The City of Austin, Travis County and state agencies have teamed up to create a task force dedicated to preventing youth homelessness before it happens.
AUSTIN, Texas — A new citywide initiative aims to halt the troubling trend of youth homelessness among the people who age out of the foster care system in Austin and Travis County.
A study published in 2025 by the Texas Institute for Child and Family Wellbeing shows that 33% of Texas teens leaving foster care will face homelessness by age 21— higher than the national average.
In Austin, the number of young adults seeking housing support has surged in recent years.
On Thursday, city, county and state leaders announced a comprehensive proposal to break the cycle for Austin’s vulnerable foster youth with a 10-step regional plan, focused on leveraging new and existing resources.
Life After Foster Care: One foster care alumni’s story:
Imagine being 18, not just anxious about college applications, but about where you’ll sleep tonight.
“That same young person is now sleeping on a friend’s couch, in their car. And before long, they have nowhere to go. And that young person was me,” said Cortney Jones, CEO of Change 1, who spent a decade in the foster system and aged out at 18.
“I was sleeping in my car, bathing at a Waffle House, scared that I would have to go to jail for being somewhere I’m not supposed to be,” said Jones.
Jones’s experience is all too familiar. Many more local youth face similar struggles.
As Liz Schoenfeld, CEO of LifeWorks, put it: “We have nearly 1200 young people that are waiting for housing.”
Schoenfeld says more than half of these young Austinites have spent time in foster care—and they lack the safety nets many peers rely on after high school.
Mayor Kirk Watson called out the core issue: “It’s because the foster care system fails them in preparing them.”
The consequences extend further. “Over 68% of them had been arrested after leaving the foster care system,” said Judge Denise Hernandez with Travis County Court 6.
Breaking the Cycle: The 10-Step Plan
Now, Austin, Travis County, state agencies, and dozens of nonprofits are working together on a ten-point blueprint to protect youth at risk.
“We are committing to make sure we are bringing every possible federal dollar into our region to amp up our efforts to prevent youth homelessness before it occurs,” David Gray, the city’s Homeless Strategy Officer, explained.
Essentially – leaders say the 10 steps to dismantling the foster care to homelessness pipeline starts with drawing in federal resources, creating a youth-friendly system so they don’t lose anyone on the way, working with state legislators to encourage new laws that would support their efforts and sustaining the mission for years to come.
The plan, developed by a cross-sector task force and policy experts, includes:
Aggressively securing federal Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) housing vouchers, which provide rental assistance for young people leaving foster care, and finding local dollars to fund required supportive services so no voucher goes unused.
Maximizing voucher opportunities across all regional public housing authorities.
Dedicating staff capacity to analyze all possible federal funding opportunities to make sure funding in the region isn’t left on the table.
Expanding Austin’s Youth Resource Center as a supportive “hub” for young adults transitioning out of care, leveraging partnerships with nonprofits like LifeWorks and Change 1.
Develop systems for youth at risk of homelessness—not only those currently homeless—to qualify for FYI vouchers. This includes direct referrals from child welfare and state partners as well as coordinated entry processes, allowing youth to secure housing before becoming homeless.
Collaborate with Housing Connector, a nonprofit using technology to reduce rental barriers, to identify appropriate housing units, accelerate youth referrals, educate landlords, and help youth with foster care experience find stable housing quickly.
Partner with the Texas Housing Conservancy to reserve units within its portfolio of affordable multifamily housing in Austin and Travis County specifically for youth holding FYI vouchers, expanding immediate housing options.
Allocating dedicated shelter beds and revising policies to better support youth’s needs for stability, education, and work.
Advancing state-level legislative changes to improve care and housing options for young adults aging out of foster care.
Facilitate meaningful input from young people with lived foster care experience to define the quality standards and services they believe should be guaranteed, ensuring housing programs are aligned with their needs and preferences.
“This program started during the first Trump administration. It’s been ramping up and it’s being used, but it hasn’t been used to the full amount,” said Daniel Heimpel of HR&A Advisors, which helped craft the plan alongside Good River Partners. “Austin is primed to use its housing stock that’s already built to make sure that no foster kid ever experiences homelessness.”
The city and county’s coordinated approach aims to provide 2,000 stable housing placements for at-risk youth by 2029—over half reserved for former foster care youth. Modeling shows that bringing in more federal vouchers significantly reduces the need for local capital to secure affordable units for this population.
Building a Safety Net for Austin’s Future
For Jones, now leading Change 1 and helping youth aging out of foster care face the challenges she once experienced, the message is one of resilience and hope.
“I didn’t imagine being who I am today,” Jones said. “I just want kids to know that, like, you’re not your circumstance. You’re much more than your circumstance.”