HHAP Youth Set-Aside Year 1 and Year 2 Final Reports 2026

HHAP Youth Set-Aside Evaluations & Findings

Introduction

The Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Youth Set-Aside (YSA) represents one of California's most significant investments in addressing youth homelessness. Established to ensure dedicated funding for programs and services serving unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, the HHAP Youth Set-Aside has provided communities across the state with critical resources to expand and strengthen their local youth homelessness response systems. 

Below is housed the Year 1 and Year 2 Final reports and executive summaries from the evaluation of California's HHAP Youth Set-Aside Funding, conducted by YAAH at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Together, these reports examine how Youth Set-Aside funding has been implemented across California, highlight key success and challenges, as well as offer recommendations to support for effective youth-centered approaches to preventing and ending youth homelessness. 

Please see below for the Final Reports and Executive Summaries for the HHAP Youth Set-Aside Year 1 and Year 2 Final Reports. 

EVALUATION OF CALIFORNIA'S HOMELESS HOUSING, ASSISTANCE AND PREVENTION YOUTH SET-ASIDE FUNDING - YEAR 1

Please click the image below to visit:

1. The final report titled: EVALUATION OF CALIFORNIA'S HOMELESS HOUSING, ASSISTANCE AND PREVENTION YOUTH SET-ASIDE FUNDING - YEAR 1

Click here to access the Year 1 Executive Summary

EVALUATION OF CALIFORNIA'S HOMELESS HOUSING, ASSISTANCE AND PREVENTION YOUTH SET-ASIDE FUNDING - YEAR 2

Please click the image below to visit:

1. The final report titled: EVALUATION OF CALIFORNIA'S HOMELESS HOUSING, ASSISTANCE AND PREVENTION YOUTH SET-ASIDE FUNDING - YEAR 2

Click here to access the Year 2 Executive Summary


Our Year 1 & Year 2 Evaluations & Finding's Key Takeaways

1. The HHAP Youth Set Aside has allowed funding for youth homelessness prevention across California. The state has expanded resources for youth experiencing homelessness, enabling communities to launch programs, expand services, and address gaps.

2. Most HHAP grantees met or exceeded required YSA funding thresholds, investing substantially over mandated minimums. These investments supported housing, prevention, outreach, and supportive services tailored to youth needs.

3. The Youth Set-Aside has increased access to services for underserved youth. Funding expanded care in rural regions and improved support for populations facing barriers, including LGBTQ+, parenting, immigrant, Black, and unaccompanied youth.

4. Youth voice improves programs. Communities reported involving youth with lived homelessness experience created more responsive, accessible, and effective services. However, many communities struggled to sustain meaningful youth engagement over time.

5. Local capacity shapes funding implementation; well-resourced communities maximize Youth Set-Aside funds, whereas smaller, under-resourced areas face greater challenges in effectively executing these programs.

6. Barriers such as unpredictable funding, inequitable allocation formulas, limitations in homelessness data, and difficulties sustaining cross-system collaboration continue to impede efforts to prevent & end youth homelesness.

HHAP YSA Opportunities Highlights

Below are quotes pulled from Focus Groups that illustrate the opportunities jurisdictional leads and stakeholders identified in regards to the HHAP Youth Set-Aside.

We’ve been able to use the HHAP funding to bring [local] tribes into the work, help them build an infrastructure that allows them to, or supports them in being able to access federal and state funding either on their own or through the CoC.”
Service Provider
With [our Youth Set-Aside project] being such flexible funding, we can fit between the cracks of the system like butter. So if you’re a young person, you need a hotel but, like, can’t get to an emergency system. You know, can’t get to a housing program through CES, [we] can catch you... You didn’t have to suffer in the meantime.”
Service Provider
…Since the HHAP funding was released, first with the HEAP, and then the HHAP sustained it…We were able to [build] a whole 30-bed shelter that's going to be fully funded for at least the next year in a community that really needed it that didn't have any resources for young people.
TAY Shelter in North County
I was actively [experiencing homelessness] when I started…with the Youth Advisory Board (YAB). And because of the YAB, I was able to move out and get myself back in school. And if the YAB didn't have that funding from HHAP, we wouldn't have had those opportunities, you know, to give ourselves a job.
Alameda County YAB Service Provider
The community really came together through [YHDP], which really provided an infrastructure for all of the…service providers, and most importantly, the clients that we have the privilege of serving to get together to inform a strategic approach and framework for how funding allocations and initiatives specifically serving transition-age youth should be explored.
Service Provider
The administrative aspect of it and it not being sustainable, it really does put a strain on [service providers], and like this, work is stress inducing… Throughout all organizations, the turnover is insane, and getting quality folks in and then wanting to keep them, but the funding is unsustainable
Service Provider

Click the image below to access our 'HHAP Youth Set-Aside Evaluation: Successes & Next Steps' (5/11/2026) Webinar recording