Are you sleeping on someone’s couch? Perhaps at the home of a friend’s family, a relative or a neighbor?
Because rents today are so high, many youth and young adults simply can’t afford to get their own place. In fact, according to the Census Bureau, more than half of 18- to 24-year-olds are living with their parents.
If you’re staying with a caring adult and you’d like to keep staying there, let HOPE 4 Youth turn your couch-hopping arrangement into a HOPE Home. We can:
- Help you create an agreement about shared expectations so that everyone starts—and stays—on the same page.
- Listen, help you solve problems, and connect you with community resources.
- Provide a listening ear for the adult you’re staying with.
- Offer financial support.
Who’s eligible?
Young people under 25 years old in the northwest metro and the adults they are staying with who are at least 10 years older.
HOPE 4 Youth only supports HOPE Home arrangements where young people are physically, emotionally, and sexually safe.
We get that couch-hopping can be stressful …
“There was a lot of anxiety and fear wrapped up in trying to stay different places and feeling that I didn’t want to overstay my welcome and trying to help out as much as I can…trying to not be as visible…you know, if they don’t notice me, I can stay longer.” – Amy*, a teenage couch hopper
And you might really like who you’re staying with …
“The relationship I have with [my friend’s father] is one I’ve always wanted with my parents but I still don’t have with them…he gives really good advice…asks me how school is going. He’s, like, really supportive. And he constantly talks about how he wants me to go to college. So he really wants me to better myself …” – Monica* on staying with her friend’s father
But it can be hard to know how to talk about things …
“Never was there ever a conversation … and I think for me not knowing how to have conversations of ‘I need to stay for this amount of time. I need help with this.” – Amy*, a teenage couch hopper
We get it! And we can help!
“Paula was in a bind. She’d been staying with her Grandma’s neighbors in an overcrowded apartment. They’d set a deadline: Paula had to be out in a week.”
To learn more about whether where you’re staying qualifies for help from HOPE 4 Youth, contact Brenda Pritchard, HOPE Homes Specialist, at bpritchard@hope4youthmn.org or 763.323.2066, ext. 117.
To learn how adults talk about their experiences informally hosting youth they know in their home, visit HOPE Homes Hosts.
HOPE 4 Youth is partnering with CloseKnit to create the HOPE Homes program. To learn more about the need to provide support to young people staying with adults they already know, check out this commentary.
Other ways to find safe places to stay with caring people …
If you’re 16 to 24 years old, need housing, but don’t know an adult who you could stay with and would like to be connected with a trained volunteer host, please check out the YMCA’s Communities Host Home Program.
If you’re 16 to 24 years old, need housing, and are LGBTQ, please check out the host home programs of Avenues for Homeless Youth.
*All quotes are actual quotes from Minnesota youth who were staying with an adult they knew. Starred names have been changed. The interviews were conducted by CloseKnit as part of The Interview Project, an academic study conducted under the auspices of the University of St. Thomas School of Social Work
