On January 8, 2013, California Senator Carol Liu hosted a press conference to officially release a statewide action plan to address youth homelessness in California. The plan, “More Than A Roof: How California Can End Youth Homelessness,” was developed by the CA Homeless Youth Project with substantial input from a number of youth, youth service providers, youth housing providers, public agencies, philanthropic groups, and elected officials throughout the state. The plan acknowledges that youth homelessness is a multifaceted problem that requires an intersectoral approach to solving, and identifies numerous action steps that service providers, government agencies, and policymakers can take to achieve ten goals in the areas of:
- Prevention & Early Intervention
- Education
- Employment
- Supportive Services
- Housing Strategies
- Health
- Juvenile Justice & Law Enforcement
- Rural Areas
- Governance
- Research & Data
More Than A Roof builds on the federal plan to end homelessness, Opening Doors, and will be presented to the State Assembly Select Committee on Homelessness and other stakeholder groups to begin taking action on the plan. The Select Committee is chaired by Assembly Member Toni Atkins, who was one of three CSH Champion Awardees at the 2012 Supportive Housing Quality Awards.
CSH staff in Los Angeles participated on the advisory board for the plan, and contributed the Housing Strategy Best Practice Spotlight on the Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD). CRCD has received extensive support from CSH in their development partnerships to build and operate permanent supportive housing for TAY, and is a grantee of the Stable Homes, Brighter Futures TAY initiative in Los Angeles.
