Published on December 18, 2025
Photo by Alisha Jucevic
The Results are in: Point Source Youth’s 2025 Year In Review
An end-of-year look at the results, momentum, and policy path to making direct cash the standard of care for youth at risk of homelessness.
By Larry Cohen • December 18, 2025
You know those disaster movies where a giant wave is about to swallow a city and, at the last moment, a team of scientists finds a solution to stop the crisis?
In real life, today, we have the power to stop the homelessness crisis for young people in our community. There is an intervention that can stop disaster before it hits—one that keeps young people housed or helps them find stable housing before they ever spend a night in a shelter. And that’s resourcing young people directly through direct cash transfers.
After ten years of doing this work, we’ve discovered that this intervention is efficient, data-backed, and rooted in the dignity and self-determination of young people. Our End of Year Recap shows just how powerful this approach is — and now we are laser-focused on bringing it to scale across the country.
Photo by Alisha Jucevic
How we’re scaling direct cash:
We have ten sites launching or expanding — including Hawaiʻi, California, Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, Michigan, North Carolina, Maryland, and New York — but that’s not enough. These sites need to move from pilots to the standard of care in preventing youth homelessness. That means city and state leaders must add direct cash for prevention into their budgets.
In the new year, we’ll use the evidence detailed in our End of Year Recap to:
Build political alliances and coalitions in city and state government
Show up at city halls and state capitols to make the case for prevention
Ensure that every major outlet covering the housing and affordability crisis sees the results from our pilots
The data is compelling.
The data we’ve gathered over the last year, summarized in our End of Year Recap, makes clear that this model works:
91%
avoided entering the homeless system within 6 months
85%
remained housed
after one year
3X
less likely to re-enter
homelessness
Communities are ready.
The ten new cash + services programs launched or expanded this year because funders, youth, and providers all want the same thing: fewer young people falling into homelessness. Providers tell us that, for the first time, they have a tool to help the youth they already know are at imminent risk. Funders tell us they’re looking for solutions rooted in dignity, results, and shared humanity.
The truth is simple: no one wants young people to be homeless—and now we don’t have to accept a system that only responds after harm occurs. Shelters can cost upwards of $30,000 per family per year, and homelessness drives spiraling public costs in emergency rooms, policing, mental health crises, and lost wages. For about $2,500, we can prevent all of it for a young person on the brink.
Photos by Alisha Jucevic
Read the End of Year Recap to see the full results, the stories behind them, and what it will take to make direct cash the standard of care in more cities and states. If this evidence resonates, please share the report with someone who influences budgets, policy, or philanthropy—because the next wave of impact depends on what we do now.
Thank you for supporting us as we build a future where youth homelessness is not managed, but stopped entirely.
Larry Cohen,
PSY Co-Founder and Executive Director
