Center for Policy Research led this study with partners at the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado, School of Medicine. Supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the study developed a sustainable and replicable approach to more accurately estimate the number of youth ages 14-24 experiencing homelessness in Colorado; understand their attachment to major support systems (i.e., education, homeless services, and child welfare); and learn more about the characteristics of youths experiencing homelessness, including the support services they access.
The study pilots novel data linkages by linking administrative data from the homeless services, education, and child welfare systems. The study counts youths known to each of the systems and generates an unduplicated count of youths experiencing homelessness known to one or more of the systems; deduplicate individuals through a rigorous identity resolution process; and examine the overlap of youth across systems. A multisystem estimation process was developed to estimate the number of youths unknown to the homeless services, education, or child welfare systems-providing a new approach to estimating the prevalence of youth homelessness.
CPR incorporates the voices of youth with lived experience throughout the course of the study. The goal is to understand their experiences with homelessness and the systems and surveys that track them, and to identify risk and protective factors associated with homelessness.