Youth Count! Developing Strategies for Counting Unaccompanied Youth

USICH, HUD, HHS, and ED, launched Youth Count! to develop promising strategies for counting unaccompanied homeless youth, up to 24-years-old, through innovative implementations of HUD’s 2013 Point-in-Time (PIT) count.

The Youth Count! Initiative was developed per a recommendation from the framework for ending youth homelessness . Because the PIT counts are conducted in every community around the country, this presented an opportunity to test strategies to capture information on the numbers and characteristics of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.

The goal of this initiative was to learn promising strategies for conducting credible and collaborative PIT counts of unaccompanied youth that engage CoCs, Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) providers, Local Education Agency (LEA) homeless liaisons, and other local stakeholders.

The following nine diverse communities participated:

Boston, MA                                       New York City, NY
Cleveland, OH                                   King County, WA
Hennepin County, MN                      Washington State
Houston, TX                                      Winston-Salem, NC
Los Angeles, CA

Youth Count! Reports

YouthCount! Process Study

Counting Homeless Youth: Promising Practices for the YouthCount! Initiative