The Runaway and Homeless Youth program is the largest targeted federal program that provides assistance to youth under age 23 who are homeless or have run a way. The program was established by the Runaway Youth Act as Title III of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA; P.L. 93-415 ), and has since been amended nine times. Amendments to the act in 1977 ( P.L. 95-115 ) renamed the act the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, which was expanded to include homeless youth. The act was most recently authorized, from FY2009 through FY2013, by the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 2008 ( P.L. 110-378 ). As currently enacted, the program includes three components: the Basic Center program (BCP), which provides short-term services for youth under age 18; the Transitional Living program (TLP), which provides housing and supports for youth ages 16 through 22; and the Street Outreach program (SOP)—referred to in statute as the Sexual Abuse Prevention program—which serves youth living on the streets who are unstably housed. FY2015 appropriations for the program totaled $114.1 million. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Senate Judiciary Committee have exercised jurisdiction over the RHY program. Legislation has been introduced in the 114 th Congress to reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. This report provides background on the federal response to runaway and homeless youth (RHY), including steps taken by federal agencies to end youth homelessness. Following this discussion is an overview of issues that may be relevant if Congress takes up reauthorization of the act. These issues are grouped as follows: demographic and other data on runaway and homeless youth; effectiveness of programs that serve this population; efforts to connect RHY with their families; access to and funding for the program; supports for vulnerable RHY populations, including youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or questioning (LGBTQ); those who have been victims of sex trafficking or are at risk for sex trafficking; and those who have other risk factors; and interaction between the RHY system and child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The Appendix provides an overview of accountability standards that have been drafted as part of a proposed rule for the Runaway and Homeless Youth program. The report is a companion to CRS Report RL33785, Runaway and Homeless Youth: Demographics and Programs , which provides detailed information about the program. Since at least the Great Depression, the federal government has responded to the needs of youth who were homeless or transient in some capacity. Depression-era programs for vulnerable youth focused on providing employment services, primarily through the Civilian Conservation Corps program; employment centers; and aid in the form of housing and basic provisions. Separately, the Social Security Act of 1935 (P.L. 74-231), as originally enacted, authorized indefinite funding for states to establish and expand services under the Child Welfare Services program "for the protection and care of homeless, dependent, and neglected children, and children in danger of becoming delinquent." This law and others addressed youth running away from home; however, they did not focus on providing services, or did so on a limited basis. The Runaway Youth Act, enacted in 1974, was the first law to authorize dedicated funding to runaway youth. As currently enacted, the three programs under the Runaway and Homeless Youth program—the Basic Center program, Transitional Living program, and Street Outreach program—target distinct but overlapping populations and serve youth in different settings. Each of these programs competitively awards grants to nonprofit organizations. The BCP is available to youth under age 18 and provides short-term shelter and other assistance to both youth and their families. BCP grants are awarded by a formula that distributes funding based on child population in each state and territory. The TLP provides assistance to youth ages 16 through 21 with longer-term residential and other services. The SOP engages runaway and homeless youth who live on or frequent the streets by providing counseling and referrals. See Figure 1 for further detail. The Runaway and Homeless Youth program also supports a toll- free hotline so that runaways can learn about services in their communities; grants for services in rural communities; research and evaluations; and training and technical assistance. The program is administered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act of 2008 ( P.L. 110-378 ) most recently reauthorized the Runway and Homeless Youth program through FY2013 (September 30, 2013). The law amended multiple provisions including those that address funding for the program, requirements for grantees that receive BCP and TLP grants, and accountability of programs and activities authorized under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. Notably, P.L. 110-378 required HHS to promulgate regulations that specify performance standards for public and nonprofit entities that receive BCP, TLP, and SOP grants. (See the Appendix for an overview of standards that have been proposed by HHS.) The law further required HHS to periodically submit to Congress an incidence and prevalence study of runaway and homeless youth, as well as the characteristics of a representative sample of these youth. HHS must consult with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) in developing the study. The law also directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate the process by which organizations apply for BCP, TLP, and SOP, including HHS's response to these applicants. Congress and the Obama Administration have taken steps in recent years to address preventing and ending youth homelessness. Two notable efforts include an HHS report to Congress on ending youth homelessness and a strategy put into place by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to end youth homelessness by 2020. The 2003 reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act ( P.L. 93-415 ) required HHS, in consultation with USICH, to prepare a report to Congress on promising strategies to end youth homelessness. HHS submitted the report to Congress in 2007. It explained that there was little information in the research literature about the effectiveness of interventions for homeless youth, and that the few studies on interventions were not based on rigorous experimental or quasi- experimental research designs. For this reason, the report incorporated information about interventions in related fields for high-risk youth, including family interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect, interventions to reduce juvenile violence, and interventions that support successful transitions from juvenile detention and foster care. Based on these approaches, the report described the ways in which providers and others can intervene in the lives of homeless youth. The report acknowledged that solutions to prevent and ameliorate youth homelessness will not be easily accomplished, and that no single approach exists to solve its problems; however, the report emphasizes that certain policy options may prevent and end youth homelessness. These options include (1) providing targeted education and support services to high-risk families with youth who may become homeless; (2) providing enhanced services to support youth as they transition from the juvenile justice and foster care systems because these youth are particularly vulnerable to becoming homeless; (3) providing a continuum of services, including "gateway" services for youth who are newly homeless to long-term supportive housing programs for youth who may not have the option to live with their families; and (4) helping to coordinate programs and services for youth who are homeless or are at-risk of becoming homeless. The report cites USICH as a coordinating body that can assist in these efforts. USICH and other federal agencies have since taken steps to address youth homelessness overall. In addition to authorizing multiple programs to address homelessness, the 1987 Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act ( P.L. 100-77 ) also established USICH. The HEARTH Act, enacted in 2009 as part of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act ( P.L. 111-22 ), charged USICH with developing a National Strategic Plan to End Homelessness. In June 2010, USICH released this plan, entitled Opening Doors . The plan sets out four goals: (1) ending chronic homelessness by 2015; (2) preventing and ending homelessness among veterans by 2015; (3) preventing and ending homelessness for families, youth, and children by 2020; and (4) setting a path to ending all types of homelessness. In September 2012, USICH amended Opening Doors to specifically address strategies for improving the educational outcomes for children and youth and assisting unaccompanied homeless youth. The strategies for preventing and ending youth homelessness include (1) obtaining more comprehensive information on the scope of youth homelessness; (2) building an evidence base of the most effective interventions for different subsets of youth; and (3) improving access to emergency assistance, housing, and supports for historically underserved groups of youth, including those with histories in the child welfare system, LGBTQ youth, pregnant or parenting youth, and youth with mental health needs. In February 2013, an interagency working group to end youth homelessness developed a guiding document for ending youth homelessness by 2020. Known as the Framework to End Youth Homelessness , the document outlines a data strategy (to collect better data on the number and characteristics of youth experiencing homelessness) and a capacity strategy (to strengthen and coordinate the capacity of federal, state, and local systems to work toward ending youth homelessness). These strategies are outlined and discussed further in the following two sections.