Do Time-Limited Housing Subsidies Reduce Homelessness for Transition-Aged Youth?

REPORT: Do Time-Limited Housing Subsidies Reduce Homelessness for Transition-Aged Youth? 

PRESS RELEASE: New Research Shows Housing Subsidies Significantly Reduce Homelessness for Young People

Time-Limited Housing Subsidies (TLS) provide short-term financial support, typically lasting 12 months with a maximum duration of 36 months, to help people afford housing in the private market. The hope is that by helping people stabilize their housing in the short-term, TLS will put them into a position to afford permanent housing in the longer term.

This report focuses on Transition-Aged Youth (TAY) between the ages of 18 and 24 who use TLS in Los Angeles. It focuses on 3,552 TAY who enrolled in homelessness services between 2016 and 2019 and were given a screening assessment. Of those, 528 enrolled in a TLS program and moved into a rental unit subsidized by TLS within six months of their assessment, a process referred to as “leasing up.” We compare homelessness rates over the following four years for those 528 TAY who leased up in TLS to the remaining 3,024 who were not housed with a subsidy within the six months following their assessment.

Select Media Coverage
The Imprint: Rental Subsidies Reduce Future Homelessness for Young Adults in Los Angeles, Study Finds (May 1, 2025)

Key Findings:

1. We estimate that leasing up with a TLS subsidy reduced homelessness for Transition-Aged Youth (TAY) by 39% over four years. Only 16% of TAY who leased up with TLS during the enrollment period experienced homelessness in the next four years, compared with 27% of those who did not lease up.

Figure: Rates of future homelessness for 528 Transition-Aged Youth (TAY) leased up in Time Limited Housing Subsidy (TLS) programs versus a comparison group of 3,024 TAY who were assessed without receiving permanent housing (regression adjusted). 

2. Looking year by year within that four-year period, we find TLS significantly reduced TAY’s future homelessness in the first year following enrollment. We find mixed evidence of an impact in the following two to four years.

3. TLS reduced homelessness for both Black TAY (10%) and Latinx TAY (13%). However, Black TAY who lease-up with TLS and Black TAY in the comparison group who did not lease up with TLS eventually enrolled in street outreach services or interim housing at higher rates than Latinx TAY in those groups. More research is needed to understand why these return rates are different.

4. Seventy-two percent of TAY who are enrolled in TLS lease a rental unit with the subsidy. While this is higher than the lease-up rate for single adults (62%), increasing lease up rates for TAY enrolled in TLS could reduce homelessness.

Suggested citation: Blackwell, B., Casey P., Rountree, J. (2025). Do Time-Limited Housing Subsidies Reduce Homelessness for Transition-Aged Youth? California Policy Lab, University of California. https://capolicylab.org/do-time-limited-housing-subsidies-reduce-homelessness-for-transition-aged-youth/