A program connecting young New Yorkers to housing and services faces elimination even as youth homelessness climbs
A Program Built on Trust, Now at Risk
In 2023, New York City began hiring housing specialists and formerly homeless young adults as peer navigators to help teens and young adults exit the shelter system more quickly. The model was simple but powerful: young people experiencing homelessness are more likely to engage with services when they see providers who have been through similar experiences and who can translate bureaucratic pathways into practical steps. “It’s so difficult for anybody to come to a program, to come to a space and ask for support,” said Sebastien Vante, associate vice president at Safe Horizon’s Street Work Project. “And when you see providers and staff members that look and identify like you, it makes it a little bit more comfortable for you to lean into the resources and really feel supported.” That program is now on the chopping block. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027 does not include funding for housing specialists in the youth homelessness system, according to reporting by Gothamist. The cut would eliminate positions that advocates say are among the most effective tools for moving young people out of shelter and into stable housing.
Rising Numbers, Declining Resources
The timing could not be worse. More than 10,000 New Yorkers between the ages of 14 and 24 slept in shelters or on the street in 2024, according to city data. Hundreds more were turned away from temporary beds because capacity was exhausted. The surge in youth homelessness is driven by multiple overlapping crises: the lingering effects of the COVID-19 era migrant surge, spiraling rents pushing young people out of housing, and a national climate of hostility toward LGBTQ+ youth that has pushed many queer young people toward New York City. “We’re seeing the highest numbers that the city has ever seen,” said Jamie Powlovich, a senior manager for the Coalition for the Homeless. “No young person in New York City should ever be faced with the question of where they’re going to be sleeping at night.”
The Pattern of Promised and Pulled Funding
The housing specialist program has a troubled history that advocates see as symptomatic of a broader failure to treat youth homelessness as a persistent and solvable crisis rather than an annual line-item negotiation. The program was launched in 2023 with genuine promise. Former Mayor Eric Adams then gutted its funding. The City Council restored it. Now, under Mamdani, it faces elimination again. “Every time we’re given a resource to provide our young folks as a pathway out of homelessness, it’s immediately taken away from us,” Vante said. Joe Westmacott, director of housing benefits and resources at Safe Horizon, framed the risk in terms of long-term costs: “When homeless youth and young adults don’t have pathways out of homelessness, they become chronically homeless, and it’s even harder for them to access resources once they’re older.” City Hall emphasized that 913 shelter beds currently available for youth would remain stable under the preliminary spending plan. But advocates say the cuts also contradict the spirit of CityFHEPS, the city’s rental assistance program that Mamdani campaigned on expanding. The Coalition for the Homeless and organizations like Safe Horizon have documented the distinct and acute needs of young people experiencing homelessness and the particular effectiveness of peer-navigator models in serving them. The budget cycle runs through June 30, and advocates say they will push hard for restoration of the program before the final spending plan is adopted.
