New York, NY | July 18, 2026 – Ariel Partners has been awarded a contract by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) to build RHY Connect, a real-time shelter bed reservation platform for young people experiencing homelessness. The project is funded through a federal Youth Homelessness System Improvement grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, funding reserved specifically for systemic modernization rather than incremental fixes.
The award gives Ariel Partners a leading role in one of the most closely watched civic technology efforts in the youth homelessness field nationally. As New York City’s Runaway and Homeless Youth system moves from overnight reporting to real-time bed visibility, the project positions both the city and Ariel Partners’ work as a model other jurisdictions may look to as they pursue their own HUD-backed modernization.
The contract’s implications extend beyond the technology itself. A single system of record will, for the first time, give the city reliable visibility into where and when young people are turned away for lack of an open bed, data that shelters and advocates have long lacked and that will shape how the city and federal government fund the sector going forward.
Ariel Partners leads the engagement together with Queue Associates and Streetlives, the New York City nonprofit behind YourPeer, a platform used by unstably housed youth across the five boroughs. Following an initial pilot, the platform is planned to expand citywide and, eventually, into the city’s transitional independent living programs.
Shilpa Strong, CEO of Ariel Partners, stated: “Some contracts are measured in ceilings and task orders. This one is measured in young people who find a safe bed because the system worked. As a New York City firm, there is no work we are more proud to do.”
The award builds on Ariel Partners’ decade of work on New York City homeless services systems for the Department of Homeless Services and its M/WBE certifications with New York City, New York State, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.