Data play a fundamental role in preventing, addressing, and ending youth homelessness. High-quality data help in identifying youth experiencing homelessness, supporting youth in exiting homelessness, understanding what programs and strategies are more impactful in preventing, addressing, and ending youth homelessness, and ensuring equity throughout the homelessness response system.
Data around homelessness generally come from two main sources: 1) data collected by the shelter system and other related agencies and programs that offer services to youth experiencing homelessness, and 2) administrative data collected by government and other public agencies. Sharing and linking different data can contribute to evidence-based decision-making, services, and policies, resulting in a more effective homelessness response system for youth (35). Organizations may not have the resources and time to analyze and use the data to make informed decisions. Taking a collective approach and leveraging existing data infrastructures, organizations that have the time and resources to analyze data, and technology, can help organizations address these
barriers (35).
However, some communities have been historically excluded from evaluation and research projects regarding the needs of youth experiencing homelessness and the effectiveness of approaches to prevent, address, and end youth homelessness. Although data and evidence are important in making informed decisions, it is also important to acknowledge that by focusing too heavily on data we might be ignoring the needs and best practices implemented by those less visible to the systems. Lack of evidence should not be a reason to not fund these programs. Community-defined practices need to be supported.
Toolkits and resources for Data-Driven Decisions:
