$72 million. That is how much HUD is making available through the FY 2024-2025 Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program — funding up to 25 communities nationwide for up to three years of rental assistance per participant, targeting unaccompanied youth aged 18 to 24.
Syracuse has not yet been awarded YHDP funding in any previous round. But the current funding opportunity is open, and locally, program administrators say it is coming soon. For a city where homelessness has increased over 60 percent since 2019 and family homelessness has outpaced individual homelessness for the first time in a decade, a program targeting young adults aging out of systems with nowhere to go fills an obvious hole.
The Program
YHDP provides rental assistance for up to three years per participant. Eligible project types include transitional housing, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, joint transitional/rapid rehousing models, supportive services only, and homelessness prevention.
The target population: unaccompanied youth ages 18 through 24, and young parents under 25 with children. Previous award amounts have ranged from roughly $1 million to $15 million per community. New York City received $15 million in September 2021 — the largest single YHDP award in the program’s history at that time.
The program is well-suited for studios and one-bedroom units. Young adults aging out of foster care, leaving domestic violence situations, or exiting the juvenile justice system represent the core population. Many have never held a lease.
How Syracuse Could Get It
The FY 2024-2025 funding round represents a structural change. YHDP is now integrated into the broader Continuum of Care competition rather than operating as a standalone application. Only the CoC’s designated Collaborative Applicant can apply.
For the NY-505 Continuum of Care — covering Onondaga, Oswego, and Cayuga counties — that entity is the Housing and Homelessness Coalition of Central New York. Director: Megan Stuart. Website: hhccny.org. Phone: (315) 428-2224.
Communities that apply must establish a Youth Action Board — a youth-led advisory body made up of individuals with lived experience of homelessness. The Youth Action Board helps guide the Coordinated Community Plan, which outlines how the community will use YHDP funds to address youth homelessness.
HUD released the Notice of Funding Opportunity on January 13, 2025.
What It Means for Landlords
If YHDP funding comes to Syracuse, it will create a new pool of subsidized tenants in the 18-to-24 age range looking primarily for studios and one-bedrooms. Rental assistance would be guaranteed for up to three years per participant, with case management and supportive services attached — similar to the structure of HUD-VASH or Permanent Supportive Housing, but with a defined end date.
The administering organization locally would handle landlord relationships, lease-up coordination, and subsidy payments. Based on the current CoC structure, that would likely be coordinated through the Housing and Homelessness Coalition of CNY or one of their member agencies.
No units in Onondaga County are currently receiving YHDP-funded tenants. That will change if the NY-505 application is successful in the current round.
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