Inés moved into a hotel when her dorm closed for winter break. Alicia stayed in an abusive relationship because she couldn’t afford rent on her own. Katrina pitched a tent by the side of the highway after losing her parents and falling through the cracks of the child welfare system.
Young people without stable housing often face the impossible. I know this because I’ve spent nearly two decades working to end youth homelessness in California — and because I’ve lived it myself.
California has made unprecedented gains in recent years: between 2020 and 2025, as youth homelessness increased nationwide, it declined by 34% in our state. And for the first time in nearly a decade, overall homelessness in California fell, dropping by 3% between 2024 and 2025.
But this past year, the program behind this progress, the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) program, was left out of the state budget for the first time since the program’s creation in 2019. And its fate in next year’s budget is currently being negotiated. Without substantial investment, California stands at dire risk of a backslide in the fight against youth homelessness.
Why has HHAP worked so well when it comes to youth in particular? It’s simple: the program requires local governments to invest in this particular subset of our population. HHAP directs funds to California’s 58 counties, its most populated cities, and its 44 regional homeless Continuums of Care, and requires them to dedicate at least 10% of those dollars to addressing youth homelessness specifically.
After their mother passed away, Inés and her younger sister bounced around to live with extended family through middle and high school and were eventually officially designated unaccompanied homeless youth by the state. “We didn’t have a legal guardian and we were not in foster care, so no one was checking in on us. It was like going bowling without bumpers when most people around us had them,” she said.
The stakes are high: youth homelessness is one of the strongest predictors of chronic adult homelessness, and HHAP remains California’s only statewide funding source dedicated to preventing and ending youth homelessness.
On Monday, June 15, the State Legislature passed their budget bill, AB 109, which — if signed by the governor — will invest $900 million in HHAP in 2026-27, nearly matching the $1 billion investments made between 2021-22 and 2024-25. This would provide at least $80 million to support services and housing for young people ages 12 to 24, preserving the infrastructure that helped drive the state’s 34% reduction in youth homelessness — at least for another few years.
Governor Newsom’s proposal, on the other hand, would instead provide $500 million for HHAP and require local governments to contribute matching funds, among other changes. The decision before state leaders will determine whether California maintains the momentum it has built, or risks losing hard-won progress in preventing and ending youth homelessness during the governor’s final term.
California has come a long way since I turned 18, graduated high school, and aged out of foster care in the early 2000s. Back then, there were no housing resources available to young people like me, so I couch-surfed all summer until my student housing became available in the fall. Then began a hellacious four-year slog — a period where I was required to maintain a full academic courseload, while also working, in order to draw down enough financial aid to afford my basic needs. I nearly collapsed under the stress and pressure more times than I can count.
Since then, thanks to skillful advocacy and groundbreaking legislation, California has extended foster care to age 21, added vital transitional housing and housing vouchers, and continues to finetune its financial aid policies. Yet, there are still gaps, uneven knowledge of resources by jurisdiction, and other circumstances in which young people face housing instability. LGBTQ+ youth, for example, comprise up to 40% of homeless youth in some urban counties despite representing a much smaller slice of the state’s overall youth population, often the result of familial rejection.
As of this past summer, HHAP-funded prevention programs, housing, rental assistance, and support services have reached more than 50,000 youth. A series of two new reports commissioned by the state underscore the program’s effectiveness. And experts say the promising outcomes point to the possibility of “functional zero,” a time when California has fewer youth experiencing homelessness than we have capacity to house in a single month, a breakthrough achieved in smaller communities like Abilene, Texas, and in Philadelphia with its homeless veteran population.
The state budget deficit is real, and it is tempting to rest on our progress or piecemeal together less expensive solutions on a county-by-county basis. But research shows that lower spending today leads to greater costs down the line — on housing, yes, but also on emergency response, hospital stays, and justice system intervention.
Youth are also a particularly mobile subset of our population. After the death of her parents and a whirlwind of foster care placements, Katrina, for instance, experienced homelessness in Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. But we now have a coordinated system to leverage, and a statewide answer is simply the most effective way.
These investments pay back dividends. Inés graduated with honors from UC Berkeley this May and has been accepted to two different master’s programs in public policy. Alicia provides onsite support for youth in transitional housing and is pursuing a master’s in public administration. Katrina is a business and nursing student at San Diego Mesa College and works at a center for children with autism.
No young person should have to wait for a crisis to ask for help or fear for their safety at night. No young person should ever have to sleep in a tent by the side of the road in the rain.
Together, we can ensure no one else does.
Editor’s note: Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of the youth mentioned.
