Penn initiative granted $650,000 to research youth homelessness policy with governor's office

The Housing Initiative at Penn was awarded a $650,000 grant to address youth homelessness in a partnership with the administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The 2026 Institutional Challenge Grant — a three-year award provided by the William T. Grant Foundation — will support collaborative research on state policies relating to youth homelessness, according to a May 11 announcement from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. The partnership will also build “lasting infrastructure for meaningful collaboration between Penn and the Commonwealth.”

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, city and regional planning professor Vincent Reina — who also serves as the founder and faculty director of HIP — explained that the grant is “meant to forge partnerships between universities and government or nonprofits in a way that really advances the work on both ends.”

The grant, Reina said, encourages “important, policy-relevant work that's being done by government or nonprofit to advance aspects of social welfare.” It also pushes “​​universities to think critically” about “forming real, meaningful partnerships that go beyond just one academic paper” and sustaining such collaboration.

“This is a really important role for Penn to play, which is ensuring that research is helping society understand what works and what doesn't work,” Reina added.

In its assessment of policies that address youth homelessness, HIP will build on two strategies from the Office of the Governor: the Housing Action Plan and the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

According to the School of Design’s announcement, the “ultimate goal” of the collaborative research is “creating an evidence-based policy menu of state and local programs that have proven effective at reducing homelessness.” As part of its work, HIP will also study the effects of Pennsylvania’s child and dependent care tax credit program.

“One of the things we’re testing is whether these interventions actually not just reduce poverty but also improve the housing stability for youth and particularly reduce their exposure to homelessness,” Reina said.

He also shared that while HIP is “starting with one project,” one of the initiative’s goals is “to span across the whole University, across a whole stream of projects.”

Reina expressed a desire to involve more of the Penn community in HIP projects. Specifically, HIP plans to “give out small seed grants to junior scholars across Penn” and put out “a call to other faculty across Penn” for collaboration on further research projects.

Reina emphasized the partnership’s importance for the University as a whole.

“The hope is that this work that we’re doing together, both through research publications and through informing policy, is something that Penn really acknowledges and embraces in its whole systems,” Reina said. “This could easily be replicated across many other kinds of research and policy domains.” 

HIP is housed within PennPraxis, the applied research arm of the School of Design. The initiative “has a mission to achieve more effective and equitable housing policy at the local, state, and national levels,” according to its website. 

Prior to receiving the grant, HIP has conducted several projects investigating possible solutions for homelessness and housing insecurity, including a rental assistance pilot program last year.  

HIP has also worked to address Philadelphia’s lack of affordable housing, highlighting the risks posed by the expiration of federal affordability restrictions. Last August, Reina spoke to the DP about housing challenges in the city after private developer Neighborhood Restorations proposed selling over 900 subsidized homes.

In 2023, HIP received over $600,000 from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to study the effectiveness of rental assistance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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