The goal of this program is to [Make significant and verifiable progress toward] ending homelessness among unaccompanied youth in the Northwest Continuum of Care (NWCoC) region of Minnesota, as confirmed by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) under its criteria and benchmarks for ending youth homelessness.

The simple definition of “Ending homelessness” means that systems have been developed and put in place to ensure that any youth (aged 16 to 24) experiencing homelessness is given immediate access to low-barrier crisis housing. Youth homelessness experiences are rare, brief, and non-recurring.

Application Materials

Upcoming grant round information coming soon!

Community Wide Program Goal

End homelessness among unaccompanied youth in the Northwest Continuum of Care (NWCoC) region of Minnesota, as confirmed by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) under its criteria and benchmarks for ending youth homelessness.

Community Wide Grant Objectives

Objective 1 – The NWCoC will establish a systematic approach to reliably identify all unaccompanied youth experiencing housing crises or homelessness.

• Confident estimate of youth experiencing homelessness on a “By Name List”
• Document performance measures
• Implement innovative measure for outreach such as the development of a web app

Objective 2 – The NWCoC will establish adequate capacity to prevent youth homelessness whenever possible and otherwise offer immediate crisis housing to any youth in need.

• Develop standard operating procedures for connecting youth with housing
• Increase capacity for emergency shelter, drop-in center, or implement innovative solutions such as host-homes

Objective 3 – The NWCoC will establish capacity to ensure that all youth experiencing homelessness are linked to appropriate housing and support services needed to quickly resolve homelessness, leveraging the region’s coordinated entry processes.

• Establish case conferencing procedures
• Increase capacity potentially for case management, youth support services, landlord engagement, and rental assistance

Objective 4 – The NWCoC will have the resources, plans, and system capacity in place to prevent and quickly end future experiences of homelessness among youth.

• Involve members of a Youth Action Board throughout the process including design, implementation, and reflection
• Develop a sustainability plan for implemented solutions
• Plan for securing resources for solutions unable to be implemented with this funding