Editor’s note: Cara Baldari is the Vice President of Family Economics, Housing, and Homelessness at First Focus on Children. She has been with First Focus since 2011 and in this role, she leads the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group, of which First Focus is a founding member. This blog is cross-posted with permission from Cara and First Focus on Children.

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week begins Monday, Nov. 17, with the number of homeless children and youth at more than 1 million and growing. 

Child and youth homelessness continues to rise in the United States, with nearly 1.4 million students from preschool through 12th grade identified as homeless in the 2022-2023 school year, a 14% increase from the previous school year. These numbers do not capture the full extent of the crisis because under-identification of homeless students remains a problem in schools and many young children experiencing homelessness are not old enough to attend school or are not enrolled in public preschool programs. In addition, millions of young adults ages 18-25 also experience homelessness on their own each year. 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also collects data on child and youth homelessness, but unfortunately HUD data only provides a limited picture of the problem due to the narrow definition of homelessness used by the department. Point-in-time counts, a main source of homelessness data for HUD, undercount homeless children and youth since most of them do not experience the visible homelessness that these counts capture. 

Millions more children live in households at-risk of homelessness, partially as a result of rent prices that have increased nearly 20% nationally since 2019. Babies and toddlers are the age group most likely to experience an eviction in our society, including a quarter of Black children under the age of 5. A third of our nation’s children live in a household that struggles to afford housing each month.

How to Address Increasing Rates of Child, Youth, and Family Homelessness

Given that children and youth face the greatest risk of homelessness in our society, they should be prioritized for assistance. Yet the opposite is true. Twenty years ago, households with children accounted for more than 60% of recipients of federal rental assistance. By 2022, these households made up just 38% of recipients. The majority of homeless children and youth are also continually overlooked for homeless assistance administered by HUD. 

We urge Congress to do right by children and youth who are experiencing homelessness or on the brink of homelessness by taking the following actions:

• Pass the bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act (H.R. 5221)

Homeless children, youth, and families must stay where they can due to a lack of alternatives and/or fear of authorities and are often forced to bounce around between temporary situations. Many communities do not have family or youth shelters, and even when they do, shelters are often full. Shelter policies may also prevent families from staying together or may restrict the length of stay. As a result, homeless children and youth often end up staying in motel rooms or temporarily doubling up with others. These situations result in overcrowding and create frequent upheaval, volatility, and a loss of stability for children, creating disruption to their education, health care, and other needs. 

Children and youth experiencing homelessness in these less visible situations are not eligible to receive or even be assessed for homeless assistance administered by HUD, despite extensive evidence that homelessness has grave consequences for children’s outcomes regardless of where they find a place to sleep on a given night. 

HUD’s narrow definition does not align with the definition of homelessness used by other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act (H.R. 5221) reintroduced by Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Bill Posey (R-FL), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), and Don Bacon (D-NE) in the 118th Congress, would streamline the definition of homelessness and delivery of federal assistance as well as improve federal data collection.

• Pass the bipartisan Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act (S. 1257/H.R. 3776)

The bipartisan and bicameral Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act (S. 1257/H.R. 3776), reintroduced in the 118th Congress by Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), would help make children a priority for housing assistance by establishing 250,000 new housing vouchers specifically for families with children. These vouchers would be paired with housing counseling services aimed at helping households with children move to higher opportunity neighborhoods. 

• Prioritize the Needs of Homeless Children and Youth in Tax Reform 

Tax credits such as the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are critical to breaking the cycle of homelessness, helping households afford rent, utilities, food, diapers, educational materials, and all of the resources needed to nourish kids’ developing brains and bodies. These credits have a two-generation effect in promoting economic mobility and housing stability: in addition to supporting children and youth, this money helps parents and caregivers afford child care, transportation, higher education classes, or job training programs that lead to steady employment and higher-paying jobs.

We urge Congress to use the upcoming tax reform process to make improvements to the CTC and EITC that provide meaningful and reliable support to families and young people as they work toward economic mobility. 

In addition, we ask Congress to establish a national renter tax credit. The federal government distributed $80 billion in housing tax benefits in 2020, 80% of which went to homeowners. The tax code must similarly accommodate renters. Creating a properly designed and implemented national renter tax credit would help meet renters’ needs by delivering resources directly to families and reaching many more families than are currently served by rental assistance.

First Focus Campaign for Children recently sent a joint letter with many of our partner organizations to the House Ways & Means Committee detailing our list of priorities in tax reform for young people experiencing homelessness or at high risk of homelessness. 

Every child deserves a safe and stable place to call home. This Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, we ask Congress to take action to ensure housing stability for all children.