San Diego will be among the recipients of $6.67 million in new state funding to help end youth homelessness, including $1.7 million for coordinated efforts led by San Diego Youth Services.

The funding increases the $10 million allocated last year for San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties as part of the Homeless Youth Emergency Services and Housing Program.

Can we end youth homelessness?

“We’re going to do it,” said Walter Philips, San Diego Youth Services CEO and a board member of the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless (RTFH). “Youth homelessness is an issue we can solve together.”

The new funding to help address youth homelessness is critical, with California home to nearly half of the youth experiencing homelessness in our nation. Fifty percent of chronically homeless adults also report that they first experienced homelessness as a youth.

In San Diego, at least 1,500 youth are homeless.

Thank you to Senate leader Toni Atkins and Assemblymember Todd Gloria for their tireless work on behalf of San Diego’s youth and to our Board, our partners Home Start, San Diego LGBT Community Center, YMCA of San Diego County, South Bay Community Services, RTFH and our ever-growing number of youth partners for joining us in this important work.

In announcing the new funding at our TAY Academy for Transition Age Youth, Atkins called the new state budget “bold and responsible” and said she was grateful that the state was able to “reinvest in ways that touch people’s lives directly.”

Watch: live video of the announcement.

The budget also includes $19 million for community colleges and universities to address student homelessness.