Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Susan Collins of Maine and Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, reintroduced the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act late this month. The legislation includes expanded protections for LGBTQ youth.
The act would reauthorize essential programs, “including prevention, emergency shelters, street outreach, transitional living and assistance in rural areas,” and “an explicit non-discrimination provision that would prohibit any provider of these services from discriminating against youth based on their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or disability,” reports the Human Rights Campaign.
“No child in America should have to call the street home,” Senator Leahy said in a press statement. “Our bill will offer service providers the training and tools they need to best serve young people, to help ensure that they don’t fall victim to human trafficking, and to keep them safe.”
These are often lifesaving programs,” he stated, “rescuing young lives and giving them crucial lifelines. Our legislation will allow communities in Vermont and across the country to expand their enormously important work.”
The legislation would “raise the authorization of appropriations to $225 million and double the minimum grant allocation provided to small states, from $100,000, to $200,000,” according to Vermont Business Magazine, which reported:
The landmark Runaway and Homeless Youth Act was first passed by Congress in 1974, providing nationwide support to address youth and young adult homelessness. This reauthorization would expand protections to youths who are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking, and it would authorize funding for state and local programs to help provide transitional housing, street outreach, and crisis intervention programs to address the needs of homeless and runaway youth. …
“An estimated 4.2 million young people experience homelessness at some point in a year. As the Chairman of the Housing Appropriations Subcommittee, I have made it my goal to address homelessness. We must make sure our nation’s homeless youth have the same opportunity to succeed as other youth,” said Senator Collins. “The programs reauthorized by this bill are critical in helping homeless youth stay off the street, avoid abuse, and find stable housing. I look forward to working with Senator Leahy to move this bill through the Senate and House so that the President can sign it into law.”
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