Federal 2024 Budget: Current Status + Take Action to End Youth Homelessness
House and Senate Appropriations Committees have both passed their spending bills for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 out of committee. This post gives you a summary of what was included in each bill relevant to NN4Ys work to prevent and end youth homelessness and how you can get involved to advocate for dedicated funding for our young people.
Don’t forget, there is still a long way to go before FY24’s spending levels are finalized. The spending bills that passed are not identical, so negotiations remain ongoing until compromises can be reached. NN4Y has also heard rumblings of a potential government shutdown. NN4Y will continue to be at the forefront ensuring policymakers are educated about the funding needed to prevent and end youth homelessness. We need your help! Join NN4Y in taking action and send a strong message to your federal representatives today: https://nn4youth.org/policy/federal-policy-on-youth-homelessness/fy-23-federal-appropriations/
FY24 funding at a glance:
- HHS’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) program is flat funded from the Fiscal Year 2023 level – $146.3 million
- ED’s McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program is also flat funded in the House Bill and in the Senate Bill – $129 million
- HUD’s Youth Homeless Demonstration Program (YHDP) was flat funded in the Senate Bill and cut by $25 million in the House Bill
- $3 million of new funding for a demonstration program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to identify and implement strategies and services to prevent homelessness for youth between ages 12 and 26.
This table below shows the current status of House and Senate FY 2024 spending bills for the federal programs we track.
Chart of Federal Program Funding: FY 2024 Appropriations
To ensure that legislators prioritize funding for these crucial programs aimed at supporting children, youth and young adults, it is imperative that we demonstrate active engagement and support. For more information on the federal policies we advocate for, our funding recommendations for programs based on the level of need, and ways to support these programs, please visit our take action page. Together, we can make change happen and move closer towards our goal of ending youth homelessness.
Report Language
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Runaway and Homeless Youth Program Report Language
HOUSE
This program funds competitive grants to provide street outreach, emergency shelters, and longer-term transitional living programs to protect and provide supportive services to runaway and homeless youth.
Inter-Agency Collaboration—The Committee recognizes that a two-generation approach is needed to address child, youth, and family homelessness. The Committee encourages the Department to develop a plan for the Administration for Children and Families to lead and implement efforts across the Department and with other agencies, such as the Department of Education, to provide holistic services to homeless children, youth, and families to break the cycle of homelessness and support families to achieve self-sufficiency, including by identifying existing resources and gaps.
The Committee directs HHS to submit a report to the Committee detail- ing the findings of these efforts within 180 days of enactment of this Act and to make such report available online on the agency’s website.
SENATE
The Committee recommendation includes $125,283,000 for the Consolidated Runaway and Homeless Youth program. This program supports the Basic Centers Program, which provides temporary shelter, counseling, and after-care services to runaway and homeless youth under age 18 and their families; the Transitional Living Program, which provides longer-term shelter and services for older youth; and a national toll-free runaway and homeless youth crisis hotline.
The Committee continues to support the ability of grantees to provide prevention services such as counseling and case management, regardless of their enrollment in residential services. The Committee urges ACF to advise grantees that they are not required to enroll youth in shelter or residential services, nor require the young person to physically travel to the grantee’s location in order for an at-risk youth to receive prevention and supportive services.
The Committee continues to encourage the program to notify applicants if grant applications are successful at least 30 days before the grant begins or no less than 30 days before an existing grant is set to end. The Committee again strongly urges the program to ensure that service delivery and staff training comprehensively address the individual strengths and needs of youth, as well as language-appropriate, gender-appropriate interventions that are culturally sensitive and respectful of the complex social identities of youth.
The Committee strongly believes that no runaway youth or homeless youth should be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under, any program or activity funded in whole or in part under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, based on any of the conditions outlined in this paragraph.
Administration on Children and Families Report Language
SENATE
Child, Youth, and Family Homelessness.—The Committee is concerned about the impact of homelessness on the wellbeing and development of children, youth, and families, including the instability and overcrowding that accompany child, youth, and family homelessness. In light of this, the Committee urges ACF to assess the current state of child, youth, and family homelessness, including the strengths, barriers, and opportunities across ACF and HHS to provide two-generation services to end the cycle of homelessness. In particular, the Committee urges ACF to develop a plan to lead and coordinate efforts to provide holistic services to homeless children, youth, and families to break the cycle of homelessness, including by identifying existing resources and gaps. The Committee directs ACF to provide a report to Congress outlining progress on these efforts not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this act.
