A new program in L.A. is connecting “hosts” with young people experiencing homelessness for short-term stays, with the goal of bridging the gap between homelessness and permanent housing.
Safe Place for Youth’s Host Home Program, funded this year by LAHSA, is offering monthly stipends to those who offer a room in their home to a young person without a home, between the ages of 18 and 24.
In her recent piece in the L.A. Times, Annabelle Gurwitch described her experience hosting a young couple in June -- her concerns, the relationship she developed with the young couple and her ultimate takeaways.
We sit down with Gurwitch as well as the executive director of Safe Place for Youth to discuss the program.
Guests:
Alison Hurst, founder and executive director of Safe Place for Youth, a non-profit working with young people who are experiencing homeless or are at risk of homelessness; Host Home Program is one of its housing programs, which launched in 2019
Annabelle Gurwitch, actor and New York Times bestselling author; she was a host through Safe Place for Youth’s Host Home Program; she wrote about her experience in the piece “They were homeless. I took them in. Would you?” for the LA Times