Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program

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Erie and Niagara County – YHDP Resources for Clients and Providers: 

Quick Resource Sheet – YHDP – Erie Niagara – for YYAs and Providers 

Family Engagement Team Written Standards

TH-RRH Written Standards

Drop In Center Written Standards

Prevention Diversion Screening Tool – Required for Provider Use

Lifeworks Goal Outcomes YHDP – Required for FET and TH-RRH

BestSelf FET Referral Form – For providers or YYAs

Referral Form for 3D pdf – For providers or YYAs

CoC Eligible Costs – HUD Policy 

YHDP Application Selection Results

Erie and Niagara Counties received $3.59 million dollars towards the creation of innovative new programs to end youth homelessness.

The Erie/Niagara YHDP Coordinated Community Plan has prioritized three type of projects: Joint Transitional Rapid Rehousing, Family Engagement Team, Overnight Drop In Center.

Click here to access the results – funding amounts 

Coordinated Community Plan

Our community undertook an eight month long youth-centric strategic planning process to develop this Coordinated Community Plan. Through deliberate discussions with our Youth Action Board, Youth Task Force, Community Stakeholders, and YHDP Technical Assistance providers, we developed the needs assessment, guiding principles, visions, goals, and prioritized projects.

Coordinated Community Plan can be viewed and downloaded here.

Prior to designing new and innovative projects, a Coordinated Community Plan is required to be developed and then reviewed by HUD.

Click here to check out the Coordinated Community Plans from Round 1 and 2

Technical Assistance and Youth Task Force YHDP planning meetings:

10/2/2019 (with TA providers) – Kickoff meeting Power Point

10/17/19 – Youth Task Force Meeting Power Point

• Included both Erie and Niagara County Youth Task Forces
• Governance structure decided
• Decision making strategy decided

1/23/2020 – 1.23.20 YHDP Meeting PowerPoint

• The YTF and YAB determined three projects of priority:
  • Joint Transitional and Rapid Rehousing (TH-RRH)
  • Crisis outreach / mobile outreach
  • Coordinated Entry (24 / hr youth focused Drop in center)

Summer 2020: The Youth Task Force and YHDP Lead Team will meet to develop standardized Coordinated Entry procedures and Continuous Quality Improvement measures for the newly funded YHDP projects.

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness have have five criteria for ending youth homelessness:

1. The community identifies all unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.
2. The community uses prevention and diversion strategies whenever possible, and otherwise provides immediate access to low-barrier crisis housing and services to any youth who needs and wants it.
3. The community uses coordinated entry processes to effectively link all youth experiencing homelessness to housing and services solutions that are tailored to their needs.
4. The community acts with urgency to swiftly assist youth to move in to permanent or non-time-limited housing options with appropriate services and supports.
5. The community has resources, plans, and system capacity in place to continue to prevent and quickly end
future experiences of homelessness among youth.

Other Resources for Policy Making 
Criteria and Benchmarks for Ending Youth Homelessness
Preventing and Ending Youth Homelessness: A Coordinated Community Response
Ending Youth Homelessness: A Guidebook Series

Elements of Effective Youth Programs

Each program that applies for YHDP funding must incorporate a Positive Youth Development and Trauma-Informed Framework. Here are some resources to learn how to make your programs more youth centered:

Trauma Informed Care – SAMHSA

What is Trauma-Informed Care? UB School of Social Work 

About Positive Youth Development – HHS 

Integrating Positive Youth Development 

Positive Youth Development Measurement Toolkit