*U.S. Department of Health and Human Services*

*U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development*

*U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs*

*U.S. Department of Labor*

**Preventing and Resolving Homelessness Through Successful Transitions
for Youth and Young Adults**

*May 4--5, 2006*

*Hyatt Regency Phoenix*

*Phoenix, AZ*

**Kentucky**

**State Context**

Kentucky's Governor established a Task Force a little more than a year
ago to propose a State 10-year Plan to End Homelessness. This group,
representing a broad collaboration, formulated a plan; elements are
beginning to be operationalized. Louisville, the largest urban area in
the State, currently is developing a Local 10-year Plan to End
Homelessness. Mayor Jerry Abramson convened an initial group of
community leaders for discussion in April 2006.

In January 2005, the Coalition for the Homeless--Louisville; private,
nonprofit service providers serving homeless youth; and the Cabinet of
Health and Family Services, Department of Community-Based Services,
formed an "Aging Out" Coalition to increase community awareness of the
challenges faced by youth aging out of the foster care system. KET, the
local public television station, and WFPL, the local NPR affiliate,
approached the Aging Out Coalition with a partnership grant for this
purpose -- using the nationally televised *Aging Out* documentary. There
was a State legislative session focus in February and March 2005,
attempting to pass a bill for extending the time for youth having exited
care to choose to recommit to the State for education and assistance
purposes. Several community-wide awareness events were held as well as a
community-wide homeless youth session helping youth to become more aware
of services that are available to them and to hear from the youth what
could be more helpful in assisting them to move off the streets and out
of homeless shelters.

Kentucky has a well-developed State Chafee program; several nonprofit
service providers serve a number of youth with these funds, helping
access transitional and permanent housing and services.

Statistically, as of January 15, 2006, there are 6,700 children in
out-of-home care in Kentucky, of whom 3,746 are 12 or older.

Of the 3,746 youth 12 and older in out-of-home care:

-   573 will turn 18 in 2006 (this is 7 percent of the total in care and
    15 percent of those 12 or older)

-   208 will turn 19 in 2006 -- already on extended commitment

-   85 will turn 20 in 2006 -- already on extended commitment

-   37 will turn 21 in 2006 -- already on extended commitment

Total number of youth 18--21 on extended commitment: 330 -- 4 percent of
the total in care, 8 percent of those 12 or older.

Of the 330 on extended commitment:

-   3 are in psychiatric hospitals

-   16 are in family treatment homes

-   57 are in foster care

-   5 are medically fragile

-   43 are in independent living

-   206 are in private child care facilities or programs

**Resources**

The legislature included in the budget an additional \$1 million each
year to serve youth aging out of foster care. This increase is to
provide assistance grants or vouchers to current or former foster youth
ages 18--23. The maximum total of grants or vouchers per youth shall be
\$7,500 in any fiscal year for working youth. Youth may be eligible for
an additional grant totaling \$2,500 per year while attending a
community college or 4-year college or university. Grants or vouchers
from this program shall be utilized by the youth for transitional
assistance into independence, including but not limited to housing,
clothing, transportation, tuition, medical and dental services, and
other expenses for the youth for the transition that the cabinet
authorizes. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services shall promulgate
administrative regulations, in accordance with KRS Chapter 13A, to
implement this program no later than October 1, 2006.

 

Kentucky has a tuition waiver program for youth who have aged out of
foster care or who have ever been in State custody. These youth are
eligible to attend a State college or university for a 2- or 4-year
degree tuition free.

 

The State social services system; the private providers, both profit and
nonprofit; United Way; the Coalition for the Homeless--Louisville; and
many other community partners are working together to address issues of
homelessness for youth and adults.

The Home of the Innocents, located in Metro Louisville, the largest
urban area in the State (about 1 ¼ million people in a State of just a
little more than 3 million), is a 126-year-old nonprofit agency with a
comprehensive array of services for children and youth in crisis. The
agency has two divisions -- one a licensed skilled nursing care facility
for severely medically fragile, technology-dependent children ages
0--21, and the other an array of services for children who have suffered
abuse, abandonment, and neglect. A new potential third division,
currently aligned with in the social services division, is a program to
serve children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and Asperger's.

The Home of the Innocents Childkind Center, in the Division for Social
Services, is comprised of an emergency shelter, long-term residential
treatment, a pregnant and parenting teen program,

a transitional living program, an aftercare program for youth ages
18--24, a permanent supported

housing program as a single agency, a permanent supported housing
program as part of a five-agency collaboration group, an economic
independence program in collaboration with Kentucky Works to assist
those women who qualified for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
benefits as teen mothers to exit welfare, a Families and Children
Together Safely family preservation community-based program, Impact Plus
Medicaid-funded in-home services for children at risk of removal or
psychiatric hospitalization, and in-home services to children diagnosed
with autism/Asperger's.

The Home of the Innocents participates as a service provider in the
Coalition for the Homeless--Louisville. We are an active member of the
Aging Out Coalition. We are a founding member of the Children's
Alliance--Kentucky. Our role is to help youth in crisis to gain
stability and health. We participate in several collaborations to
address the permanent housing needs and supportive services needs of
those youth who, unserved, surely will become tomorrow's homeless
adults.

**Barriers**

One of the biggest barriers is, of course, adequate funding. The reality
is that social services in general never have been adequately funded, so
we, as a society, don't have the experience of knowing when funding
isn't the issue. I am not sure how we ever will get legislators to look
beyond the next legislation. The reality is that we do have some idea of
what works, but it takes two elements that do not fit neatly into
election cycles -- time and money.

Another barrier is HUD's narrow definitions of homelessness -- as though
youth in foster care aren't homeless. Just because someone is less than
18 years old doesn't make them belong automatically to an adult
somewhere, and a State entity is not, nor ever has been, a parent.
Someone needs to recognize that these kids are homeless and thus, if we
don't start dealing with that systemically from the moment we identify
that they are not going back to a biological parent and are not going to
be adopted, then we simply are watching the next homeless adult coming
into being.

The recent intense focus on permanent housing, to the exclusion of
supportive services and transitional housing and supports, is another
instance of short-sightedness. Moving people into permanent housing,
without adequately funding the supportive services that will help them
maintain that, actually is wasting resources, because we risk these
people becoming homeless again and again. Also, the narrow focus on
"chronically homeless" limits the work that could be done with clients
in stages prior to becoming chronic that could stop them ever getting to
that in the first place.

**Expectations**

I want to share lots of the experiences of the above. I realize I am
passionate about these young folks, but we do have a number of effective
things going on in our State. The multiagency collaborations are a
relatively new thing, but we seem to have found some ways to overcome
the "turf" battles.

**[Information I Want to Gain]{.underline}**

-   How other States are dealing with permanent housing dollars and the
    "chronically homeless" definition as it relates to serving (or not
    being able to) youth

-   Finding shrinking supportive services' dollars -- how and where

-   Strategies for helping rural youth find permanent housing,
    employment, and services: Kentucky has a few largish metropolitan
    areas, and the rest is very rural -- very challenging

-   Legislative strategies that have worked to get more dollars
    committed to youth needing permanent housing and employment

-   Strategies to engage the business and community leaders better in
    employment for youth