HousingIn crisis

Jada

Jada, 19. Aged out last year, Jacksonville. Six weeks on a friend's couch. The lease ends on the 30th.

This is an illustrative account. Every detail is invented.

Age: 19
Care: Aged out last year
Housing: Six weeks on a friend's couch
Lease ends: On the 30th

Said out loud

Jada's case closed a year ago. Nobody is assigned to them. Their friend's lease ends on the 30th. U Navigate told them what they may still be owed: a federal housing voucher, Aftercare, and deposit help they'd never heard of. Then it told them the one call that starts it all. At 11 at night, with no caseworker, they got a straight answer and a next step.

Full case

Situation

Jada is 19 and aged out of care last year in Jacksonville. They've slept on a friend's couch for six weeks, and the lease is up at the end of the month. They have a part-time job, no savings, and haven't heard from a caseworker since their case closed.

Watch

Why this case matters

This is the crisis case. Everyone who works in this field has met Jada.

When a youth ages out, the system's job ends and theirs begins, on the same day. U Navigate can't stop that. It stays when the system lets go: the voucher they may be owed, the deposit help they don't know about, the documents a landlord will ask for, and someone to ask at 11 at night.

The feature they used

Lexi. At 11 at night, they asked how much a deposit usually costs and whether anything helps.

They got a straight answer:

Transition assistance
Up to $500 through their health plan, paid as services and items, which can cover a rental deposit.
Aftercare Services
Which exist for people whose case has closed.

Then they asked about the housing voucher. Lexi told them the catch:

Housing voucher
A federal housing voucher. They can't apply for it themselves. Their child welfare agency has to refer them.

So step one is a single phone call, and it's already on their plan. When they wrote "the 30th is soon," Lexi pointed them to the emergency line on their plan and the trusted adult they chose themselves.

What changed

Their Benefits screen shows the voucher, the transition assistance and housing assistance
Where to start names the real office in Jacksonville
Their Vault holds the three things a landlord will ask for
Their plan opens on one call to their former agency's independent living office

The federal line

NYTD asks youth at 19 and 21 one blunt question: have you been homeless in the last two years?

Jada is 19, on a couch, with a lease ending. They're exactly who that question counts. HUD's Foster Youth to Independence program was built for youth like Jada: 18 up to 25, aged out, without stable housing. It needs a referral from the child welfare agency, plus support services funded by Chafee. Both exist. Neither reaches Jada, because their case is closed and nobody told them to ask. U Navigate doesn't house them. It tells them the voucher exists, that they can't apply on their own, and which office to call, with the deposit help right next to it.

Honest note

Jada may qualify for two more things U Navigate can't see yet. So it stays quiet instead of guessing. We'd rather miss something than tell a young person it's theirs when it isn't.

Book a 20-minute call

Pick a time. We'll walk through the case closest to your caseload and what a pilot could look like.

Want to try it?

Create your own account. Nothing about these four people is in it.

Try U Navigate yourself

How their information is protected

They own it

Their account is theirs. U Navigate is not the state's system of record. Nothing is shared with a caseworker or anyone else unless they choose to share it.

The record can't be rewritten

Their Journey Record only grows. Entries can be added, never edited or deleted, by them or by us.

Every row is locked to them

A request for their data returns only their data, even if our own code has a bug.

What the AI is given, exactly

Lexi knows their first name and their state, so they don't have to repeat themselves. Their last name, email, phone, address, date of birth and account ID are never sent to an AI provider. An automated test breaks our build if that ever changes.

When they upload a document, the AI reads it

That's how Lexi summarizes a lease or finds a deadline on a form. The document and the summary are theirs. Neither is used to train anything.

No ads. No data sales. Ever.

During pilots

We don't accept HIPAA-covered data.