Homeless Youth Stipend Pilot Project

Direct cash and youth-directed services are improving housing stability, access to education, and employment opportunities for unhoused youth and young adults.

OVERVIEW

Youthprise, in partnership with community-based organizations and Chapin Hall, implemented the Homeless Youth Cash Stipend Pilot Project, a two-year randomized pilot to evaluate direct cash stipends combined with youth-directed services as a viable solution to improve housing stability and well-being for young people ages 18–24 experiencing homelessness in Minnesota. The pilot operates across Hennepin County, southern St. Louis County (Duluth area), northern St. Louis County, and the Bois Forte Tribal Nation.

HOW IT WORKS

Participants receive monthly, unconditional cash stipends alongside optional, youth-designed services such as housing navigation, budgeting support, employment and education coaching, and cultural or community connection. The project prioritizes youth who are disproportionately impacted by homelessness, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth, young parents, former foster youth, and LGBTQIA2S+ youth.

This pilot is generating early evidence for a scalable, cost-effective approach to reducing youth homelessness while strengthening long-term education and employment outcomes.

WHO’S PARTICIPATING

130 youth are enrolled across four sites.

Identify is Black, Indigenous or youth of color

Are Bois Forte members or descendants

Are parents, supporting a total of 71 children

Have foster care experience

Identify as LGBTQIA2S+

CASH + CHOICE 

This pilot recognizes that young people are experts in their own lives. Cash stipends reduce survival stress, while flexible, youth-directed services allow participants to set priorities and pace—whether securing housing, pursuing education, stabilizing employment, reconnecting culturally, or strengthening parenting supports. Monthly youth surveys create accountability while reinforcing trust and communication between youth and providers.

EARLY OUTCOMES

HOUSING STABILITY 

  • 54% of surveyed youth have a lease in their own name
  • 62% of youth with leases are housed without relying on other state or federal subsidies
  • 18% are paying rent but not listed on the lease

EDUCATION & HUMAN CAPITAL

  • Over 50% requested help enrolling in postsecondary education
  • Youth are accessing free college applications, a range of public educational assistance programs, and credentialing opporturnites aligned with living-wage careers

EMPLOYMENT & INCOME

  • Working youth earn an average of $18/hour, below local living-wage thresholds
  • Only 26% receive employer-provided health benefits
  • Youth are making more strategic employment decisions, staying longer in jobs, and planning pathways to higher wages

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

  • Cash alone is powerful, but its impact is strengthened when paired with trust-based, youth-driven support

  • Private market housing is playing a larger role than anticipated—especially in rural areas

  • Structural barriers remain, including inconsistent public housing policies that sometimes count stipends as income, and landlord misconceptions about the program

Youthprise is exploring opportunities to sustain, expand, and continue to evaluate this model in partnership with philanthropy, community organizations, and public agencies.

Program Contacts: Quincy Powe, Senior Manager, Opportunity Youth Network, quincy@youthprise.org Kristy Snyder, Policy & System Transformation Officer, kristy@youthprise.org