Homeless families and families involved with child protective services often share common parental risk profiles including, low education level, unemployment, poverty, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, mental illness, and a lack of social support. Children and families served by both of these service systems are arguably the most vulnerable members of our society. Research has long linked both homelessness and child maltreatment to poor health, mental health, safety, educational, and employment outcomes for children, youth, and families. Mitigating and ultimately preventing these detrimental outcomes is the shared mission of both the homeless service and child protection systems.
The purpose of this proposed evaluation is to use linked, administrative data to better understand the characteristics, challenges, service needs, and outcomes of Transition Age Youth (TAY) heads of households (i.e., youth under age 25 with minor children in their custody) accessing Homeless Family Solutions System (HFSS) services from 2013 to 2015 in relation to their older, parenting counterparts.
Largely exploratory, potential outcomes of this evaluation likely will include:
- Detailed characterization of demographic differences, risk differences at entry, and differences in services received by TAY Heads of Households in relation to their older counterparts.
- The proportion of TAY heads of households with previous or concurrent involvement with Child Protection System.
- The proportion of TAY heads of households and their families who return to homelessness (to the extent possible given data availability).
