New Texas Youth Resource Map Connects Homeless Youth with Essential Services

AUSTIN, Texas — A new online tool is now available to help youth experiencing homelessness, McKinney-Vento Liaisons, and other service providers locate essential services across Texas. The Texas Youth Resource Map, developed by nonprofit Texas Appleseed, is an interactive site that filters resources by region and category to connect people with services to meet their immediate and longer-term needs. Users can locate food pantries, emergency shelters, medical and mental health care, where to go for assistance in applying for social services, transportation, child care, and more. The site can produce information on an interactive map or in a list format and contains more than 800 resources across Texas.

“Homeless youth often face unique barriers to accessing care, including age minimums to be able to access some services and parental consent requirements, despite some youth lacking a reliable parent or guardian in their lives,” said Martin Martinez, Senior Policy Analyst with the Youth Justice project for Texas Appleseed. “Our database is specifically tailored to the needs of young people to ensure they get the specialized assistance they need.”

In Texas, it is estimated that at least 360,000 youth and young adults experience homelessness in a given year. There are many reasons why a young person might not have stable housing, including fleeing unsafe households, aging out of the foster care system, or being rejected by their parents. Their needs vary widely, and without proper intervention, these youth face a greater risk of dropping out of school, becoming involved with the criminal or juvenile justice system, and exacerbating existing mental and physical health challenges.

With a new school year underway, the Texas Youth Resource Map will be shared with adults who work with vulnerable youth, including McKinney-Vento Liaisons, who are the in-school primary contacts for this population; service providers; and other youth-serving professionals. Because students experiencing homelessness tend to view schools as a place of refuge and normalcy, school faculty are often the first to identify students experiencing homelessness and are key partners in helping connect youth with services.

The site was user-tested by McKinney-Vento liaisons across Texas and by Youth Voices Empowered (Montrose Grace Place). These youth advocates’ contributions are informed by their own difficulties accessing basic resources while experiencing homelessness. They believe that the resource map will provide stepping stones so other youth can avoid some of the hardships they endured. The resource map was made possible through the generous support of pro bono partners at Latham & Watkins LLP and Margot Tejera, Senior Solutions Engineer, at Tableau/Salesforce.

Texas Appleseed creates and operates additional online resources for youth experiencing homelessness, including the Texas Homeless Youth Handbook, flyers to identify the signs of human trafficking and help youth secure their identification documents free of charge, and more, which can be found at WeDoExist.org. 

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About Texas Appleseed

As one of the most trusted resources for data-driven policy analysis and solutions, Texas Appleseed advocates at the state and local level for fair, just, and equitable laws. Our work has shaped hundreds of laws and positively affected millions of Texans by breaking down barriers through transformative policy solutions. Visit www.TexasAppleseed.org for more information.