Dems, GOP form rare alliance on youth homelessness bill as crisis impacts nation

More than 4 cardinal younker and young-adult families look homelessness, statistic show, prompting uncommon bipartisan enactment successful Congress to grow national enactment and code the increasing crisis.

Sens. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., volition present the Homeless Children & Youth Act connected Wednesday, which is the former’s archetypal portion of large bipartisan authorities successful her abbreviated tenure since being sworn-in successful January.

Officials indispensable guarantee that children experiencing homelessness tin get the enactment they request to exit that concern for good, Alsobrooks told Fox News Digital.

"This authorities volition statesman to adjacent the obstruction to services for galore young families and is simply a existent enactment to 1 of my guiding principles: 'love your neighbour arsenic yourself.' No idiosyncratic deserves to experience homelessness, and HCYA is an important measurement successful ending homelessness successful our communities and breaking generational cycles," she said.

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An Oakland, California, stateless encampment. (Getty Images)

Britt added, "No kid should beryllium prevented from receiving the captious assistance they need," and that the measure volition "streamline" the explanation of homelessness crossed each national agencies.

The measure seeks to amended define homelessness successful a national discourse successful bid to supply fuller resources. In that existent code, successful immoderate areas of government, it excludes counting youths who enactment with radical different than their parents oregon unrecorded successful motel rooms arsenic experiencing homelessness, portion different national programs see them so.

It would besides "improve visibility and understanding" of the issue, arsenic proponents said younker are often overlooked arsenic a bloc of radical that tin look homelessness.

By standardizing the explanation of younker homelessness, and besides opening up much national resources to affected people, the measure volition assistance communities interruption the cycle, proponents said.

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Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. (WaPo via Getty)

Youth homelessness has been an contented successful the Washington, D.C., area, wherever Alsobrooks led a collar region for respective years anterior to defeating erstwhile Gov. Larry Hogan for her existent seat.

During her clip arsenic Prince George's County executive, the region established the Youth Action Board, which aims to straight code the situation from a young person’s perspective.

In 2024, Alsobrooks credited the Department of Housing and Urban Development for an further $2 cardinal assistance to assistance organizations successful Prince George's that combat youth homelessness.

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Sen. Katie Britt speaks astatine a podium. (Getty Images)

In adjacent Frederick County, northbound of the nation’s capital, 1 stateless assistance radical praised the legislation.

"Programs similar ours could service these younker instantly upon experiencing homelessness," Melissa Muntz of Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership of Frederick told Fox News Digital.

"Shortening a young person's play of homelessness by providing contiguous enactment increases the likelihood that the younker volition stay connected to school," Muntz said.

"We cognize that younker who bash not postgraduate from precocious schoolhouse are importantly much apt to acquisition homelessness arsenic adults, making this an aboriginal involution to forestall big homelessness."

At slightest 15 different homelessness advocacy groups person besides endorsed the act, according to its sponsors.