News

Nov 25, 2025

During National Youth Homelessness Awareness Month, Governor Newsom provides local funding to help strengthen housing access for foster youth

What you need to know:  Following his challenge to the Trump administration's unlawful cuts to homelessness funding, Governor Newsom is advancing California's comprehensive strategy to support local communities and help address homelessness, and today is announcing $56 million in grants to help counties provide services for young adults at risk of homelessness.

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced $56 million in grant awards to 54 counties to help ensure that vulnerable young adults leaving foster care can maintain access to safe and secure housing – continuing California's progress in reducing homelessness and providing strong support for local communities. This builds on California's efforts to help local communities reduce the number of young adults experiencing homelessness, which has dropped by almost 25% statewide since 2020.

Young adults deserve to feel supported and guided, especially during their transition into adulthood. This funding will continue to bridge accessible housing resources in our communities and will ensure that our youth don't have to decide between their education, paying rent, or putting food on the table – we will not leave our youth behind.

Governor Gavin Newsom

As the Trump administration pulls housing and services out from under American families, California is standing up for Californians by filing a suit challenging the HUD's cuts to vital funding. Today, the state also announced its continued work to fill the gap and provide crucial resources for at-risk youth exiting the foster care and probation systems to prevent them from experiencing homelessness. The funds managed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) will provide direct aid to counties and provide local resources and services for youth transitioning out of foster care or probation systems in California.

"These state grants help give vulnerable young adults — many without family support systems — access to stability and opportunity that can change the trajectory of their lives," said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Tomiquia Moss. "In partnership with counties, we are ensuring youth leaving foster care or the probation system have the resources to achieve and retain stable housing."

Keeping vulnerable youth off the streets

Since 2020, California has funded three Transitional Age Youth (TAY) programs through HCD to help counties provide housing and supportive services to keep vulnerable youth off the streets and on a path to success.

In 2024, through programs such as this and other state strategies, California's young adults (ages 18-24) experiencing homelessness went down for those experiencing homelessness who received services were less likely than the overall population to return to homelessness, indicating more young people who exit the foster care and probation systems are maintaining housing stability. Since 2020, California's young adult homeless population dropped by nearly 25%, from 11,403 to 8,569 in 2024.

"Through HCD's Transitional Age Youth programs, the Newsom Administration provides counties yet another resource to support local solutions to homelessness," said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. "With the critical services TAY funds, Californians who have already faced many challenges in their young lives can find stability that puts them on a path to a brighter future."

The $56 million in HCD's TAY awards announced today were allocated to counties based on need as demonstrated by each county's percentage of the statewide total of young adults who are currently or formerly in the foster care or probation systems. The awards include:

• Transitional Housing Program (THP), which helps county child welfare agencies identify and assist with housing resources and improve service coordination.
• Housing Navigation and Maintenance Program (HNMP), which provides counties funding to train child welfare agency social workers and probation officers working with non-minor dependents as housing navigators with a broad understanding of available housing resources.
• Transitional Housing Plus Housing Supplement Program (THP-SUP), which allocates grants to help young adults who have exited foster care on or after their 18th birthday in counties with the state's highest market-rate apartment rental costs.

Since the program's inception under Governor Gavin Newsom, HCD's TAY programs have provided services and stable housing to 15,972 young adults. The youth served indicated they were experiencing homelessness at program entry, or currently in foster care or the state's probation system, or that they identify as LGBTQIA+. Youth benefiting from these funds have received housing support, wrap-around case management, financial literacy assistance, education and employment program support, and financial assistance.

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An approach that works

From the very first moments of the Newsom administration, the national crisis of housing and homelessness – which were decades in the making – has been addressed with ingenuity, seriousness, and expertise. No other state has devoted as much time and attention to these twin problems – and California is a leader in producing positive results. Governor Newsom is creating a structural and foundational model for America:

✅ Addressing mental health and its impact on homelessness — Ending a long-standing 7,000 behavioral health bed shortfall in California by rapidly expanding community treatment centers and permanent supportive housing units. In 2024, voters approved Governor Newsom's Proposition 1 which is transforming California's mental health systems with a $6.4 billion Behavioral Health Bond for treatment settings and housing with services for veterans and people experiencing homelessness, and reforming the Behavioral Health Services Act to focus on people with the most serious illnesses, provide care to people with substance disorders, and support their housing needs.

✅ Creating new pathways for those who need the most help — Updating conservatorship laws for the first time in 50 years to include people who are unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care, in addition to food, clothing, or shelter, due to either severe substance use disorder or serious mental health illness. Creating a new CARE court system that creates court-ordered plans for up to 24 months for people struggling with untreated mental illness, and often substance use challenges.

✅ Streamlining and prioritizing building of new housing — Governor Newsom made creating more housing a state priority for the first time in history. He has signed into law groundbreaking reforms to break down systemic barriers that have stood in the way of building the housing Californians need, including broad CEQA reforms.

✅ Creating shelter and support — Providing funding and programs for local governments, coupled with strong accountability measures to ensure that each local government is doing its share to build housing, and create shelter and support, so that people living in encampments have a safe place to go.

✅ Removing dangerous encampments — Governor Newsom has set a strong expectation for all local governments to address encampments in their communities and help connect people with support. In 2024, Governor Newsom filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court defending communities' authority to clear encampments. After the Supreme Court affirmed local authority, Governor Newsom issued an executive order directing state entities and urging local governments to clear encampments and connect people with support, using a state-tested model that helps ensure encampments are addressed humanely and people are given adequate notice and support.

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Reversing a decades-in-the-making crisis

The Newsom administration is making significant progress in reversing decades of inaction on homelessness. Between 2014 and 2019—before Governor Newsom took office—unsheltered homelessness in California rose by approximately 37,000 people. Since then, under this Administration, California has significantly slowed that growth, even as many other states have seen worsening trends.

In 2024, while homelessness increased nationally by over 18%, California limited its overall increase to just 3% — a lower rate than in 40 other states. The state also held the growth of unsheltered homelessness to just 0.45%, compared to a national increase of nearly 7%. States like Florida, Texas, New York, and Illinois saw larger increases both in percentage and absolute numbers. California also achieved the nation's largest reduction in veteran homelessness and made meaningful progress in reducing youth homelessness.

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