This year we celebrate the five-year anniversary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s award-winning Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) program. FYI was established in 2019 as a result of the advocacy of current and former foster youth who wanted a dedicated resource for young people transitioning out of foster care so that they would never have to experience homelessness or housing instability. Under the guidance of these youth advocates, the FYI program was designed to allow HUD to make FYI vouchers universally available and synchronized with a young person’s transition out of foster care.
Using FYI Vouchers
FYI is designed so that any Public Housing Authority (PHA) that has a Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program can establish an FYI program by entering into a partnership agreement with a Public Child Welfare Agency (PCWA). Once this partnership agreement is in place, a PHA can receive FYI vouchers from HUD on-demand, as eligible young people are referred to the PHA by the PCWA.
Since the launch of FYI, the program has experienced tremendous growth and is currently available in about 300 communities with nearly 5,000 vouchers in-use or available for use by young people. With funding available for many more communities to participate in the program, HUD encourages PHAs, PCWAs, Continuums of Care, youth-serving organizations, and young persons with lived expertise to come together to look at the housing needs of transition-aged youth in their community to determine if an FYI program is the right solution to meet those needs.
HUD’s FYI webpage is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know to start an FYI program. The webpage includes the funding notices for the program, a sample partnership agreement, a webinar series, and a landlord video, among other resources. Communities can also contact FYI@hud.gov or their local HUD public housing field office with any questions.
Ensuring Housing Stability for Youth
While the FYI voucher is an important resource, we know that young people often need more than just rental assistance. As the blog post from Rebecca Jones Gaston, Commissioner for HHS’s Administration for Children, Youth, and Families noted, a consortium of programs and sectors will need to work together to ensure youth have the support and resources they need to fully utilize an FYI voucher. A community’s FYI program is more likely to be successful if the appropriate partnerships and supportive services are in place to provide holistic support to young people throughout the housing search process as well as after move-in. That is why HUD and partners at the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Services (HHS) conducted two in-person regional convenings to support robust community partnerships this spring. HUD remains committed to providing the resources and policies necessary to help PHAs successfully implement this program and serve all eligible young people.
We encourage you to start the conversation on FYI in your community. Or, if your community already participates in the FYI program, we encourage you to reach out to your local PHA and/or PCWA to see how you can support the program (you can find a list of communities already participating in FYI on HUD’s FYI webpage). Together, we can help ensure that this valuable resource reaches as many young people as possible so that the experience of transitioning from foster care can be a joyous occasion filled with hope for a bright future.