§ 11222 — Eligibility

(a) To be eligible for assistance under this part, an applicant shall propose to establish, strengthen, or fund a transitional living youth project for homeless youth and shall submit to the Secretary a plan in which such applicant agrees, as part of such project— (1) (including information and counseling services in basic life skills which shall include money management, budgeting, consumer education, and use of credit, parenting skills (as appropriate), interpersonal skill building, educational advancement, job attainment skills, and mental and physical health care) to homeless youth; (2) to provide such shelter and such services to individual homeless youth throughout a continuous period not to exceed 540 days, or in exceptional circumstances 635 days, except that a youth in a program under this part who has not reached 18 years of age on the last day of the 635-day period may, in exceptional circumstances and if otherwise qualified for the program, remain in the program until the youth’s 18th birthday; (3) to provide, directly or indirectly, on-site supervision at each shelter facility that is not a family home; (4) that such shelter facility used to carry out such project shall have the capacity to accommodate not more than 20 individuals (excluding staff); (5) to provide a number of staff sufficient to ensure that all homeless youth participating in such project receive adequate supervision and services; (6) to provide a written transitional living plan to each youth based on an assessment of such youth’s needs, designed to help the transition from supervised participation in such project to independent living or another appropriate living arrangement; (7) to develop an adequate plan to ensure proper referral of homeless youth to social service, law enforcement, educational (including post-secondary education), vocational, training (including services and programs for youth available under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act), welfare (including programs under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996), legal service, and health care programs and to help integrate and coordinate such services for youths; (8) to provide for the establishment of outreach programs designed to attract individuals who are eligible to participate in the project; (9) to submit to the Secretary an annual report that includes information regarding the activities carried out with funds under this part, the achievements of the project under this part carried out by the applicant and statistical summaries describing the number and the characteristics of the homeless youth who participate in such project, and the services provided to such youth by such project, in the year for which the report is submitted; (10) to implement such accounting procedures and fiscal control devices as the Secretary may require; (11) to submit to the Secretary an annual budget that estimates the itemized costs to be incurred in the year for which the applicant requests a grant under this part; (12) to keep adequate statistical records profiling homeless youth which it serves and not to disclose the identity of individual homeless youth in reports or other documents based on such statistical records; (13) not to disclose records maintained on individual homeless youth without the informed consent of the individual youth to anyone other than an agency compiling statistical records; (14) to provide to the Secretary such other information as the Secretary may reasonably require; (15) to coordinate services with McKinney-Vento school district liaisons, designated under section 722(g)(1)(J)(ii) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11432(g)(1)(J)(ii)), to assure that runaway and homeless youth are provided information about the educational services available to such youth under subtitle B of title VII of that Act [42 U.S.C. 11431 et seq.]; and (16) to develop an adequate emergency preparedness and management plan. (b) In selecting eligible applicants to receive grants under this part, the Secretary shall give priority to entities that have experience in providing to homeless youth shelter and services of the types described in subsection (a)(1). (c) In this part— (1) the term “maternity group home” means a community-based, adult-supervised transitional living arrangement that provides pregnant or parenting youth and their children with a supportive and supervised living arrangement in which such pregnant or parenting youth are required to learn parenting skills, including child development, family budgeting, health and nutrition, and other skills to promote their long-term economic independence in order to ensure the well-being of their children; and (2) the term “exceptional circumstances” means circumstances in which a youth would benefit to an unusual extent from additional time in the program.