AWHA Statement on the Budget of the US Government for Fiscal Year 2024
On March 9, the Office of Management and Budget released the federal Budget of the US Government for Fiscal Year 2024. This document reflects how Congress has agreed to spend all federal funds for the 2024 fiscal year which runs from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. A Way Home America has reviewed its proposed allocations and interpreted them in accordance with our 118th Congressional Policy Agenda. While the Budget includes necessary provisions that particularly impact youth and young adults experiencing homelessness, they are not by any means sufficient. A Way Home America would like to see youth and young adult homelessness become a much higher national priority as youth housing injustice grows more urgent and severe.
Our first recommendation is a nationally funded low/no barrier cash transfer program. The Federal Budget provides an increase of $116 Million to total $3.6 Billion for advancing efforts to end homelessness. This increase will apply towards “Homeless Assistance Grants to meet renewal needs and expand assistance to approximately 25,000 additional households, including survivors of domestic violence and homeless youth. These targeted resources would support the Administration’s recently released Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness.” The pillar of the Federal Strategic Plan dedicated to prevention outlines in strategy 6 expresses federal intention to reduce housing instability among youth and young adults, also stating that the Federal Strategic Plan will, “support the creation of pilot programs that are focused on the use of housing problem-solving and the provision of direct cash assistance as a means of preventing youth and young adult homelessness.” This suggests that a portion of this budget increase for advancing homelessness efforts should be allocated to direct cash assistance. We realize that the amount designated for these efforts cannot come close to meeting the need for a nationally-funded low/no barrier program.
This limitation undermines the need to, as stated in our Policy Agenda, “signal a dramatic shift in our preconceptions regarding who is deserving of resources…” Stringent restrictions in funding are likely to result in barriers that prevent young people in critical need from accessing what little direct cash assistance funds are available, further upholding narratives that communities with the most access to federal funds are the most deserving of assistance - an ethos which contributes to significant harm to vulnerable individuals as well as our movement for housing justice overall.
Our second recommendation is long-term and emergency housing vouchers for youth and young adults. The Budget has designated, “an increase of $2.4 billion (including emergency funding) over the 2023 enacted level, to maintain services for all currently assisted families and to expand assistance to an additional 50,000 households, particularly those who are experiencing homelessness or fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence or other forms of gender-based violence.” Youth and young adults are among these households experiencing homelessness and may also be fleeing domestic violence. We are hopeful that they will be included in this provision. This increase also includes, “mandatory funding to support two populations that are particularly vulnerable to homelessness—youth aging out of foster care and extremely low-income (ELI) veterans. The Budget provides $9 billion to establish a housing voucher program for all 20,000 youth aging out of foster care annually.” While we celebrate the provision of mandatory funds to provide housing vouchers for youth aging out of foster care, we are concerned for all of the young people who can potentially be, and historically have been, excluded from critical assistance like housing vouchers.
As we maintain in our Policy Agenda, “Access to vouchers for youth and young adults is restricted due to a variety of systemic obstacles such as: inadequate income, credit status, system-involvement, illness, disability, trauma, harmful experiences, parent/guardian status, or citizenship status. These barriers repeatedly force young people into congregate shelters, further perpetuating cycles of poverty and instability. As we envision a future state, we must disrupt the longstanding reliance on congregate shelters as our collective centerpiece solution and lower discriminatory requirements for vouchers to allow youth and young adults same-day access to crisis housing of their choice that offers privacy, dignity, and safety, ultimately leading to long-term housing of their choice within thirty days.” We are disappointed that the budget increase as outlined is not in service with this vision.
Our third recommendation is investment in BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities by way of community-based organizations serving and led by young people within those respective populations. We are pleased that the budget includes increases that speak to potential investments in these marginalized communities.
A “$2.2 billion increase for Title I. This funding would continue historic progress over the past two years as the Congress has provided a total increase of $1.9 billion for Title I since 2021. Title I delivers critical funding to 90 percent of school districts across the Nation, helping them to provide students in low-income communities the academic opportunities and support they need to succeed.”
“$100 million for a grant program to support voluntary efforts by communities interested in developing and implementing strategies to promote racial and socioeconomic diversity in their schools.”
“$50 million in competitive grants for States and localities to advance reforms that would reduce the overrepresentation of children and families of color in the child welfare system, address the disparate experiences and outcomes of these families, and provide more families with the support they need to remain safely together.”
These measures all provide potential opportunities for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities to receive critical funding to pursue effective solutions according to their own lived expertise. We assert in our Policy Agenda that, “In our envisioned future state, all Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ youth will have access to services and support from community-based organizations who are majority-led by providers that represent those they serve across multiple demographics, while simultaneously removing structural barriers to smaller organizations’ ability to access federal funding.” While outlining precisely to whom and how these funds are allocated is beyond the scope of a Federal Budget, the document accomplishes its role in establishing fiscal opportunity. We hope to see greater funding and expansions to the breadth of future increases that will allow even more community-based organizations to easily access federal funding.
