initiative, funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, seeks to facilitate systems integration between housing/homeless organizations and organizations that provide child development/child welfare services in an effort to improve the child development, family functioning and housing stability outcomes of at-risk and homeless families headed by young mothers with children under age 5 in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Los Angeles. CWLA is working with The National Center on Family Homelessness and the National Alliance to End Homelessness in this effort.
- Homelessness: Child and Family Well-Being
Children are the fastest growing group of homeless people in the Unites States. Homelessness affects all facets of child well-being, including health, education, and placement in the child welfare system. CWLA is dedicated to raising awareness of homelessness as a children's issue. We encourage child welfare agencies to work with communities to create solutions to eradicate the alarming trend of child and family homelessness.
- Homelessness: Youth Aging Out of Care
Youth aging out of the foster care system are experiencing critical housing needs upon and subsequent to their discharge. Former foster youth are entering the ranks of the homeless at alarming rates. CWLA is dedicated to raising awareness of homelessness as an issue for youth aging out of care. We encourage child welfare agencies to work in partnership with youth and their communities to ensure that youth aging out of foster care have safe, stable and affordable housing prior to their discharge.
- Advisory Committee on Housing and Homelessness
The Housing and Homelessness staff seeks representatives from CWLA member agencies and advocates to form an advisory committee to inform our work. Please contact Charlene Ingram at cincgram@cwla.org if you are interested in more information.
- Affordable Housing Advocacy
Working in partnership with leading national housing advocacy organizations, the Housing and Homelessness department develops, refines, and promotes affordable housing policy which will create more housing resources for CWLA members and the children, youth and families they serve.
- Family Unification Program (FUP) for Families and Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
The Housing and Homelessness staff provides training and technical assistance to promote community-based partnerships between public housing authorities and child welfare agencies to provide housing subsidies to youth aging out of foster care and families to prevent children from entering or remaining in foster care as a result of a primary caretaker's ability to afford safe and decent housing.
Looking for more information on the Family Unification Program? Try these links:
Looking for more information on HUD Resources for Youth Leaving Foster Care? Try these links:
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