More than 4 million youth and young-adult families face homelessness, statistics show, prompting rare bipartisan action in Congress to expand federal support and address the growing crisis.
Sens. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., will introduce the Homeless Children & Youth Act on Wednesday, which is the former’s first piece of major bipartisan legislation in her short tenure since being sworn-in in January.
Officials must ensure that children experiencing homelessness can get the support they need to exit that situation for good, Alsobrooks told Fox News Digital.
“This legislation will begin to close the barrier to services for many young families and is a true action to one of my guiding principles: ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ No person deserves to experience homelessness, and HCYA is an important step in ending homelessness in our communities and breaking generational cycles,” she said.
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Britt added, “No child should be prevented from receiving the critical assistance they need,” and that the bill will “streamline” the definition of homelessness across all federal agencies.
The bill seeks to better define homelessness in a federal context in order to provide fuller resources. In that current code, in some areas of government, it excludes counting youths who stay with people other than their parents or live in motel rooms as experiencing homelessness, while other federal programs consider them so.
It would also “improve visibility and understanding” of the issue, as proponents said youth are often overlooked as a bloc of people that can face homelessness.
By standardizing the definition of youth homelessness, and also opening up more federal resources to affected people, the bill will help communities break the cycle, proponents said.
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Youth homelessness has been an issue in the Washington, D.C., area, where Alsobrooks led a collar county for several years prior to defeating former Gov. Larry Hogan for her current seat.
During her time as Prince George’s County executive, the county established the Youth Action Board, which aims to directly address the crisis from a young person’s perspective.
In 2024, Alsobrooks credited the Department of Housing and Urban Development for an additional $2 million grant to assist organizations in Prince George’s that combat youth homelessness.
In nearby Frederick County, north of the nation’s capital, one homeless assistance group praised the legislation.
“Programs like ours could serve these youth immediately upon experiencing homelessness,” Melissa Muntz of Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership of Frederick told Fox News Digital.
“Shortening a young person’s period of homelessness by providing immediate support increases the likelihood that the youth will remain connected to school,” Muntz said.
“We know that youth who do not graduate from high school are significantly more likely to experience homelessness as adults, making this an early intervention to prevent adult homelessness.”
At least 15 other homelessness advocacy groups have also endorsed the act, according to its sponsors.
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