York, Berks, Lancaster counties come together to address homelessness among young adults

• By Jade Campos / LNP | LancasterOnline

Kaitlyn Mackey spends a lot of time catching up with people.

Mackey, an outreach worker for Bethlehem-based nonprofit Valley Youth House, hits the streets of Lancaster at least once a week to help young adults experiencing homelessness. She brings along water bottles, bags of chips and business cards in the hopes of keeping in touch with the people she meets.

It’s common for young people to fall off the radar of service providers like Mackey. According to the Lancaster County Housing and Redevelopment Authorities, 76% of young adults ages 18 to 25 who engaged with homeless services in 2023 disappeared from the system without a trace.

So, on a sunny September morning, Mackey reconnected with people she’d fallen out of touch with at Lancaster city’s Culliton Park on Water Street. She exchanged numbers with people she once stopped hearing from and scheduled time to meet them at Lancaster Public Library, where they can talk at length about the help they need — whether it’s finding a job or housing.

County housing leaders attribute the major disconnect of young people from homeless services to the fact that there aren’t enough local services tailored to their age group. Now, they want to change that.

Lancaster County’s Homelessness Coalition is partnering with homeless-services providers in Berks and York counties to create more resources for young adults ages 18 to 25. The work is being supported by a $900,000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant targeted at addressing youth homelessness.

Marjorie Shaffer, who manages homelessness services in Lancaster County, said officials plan to create a tricounty action board made up of young adults who have experienced homelessness. The group will inform what kinds of resources and services need to exist for young people.

“We need to rely on people with lived expertise to be able to give their experiences so we can provide better and more holistic programs,” said Deb Jones, executive director of the county Homelessness Coalition.

Along with a regional board, each county will develop its own youth action board with Lancaster County leading the way because it already has a board, created two years ago. During that time, board members have traveled across the county to spread awareness about youth homelessness.

Members of the board did not comment for this story.

Limited resources

Regional housing leaders agree there is a major lack of resources for young adults experiencing homelessness.

York and Berks counties each have youth shelters that offer beds and case management, though Lancaster County has only a street outreach program through Valley Youth House.

Dericka Scales, a housing services supervisor for Valley Youth House in York, said young people are more willing to enter a shelter if they know they will be surrounded by their peers. Otherwise, she said, they will usually end up leaving a shelter in favor of crashing on a friend’s couch, where they’re no longer considered “homeless” by federal housing officials and, ultimately, ineligible for necessary services.

Scales said she usually has to ask people to go back into the shelter just to be able to receive help.

Another aspect of the tricounty partnership will be a comprehensive mapping of every resource for homeless young adults in each of the three counties. Kelly Blechertas, York County’s homelessness program coordinator, said a map would make it easier for people to quickly find services when traveling across county lines. People often move around, she said, when shelter beds become available or they find someone to stay with.

The map also will help determine what resources need to be created. The end result isn’t quite clear, but Blechertas said that’s intentional. Officials want the youth action boards to guide most of the work.

“We don’t want to make all of those decisions,” Blechertas said. “We want our young adults to come in and give their feedback.”

 

Life in transition

Mackey and Scales want more transitional housing for young people, which serves as a stepping stone between living on the streets and moving into a home. Mackey said young adults ages 18 to 24 usually lack life skills, like how to keep up with rent, and need extra support before moving into an apartment on their own.

Scales noted many homeless young adults leave the foster care system as soon as they turn 18, becoming vulnerable without the resources that had propped them up throughout childhood. She usually encourages people to reenter foster care until they’re 23, the legal limit, to keep getting as much help as possible.

“They come out of (foster) care and they’re like deer in headlights,” Scales said.

Lancaster County will open its first affordable, transitional housing units dedicated entirely to people leaving the foster care system next year.

Elise McCauley, assistant director of the Berks County Homelessness Coalition, said the regional partnership will open doors to even more opportunities to address youth homelessness. With a youth action board, each county will soon be eligible for more federal grant opportunities that require a robust youth homelessness system already in place.

McCauley anticipates the counties will continue to work together well into the future.

She acknowledged ongoing uncertainty about federal housing funding, noting part of the current project was ended by the Trump administration. McCauley said officials intended to integrate a racial justice aspect to their work, approved under the Biden administration, though HUD leaders earlier this year told them to eliminate their plans.

The rest of the project, she said, has remained intact and she’s optimistic about the future.

“We’re in a really good place now.”