Emergency and transitional housing programs for families serve more young children than any other age group. In 2017, across the U.S., about half of all children and adolescents staying in shelters were under six years old, totaling about 142,620 young children. Homelessness threatens healthy development, especially for these young children.

The BELL project is administered by the People's Emergency Center in Philadelphia. It strives to implement recommendations within the Policy Statement on Meeting the Needs of Families with Young Children Experiencing and At Risk of Homelessness, released by U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Education in 2016. BELL connects early care and education programs to family emergency shelter and transitional housing providers to better respond to the needs of young children experiencing homelessness. Derived from the developmental science of resilience, the BELL model emphasizes the importance of high-quality early childhood programs and other responsive contexts that support early development – contexts that families often become disconnected from when they move to shelter.
BELL has three primary aims:

  • increase the developmental appropriateness of emergency shelter and transitional housing programs for young children
  • encourage relationships between providers in the housing and homelessness services and early care and education systems
  • increase enrollment in high quality early care and education programs for families in emergency shelter

Read the full article about supportive housing solutions for young children by Sarah Vrabic at United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.