Case Study: Office of Homeless Youth, Washington State

Spotlight on Meaningful Engagement with People with Lived Experience and Expertise

Washington State’s Office of Homeless Youth (OHY) offers a powerful example of what it looks like to meaningfully engage young people with lived experience. OHY does this by embedding youth voice and leadership across decision-making, program design, and system governance, including:
Engaging young people with lived experience in setting funding priorities and making grant award decisionsCentering youth voice in the design of programs and statewide strategiesCreating structured opportunities for youth to participate in governance and advisory roles, including statewide boards and steering committeesCompensating young people for their participation and ensuring accessibility by reducing barriers to engagement 
“OHY is the answer of a direct ask of young people.”-Azia Ruff, Artist & Advocate (quoted in 2024 “Yes to Yes Washington State: Unaccompanied Youth and Young Adult Homelessness Landscape Scan”

Overview and key highlights

Washington State’s Office of Homeless Youth (known as “OHY”) was created by the Washington State Legislature in 2015. In 2016, more than half of WA’s 39 counties did not have any dedicated youth and young adult (YYA) housing or shelter beds. Now, there is youth or young adult housing or shelter in 27 counties – more than two-thirds of the state, and 37 out of 39 counties have at least some services dedicated to YYA.

OHY provides funding for: 

• Licensed residential programs for minors:
  • Short-term: HOPE Centers (90 days) and Crisis Residential Centers (CRC) (15 days) 
  • Long-term (up to two years): Transitional Living Programs (TLP) for young people aged 16 & 17 who are exiting systems of care
• Rental assistance, transitional housing, eviction prevention, and other housing programs for young adults aged 18-24
• Crisis response services: Street Outreach Services and Young Adult Shelter 
• Prevention programs for youth exiting publicly funded systems of care including foster care, in-patient behavioral health, or incarceration
• School partnerships that serve McKinney-Vento youth and their families – the Homeless Student Stability Program (HSSP)
• Centralized diversion funds: Homelessness Prevention & Diversion Fund (HPDF) and Youth Diversion Infrastructure Projects (YDIP) (for youth exiting systems of care)
• Youth Homelessness Demonstration Projects (YHDP) operating within the WA State Balance of State Continuum of Care: Rapid Re-Housing and Supportive Services 
• Functional Zero (FZ) grants to support local infrastructure and reducing projects for communities participating in the Communities for Functional Zero (C4F0) initiative.
• Multidisciplinary supportive services for special populations: support for unaccompanied youth attempting to access overnight services and services for youth attempting to access reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care

Co-creating with young people in a way that has never been done before at a state government level

OHY is a leader in co-creating priorities and solutions with young people in a way that is rarely seen in state government. OHY has prioritized the role of young people with lived experience in its work, particularly in setting funding priorities and informing grant award decisions. Young people with lived experience take a lead role in co-designing competitive procurement processes, services and programs, and strategic plans. They also participate in OHY staff selection and interviews, and review applications for funding. 

The OHY has convened YYA with lived experience from across the state in numerous events spanning multiple days in which young people review and evaluate applications for funding. In 2022, 2023, and 2024, OHY hosted funding application reviews. Travel, meals, child care, lodging, and other accessibility needs were arranged and young people were paid for their time during these events. 

In 2024, the Youth-4-Youth Board (also known as the “Y4Y Board”) expanded its scope from acting as the Youth Action Board for the Washington Balance of State Continuum of Care to a truly statewide board, welcoming young people with lived experience from all across the state to help advise the work of OHY more broadly.

In 2025, OHY re-established the Youth Homelessness Prevention Steering Committee, a group composed of lived experts, including individuals who either experienced homelessness and/or systems involvement as an unaccompanied youth OR who have been a caregiver for a young person who has experienced homelessness and/or systems involvement. Steering Committee members participate as members of the Interagency Workgroup on Youth Homelessness Prevention and advise the implementation of the state’s strategic plan on the prevention of youth and young adult homelessness.

Washington state’s innovative approach resulted in a 40% reduction in unaccompanied YYA homelessness between 2016-2022

In addition to OHY and its success in convening cross-sector partners in the work to prevent and end youth homelessness, Washington state also has sophisticated data systems that allow regular statewide tracking of unaccompanied youth through multiple connected administrative data sets. The WA Department of Commerce’s Snapshot Data provides a twice yearly estimate of the number of unaccompanied YYA experiencing homelessness in one month, based on combined Medicaid, Automated Client Eligibility System (ACES), and Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) populations. The dataset is more expansive than the HMIS, accounting for some YYA who are not being served by the homeless system. 

Snapshot Data showed that between 2016 and 2022, YYA homelessness decreased by 40% from 23,961 unaccompanied YYA to 14,410. The decrease was mostly among young adult (18 to 24) households and the vast majority of these households were single adults. The decrease started well before the pandemic and continued throughout the pandemic, with a slight uptick between January and July 2022. 

Service providers, philanthropy, community organizations, young people and government attributed this decrease to:

• OHY service expansion: additional investments in OHY, which allowed it to close the geographic 
• “Yes to Yes” culture shift: shifting community providers to saying “yes” to young people
• Public-private partnerships: significant philanthropic investment in the establishment of real-time By-Name Lists and the establishment of centralized diversion funds in over ten counties
• By-and-for resources: the power of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, and other (LGBTQ+)-led programming and resource centers
• Cross-sector collaboration: increased collaboration between schools and the homeless system bolstered by the Homeless Student Stability Program (HSSP)
• Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program: additional funding and services
• YYA leadership: young people changing systems through local and state-wide advocacy
• Progress on prevention: cross-government work with community to outline a statewide strategy to prevent YYA homelessness and prevent exits from public systems of care into homelessness through legislative and programmatic interventions
• Innovation and creativity: testing new approaches such as centralized diversion, Master Leasing, and Host Homes, especially in rural communities

How other communities can replicate Washington state’s Office of Homeless Youth model

OHY was originally created through a coordinated community effort to pass legislation at the WA State Legislature that established the office as part of the state’s Department of Commerce (R.C.W. 43.330.705). Other states are using this legislation as a template to replicate the office in their state.  However, the success of OHY in reducing YYA homelessness in WA goes deeper than just legislation, or the creation of a dedicated statewide office. Communities seeking to replicate this model should also strive for: 

• A highly engaged group of philanthropic partners that are willing to fund innovative strategies
• A well-coordinated advocacy community that includes philanthropy, providers, and young people
• A unit of state government with a dedicated focus on this population that is seated within the state agency that leads Washington’s homelessness response
• A legislature that was historically open to setting ambitious goals (SB 6560 Washington State Legislature) and funding efforts to achieve those goals (HB 1905 Washington State Legislature)
• A governor for whom youth and young adult homelessness was a key issue
• A culture within the field that places a high value on the voices of lived experts to engage young people in legislative advocacy, systems change efforts, and governance/advisory roles

Conclusion

• Washington state has had considerable success reducing unaccompanied YYA homelessness through the leadership of its state government Office of Homeless Youth.
• OHY is a leader in co-creating priorities and solutions with young people in a way that is rarely seen in state government. Young people with lived experience take a lead role in co-designing competitive procurement processes, services/programs, and strategic plans. They also participate in OHY staff selection/interviews, and review applications for funding.

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