Dr. Henry Love (Point Source Youth) on prevention and targeted housing assistance

Good afternoon, Chair Stevens and members of the committee.

I'm Dr.

Henry Love.

I'm Director of Development and Growth at Point Source Youth.

And Chair Stevens, thank you so much for your leadership on this issue and your support for Point Source Youth in the past.

I'm a developmental trained psychologist with over 15 years focused on

fighting for and improving research programs, both design and implementation, for students and youth who are at risk of homelessness.

And just a bit about my story.

I was a housing-instable black queer kid.

In my early 20s, I tried to end my life.

I'm alive because people caught me, not because the system did.

My best friend's name was Cordell.

He passed away at 24 because he was housing insecure and didn't get the supports that he needs.

A few thousand dollars at a right moment would have been the arithmetic that changed his outcome.

Nearly 40% of young adults experiencing homelessness report a lifetime suicide attempt, and homeless high schoolers carry four times the odds of that.

And we've just heard from our provider colleagues and even an admin about the numbers of folks in terms of capacity issues with the beds.

And let me be precise, because there was a lot of information coming out earlier from the admin about what's development appropriate.

And from age 18 to 24, the brain is still developing.

Executive functioning, planning, impulse control, stress regulation, all of these things are happening.

And don't begin to finish until the mid-20s.

So that brain needs stability and agency.

And being turned away is an acute stressor administered by that system.

And so shelter entry serves those routines, those relationships, that autonomy and development that is so critically important.

And so we will not get out of this crisis on shelter beds alone.

And so that is why we're raising this issue today about prevention and also in that conversation in terms of getting to the important issue of getting to functional zero for youth homelessness, where shelter is rare, brief, non-recurring, and fewer young people enter it.

Went through what the system can hold, and no one made more than 30 days to make sure that they get a place that they need to be.

So prevention works and is cheap.

The targeted housing assistance program on average gives out about $3,700.

And within 48 hours, we place people.

And 92% have been...

Able to secure their housing after six months, 98% in the city.

And we do have sites like you came to visit us at Henry Street.

And so we are here today to, of course, advocate for those beds that are so critically needed, but to also raise this issue of prevention to make sure that we're driving down the inflow into the shelter system.

Thank you so much.