Runaway and Homeless Youth Act

The Family and Youth Services Bureau, part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, administers the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs. The three programs include:

• The Basic Center Program, which provides financial assistance to meet the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families, including emergency shelter, reunification when possible, food, clothing, counseling, and facilitating access to health care;
• The Transitional Living Program, which supports projects that provide long-term residential services to homeless youth ages 16 to 21 for up to 18 months; and
• The Street Outreach Program, which provides funds to private and nonprofit agencies performing outreach efforts designed to move youth off the streets.

In October 2008, President Bush signed the Runaway and Homeless Youth Protection Act into law. The legislation made the following improvements to existing law:

• Increased authorization levels to fund Basic Center Programs at $150 million and Street Outreach Programs at $30 million;
• Increases in the amounts given to states with small populations (increased from $50,000 to $100,000);
• Mandate to the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct an incidence study to get better data on the number of homeless youth nationally;
• Mandate to the Government Accounting Office to do a review of the Administration’s application and peer-review process;
• Increase in length of stay in shelter from 14 to 21 days and in the Transitional Housing Program from 18 months to 21 months;
• Mandate to HHS to complete "performance standards" for all RHY programs to create a floor of expectations and guidelines to programs;
• Requirement that HHS ensure that funded programs are implemented from a "positive youth development" perspective.

Latest News:
President Obama's FY 2010 budget proposal included a request for $115 million for Runaway and Homeless Youth Act programs, level funding from the FY 2009 level. Over the coming months, Congress will begin crafting FY 2010 appropriations bills.