Austin’s Pilot Program Shows Early Intervention and Direct Cash Support Can Keep Young People Housed
“Youth homelessness in Austin has increased dramatically over the past five years, with nearly 900 young people experiencing homelessness in our community today,” Liz Schoenfeld told Invisible People.
For many of those young people, homelessness is not brief. It becomes a long-term reality.
“Once a young person falls into homelessness in Austin, it is typically not a brief experience,” Schoenfeld continued.
In an exclusive interview, Schoenfeld, Chief Executive Officer of LifeWorks, shared how Austin’s youth homelessness crisis is deepening and why more young people are getting trapped in it.
Two-thirds of homeless youth in Austin meet the definition of chronic homelessness, and nearly half have been continuously homeless for a year or more.
“Once homeless, it becomes harder and harder for youth to address their housing crisis and achieve stability—if we want different outcomes for unhoused young people, we have to intervene earlier and align our systems more intentionally,” said Schoenfeld.
Direct Cash, A Fundamental Strategy in Preventing Youth Homelessness
Last November, LifeWorks and Point Source Youth released a 12-month summary of their Targeted Housing Assistance Program, which supported 34 youth facing an immediate housing crisis. Because many were supporting children, siblings, parents, and partners, a total of 63 individuals were served by this pilot program in the Austin area.
“The average investment was just $1,984 per participant ($3,405 per household), which is a fraction of what it generally costs to support a young person exiting literal homelessness,” Schoenfeld said.
Eighty-eight percent of the funds were used to cover housing, utilities, or relocation.
“Because the number of youth being pushed into homelessness exceeds the number of youth exiting homelessness in our community, LifeWorks has been focused on identifying ways to move upstream and employ more preventative strategies,” Schoenfeld continued. “Through a partnership with Point Source Youth, we launched a pilot program to provide a one-time payment for young people facing an imminent housing crisis, coupled with light-touch supportive services at the youth’s request.”
The results show how critical homeless prevention is.
In the first year, 85% of recipients avoided the homelessness response system in Austin, showing that even a short-term, one-time cash payment can lead to housing stability.
“What this tells us is that financial assistance is an effective homelessness prevention strategy,” Schoenfeld said. “When we trust young people and act quickly, we can interrupt homelessness before it begins.”
“Flexible financial support is not a replacement for housing vouchers or longer-term services, but it is a smart, scalable complement,” she continued. “Because the investment per household is modest compared to the cost of long-term homelessness and more intensive interventions, it is not just compassionate but a more sustainable solution.”
Program Findings Reflect a Diverse, High-Need Population
Schoenfeld points out that, while the number of young people falling into homelessness is alarming enough, what’s more striking is how deeply youth homelessness is connected to prior systems’ involvement.
For example, Schoenfeld shares that more than half of young people (57%) have spent time in the child welfare system, and one-third have prior involvement with the juvenile legal system. Furthermore, nearly a third are parenting their own children.
“These trends illustrate that the challenges these youths are navigating are overlapping and multifaceted,” she said.
Of the 34 participants:
- 42% were pregnant or parenting
- 47% live with disabilities
- 24-39% had engaged with the child welfare or legal systems
- 3% had prior lived experience of homelessness
Other demographics include:
- 85% of youth identify as LGBTQ+
- 85% were Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC)
- 9% have a history with the behavioral health system, including substance abuse
- 6% have a history with the criminal-legal system
These findings reflect how this program not only serves youth in Austin facing a multitude of needs, but also youth of several marginalized groups, where systemic oppression often compounds upon each other.
Safe, Stable Housing At The Center
In its 2025 Impact Report, LifeWorks reported that 1,633 young people ages 16 to 26 sought housing support. Another 1,168 remain on Austin’s housing waitlist.
The need is urgent. Safe, stable housing remains one of the most powerful tools to change the trajectory of a young person’s life. The earlier that support arrives, the better the outcomes.
LifeWorks emphasizes early intervention as a key strategy, working to stabilize youth before they experience the long-term trauma of homelessness. In 2025, the organization served 1,219 young people with housing needs through a range of supports, including emergency shelter, diversion, rapid rehousing, and outreach to youth living on the streets.
The Power of Housing Paired with Services
Housing alone isn’t always enough to create long-term stability.
In 2025, LifeWorks also supported 580 young people through education and workforce programs, helping them build the skills and resources needed to move forward.
For one participant, a young mother of four, those supports made an immediate difference. According to LifeWorks, she had been evicted due to a lapse in income. Through their Targeted Housing Assistance Program, she and her family were able to pay move-in costs, cover two months of rent, groceries, and mattresses for her children.
Instead of continuing to couch-surf or allowing her and her children’s situation to worsen, direct cash was able to provide stable housing to the family.
Additionally, support through the Housing Action Plan connected her to GED classes, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and other assistance.
Disrupting the Foster Care to Homelessness Pipeline in Austin
The strong link between young people aging out of foster care and youth homelessness is not one we can ignore.
Schoenfeld shared one of the most important policies shaping youth homelessness in Austin right now: the Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) voucher program.
These federal housing vouchers provide a minimum of three years of rental assistance to young people aging out of foster care. However, they require locally funded supportive services to unlock them.
“Through close partnership between our child welfare system, our local housing authority, the City of Austin, and LifeWorks, Austin has become the most active user of FYI vouchers in Texas, demonstrating that coordinated local action can unlock federal housing resources at scale,” Schoenfeld said.
Title IV-E funding and extended foster care are another critical opportunity.
“Extended foster care is one of the strongest homelessness prevention tools we have, as it provides critical supportive services during the first years of adulthood,” she said. “Fully funding these services and fully leveraging those federal resources is not just a child welfare issue; it is directly tied to whether young people enter our homelessness response system.”
Unpredictable Federal Funding Forces Difficult Trade-Offs
Funding for homelessness services is becoming increasingly unpredictable, not just in Austin, but across the country. Local budget constraints, shifting voter priorities, and cuts to social service contracts are forcing difficult trade-offs, even as demand continues to rise.
Those trade-offs come at a cost. When so-called “less essential” services are scaled back, the consequences don’t disappear—they show up in overcrowded shelters, strained healthcare systems, and more people in crisis.
“If people are uncomfortable with the number of individuals they see on the streets,” Schoenfeld said, “there needs to be steady, long-term investment in what we know works and the solutions that keep people housed.”