Emergency Relief for Foster Youth.—The Committee urges ACF to establish a demonstration program to provide emergency relief, including clothes and basic necessities, to youth entering the foster care system and improve pre-placement services offered by foster care stabilization agencies. Additionally, the Committee continues to be concerned by the high rates of homelessness among children who age-out of the foster care system. The Committee encourages HHS to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative programs that effectively serve vulnerable populations of youth transitioning out of the foster care system.
Preventing Youth Homelessness.—The Committee includes $3,000,000 for a demonstration program to identify and implement strategies and services for youth between ages 12 and 26 in order to prevent homelessness, including strategies designed to serve youth and young adult populations with a high likelihood of imminently experiencing homelessness, housing instability, or other forms of victimization as human trafficking to include individuals transitioning out of foster care, the juvenile justice system, or a residential behavioral health system. Funds shall be made available to State agencies, tribes, counties, cities, or other unit of local government for demonstration grants to provide primary prevention services for youth at risk of homelessness and implement or improve cross-system collaboration with key partners within the community that serve youth at risk of homelessness. Grantees shall show collaboration with youth with lived expertise in project design and implementation, including establishment of local youth advisory boards. The Committee requests a briefing 1 year after award of such grants on the initial findings of this demonstration program. Further, the Committee notes that this demonstration program is in addition to other, ongoing Family and Youth Services Bureau initiatives.
U.S. Department of Education
Education for Homeless Children and Youth
SENATE
Statutory Language
Provided further, That funds provided by Public Law 117–328 and this Act for subpart 6 B of title VII of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act shall be available for expenditure by educational agencies and institutions for an additional fiscal year following the succeeding fiscal year provided by subsection 421(b)(1) of the General Education Provisions Act.
Report Language
Students Experiencing Homelessness.—The Committee continues to be concerned by the challenges faced by students experiencing homelessness and the continued lack of compliance by LEAs with requirements intended to ensure such students receive necessary amounts required to be reserved under section 1113(c)(3)(A) of the ESEA for a wide variety of services, including those not ordinarily provided with title I–A funds to other students served by title I–A programs such as all or part of the homeless liaison’s salary, education-related fees, and other necessary items or services. The Department has taken important steps by recently revising its monitoring protocol and planning to work with SEAs to ensure they provide guidance on coordination between the LEA’s title I and McKinney-Vento staff and provide training on methods for determining required set-aside amounts. The Committee looks forward to seeing the changes that result from these and other efforts and directs the Department to report in its fiscal year 2025 CJ the specific State policy changes resulting from these efforts. In addition, the Department should widely disseminate specific State policy changes resulting from monitoring findings and recommendations that produce more collaborative and transparent approaches to the determination of set-aside amounts under such section providing necessary resources to fulfill needs assessments conducted for students experiencing homelessness to meet State challenging academic standards and effectively take advantage of educational opportunities.
In addition, as was noted in the explanatory statement accompanying last year’s Appropriations Act, more must be done to improve transparency on amounts reserved by LEAs under section 1113(c)(3)(A). The Committee understands the Department is planning to analyze the variation of per-homeless-pupil amounts across LEAs within a State and take other steps to improve the quality of reported data. However, this must be accompanied with actions to provide transparency on amounts reserved and spent with funds available under such section, including effective technical assistance and support being provided to title I SEA and LEA leaders on the wide variety of services supported by these funds, implementation of an adequate needs assessment, and determination of a sufficient reservation under such section. The Committee requests a briefing on actions taken and planned on these issues not later than 45 days after enactment of this act.
Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Bill Text
SENATE: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy24_lhhs_bill_text.pdf
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bill Text
SENATE: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy24_thud_bill_text.pdf
Overall Appropriations Status Table: https://crsreports.congress.gov/AppropriationsStatusTable