The Homeless Children and Youth Act (HCYA) aligns federal definitions of homelessness to ensure that all children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness can access the housing assistance they need.
Senators Katie Britt (R-AL) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) introduced HCYA in the Senate on May 7, 2025 (S.1667). Representatives Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) and Janelle Bynum (D-OR-05) introduced HCYA in the House (H.R.6403) on December 3, 2026.
HYCA is supported by over 50 national organizations and hundreds of state and local organizations. If your organization supports allowing children, youth, and families to access life-saving services to end homelessness, then please join as an endorser today.
What You Need To Know
Children, youth, and families are more likely to experience hidden homelessness, like staying temporarily with others or in motels. Most federal agencies use a unified definition of homelessness that recognizes these situations as dangerous and the youth and families in them as experiencing homelessness. But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) uses a different definition that excludes people experiencing hidden homelessness, preventing them from being counted or getting access to HUD housing programs and services.
This means that an alarming number of the most vulnerable children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness are not able to get help from life-saving services in their own communities.
HCYA will allow these youth and families to access the housing and supportive services they need by aligning federal definitions of homelessness.
Improving Local Responses
HCYA will give communities flexibility in the use of their federal funding by allowing them to target their resources in a way that aligns best with their local plan to prevent and end homelessness. This way, communities will not be constrained by federal mandates that may or may not be in line with what that community wants or needs.
HCYA will also give us a more accurate picture of how many individuals and families are experiencing homelessness by requiring HUD to report counts of hidden homelessness, such as those conducted by Head Start providers or public schools.
Frequently Asked Questions
- States that if someone has been identified as experiencing homelessness by an eligible federal program, then they can qualify to be assessed for homeless assistance through HUD.
- Requires annual data to be collected and published on children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness, including those experiencing hidden homelessness.
- Ensures that communities are able to spend their federal funding in a way that is cost-effective and aligns with their community plan to prevent and end homelessness.
- Conflicting definitions of homelessness disproportionately harm children, youth, and families who lack stable housing and must rely on temporary places to stay. These situations are often unsafe, putting children and youth at high risk for trafficking, violence, developmental delays, and disrupted education.
- Right now, communities must follow a national prioritization model to determine how their local programs should be funded. This prioritization model is a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t always align with local needs, particularly those of rural areas.
- HUD’s annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count guides national homelessness policy and funding. And yet, the PIT count only captures unsheltered individuals and those in emergency shelters on one single night in January. Not only is this a flawed methodology to capture those populations, but it does not capture any individuals who experience hidden homelessness. Since the majority of children, youth, and families experiencing homelessness are hidden, they are invisible in HUD’s estimations of homelessness, and therefore in federal policy design.
No. HCYA does not require communities to serve children, youth, or families at the expense of others. It simply allows eligible youth and families to qualify for assessment for HUD’s homeless assistance programs. Communities could allocate more of their federal funding to children, youth, and families, if doing so is cost-effective and in line with their local plans to prevent and end homelessness—HCYA does not require them to reallocate their funding if this is not the case.
No. HCYA allows communities to use existing federal dollars more effectively. It also reduces inefficiencies by simplifying and streamlining the eligibility process.
Additional Resources
