Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act of 2025
The Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act of 2025 reauthorizes and expands federal programs that provide shelter, services, and transitional living support to runaway, homeless, and street youth, with a new, explicit focus on trafficking prevention and intervention. The bill broadens eligibility to include youth up to age 26 in several programs, emphasizes trauma‑informed and culturally competent care, and strengthens coordination across federal agencies. It creates or expands grant programs for basic centers (shelters and related services), transitional living programs, street outreach for trafficking/sexual abuse victims, and related training, research, and administration. It also adds data collection requirements, privacy safeguards, non‑discrimination protections, and new options for waivers to accommodate emergencies or other special circumstances. The overall aim is to improve the safety, stability, and long‑term outcomes for vulnerable youth and to better address trafficking within a comprehensive set of services. Potential impact includes more federal support for local centers and projects, increased focus on trafficking victims, richer data and reporting to guide care, and stronger partnerships across HUD, Education, Labor, Justice, and other agencies. By expanding the age range (often to 26) and prioritizing underserved populations, the bill seeks to reach more youth with age‑appropriate, developmentally informed services. At the same time, it introduces more reporting, coordination, and potential waiver pathways that may require careful implementation and funding to avoid gaps in service delivery.
Key Points
- 1Basic Center Grant Program improvements
- 2- The Secretary must award 5‑year grants to public or nonprofit entities to establish and operate local centers providing safe shelter (generally up to 30 days) and trauma‑informed services, with an appeal process for grantees.
- 3- Services include shelter, counseling (individual/family/group), suicide prevention, and may include street outreach, home‑based family services, prevention, substance use education, STI testing, trauma‑informed care, and family engagement assessments.
- 4- Center capacity rules specify 4‑20 youth per project (with state/locally allowed exceptions), staff‑to‑youth ratios, and limits on mixed projects; data collection and privacy safeguards apply, with annual reporting on youth served and services provided.
- 5- Expanded duties include outreach planning, online outreach, youth data profiling (demographic info, trafficking victims, pregnancy/parenting, child welfare/juvenile justice involvement), and youth independence status for FAFSA purposes.
- 6Transitional Living Grant Program enhancements
- 7- The Secretary must award 5‑year grants to provide shelters (group homes, maternity homes, host family homes, supervised apartments) and a broad set of life‑skills and support services designed to help youth transition to independent living.
- 8- New requirements include a written transitional living plan for each youth, extensive coordination with social services, law enforcement, education, workforce programs, welfare, legal services, mental health, substance use treatment, and wrap‑around services for trafficking victims.
- 9- Outreach programs may use online/social media; grantees must submit annual reports detailing activities, demographics, trafficking prevalence, and services provided.
- 10- Age focus shifts to prioritize homeless youth under 22 (but grants may serve ages 22–26); capacity and project size rules mirror the basic centers (minimum 4, maximum around 20 per project, with exceptions).
- 11Trafficking prevention and street outreach
- 12- A new authority to make 5‑year grants for street‑based services to runaway/homeless/street youth who have experienced or are at risk of sexual abuse or trafficking.
- 13- Priorities go to providers with established experience serving runaway and homeless youth; eligibility requires demonstrated expertise and capacity to provide age/gender/social background appropriate services.
- 14Age expansion and eligibility
- 15- Several sections raise the upper age cap to 26 for certain programs and activities; a 15–21/22–26 framework is used to guide service eligibility and priorities, with a strong emphasis on serving younger youth first while allowing older youth to be served where appropriate.
- 16Coordination, training, research, and cross‑agency work
- 17- The bill places greater emphasis on coordinating with HUD, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice, and it broadens training to include trauma‑informed approaches.
- 18- It includes enhancements to data collection, reporting, and sharing (while protecting youth identity), and requires attention to trafficking within the broader youth homelessness context.
- 19National communications, outreach, and trafficking focus
- 20- The National Communications System is expanded to explicitly include online and social media channels for outreach.
- 21- The bill adds emphasis on identifying youth who are victims of trafficking and on best practices for culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including for underserved populations.
- 22Administration, nondiscrimination, and waivers
- 23- New administration and enforcement provisions allow waivers for up to 3 years under certain conditions to accommodate extraordinary circumstances, with clear reporting on waived provisions and effects.
- 24- A new nondiscrimination provision requires equal access to programs regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability, with specific protections and mechanisms for review.