    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 33 (Monday, August 21, 2000)]
    [Pages 1864-1865]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Memorandum on Second Chance Homes for Teen Parents

    August 11, 2000

    Memorandum for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary
    of Housing and Urban Development

    Subject: Second Chance Homes for Teen Parents

        My Administration has made it a key priority to promote personal
    responsibility, prevent teenage pregnancy, and to provide young people
    with the educational and employment opportunities necessary to break the
    cycle of dependency. We know the devastating effects on young people
    when they become parents too soon--nearly 80 percent of single teen
    mothers end up on welfare and only one-third receive a high school
    diploma or GED. We also know the impact that this has on their children,
    who are 40 percent more likely to have low birth weights; need 20
    percent more health care; and are at greater risk of abuse and neglect.
    Moreover, girls of teen mothers are a third more likely to become teen
    mothers themselves and boys of teen mothers are nearly 3 times more
    likely to be incarcerated than boys of mothers who delayed childbearing.
        Under my Administration, I have taken bold steps to promote
    responsibility and prevent teen pregnancy by taking executive action to
    require young mothers to stay in school or risk losing welfare payments,
    enacting welfare reform in 1996, strengthening child support
    enforcement, and launching a National Campaign to Prevent Teen
    Pregnancy. We know that these efforts are having an impact: teen birth
    rates have dropped for the eighth year in a row, falling by 20 percent
    since their most recent peak in 1991 to the lowest levels since we began
    collecting these data 60 years ago. But we also know that there are
    still far too many children having children, and we must do more.
        To build on this progress and to reach out to teen mothers at risk
    of a repeat pregnancy, my FY 2001 budget includes a provision to invest
    $25 million in the creation and expansion of ``second chance homes.'' It
    is critical that we help teen parents who cannot live with their own
    parents or other relatives gain access to supportive, adult-supervised
    living arrangements--second chance homes--that offer parenting skills,
    job counseling, education, and other referrals to help reduce the chance
    of repeat pregnancies and improve the prospects for young mothers and
    their children. Where appropriate, these programs should also reach out
    to involve young fathers in responsible parenting, and to help reconnect
    these teens with their own parents. An early evaluation of the Second
    Chance Homes program in Massachusetts has demonstrated that second
    chance homes can reduce the number of repeat pregnancies. Moreover, this
    study showed that mothers served by second chance homes were more likely
    to become self-sufficient, complete high school, and to keep their
    children's immunizations up to date. With approximately 100,000 repeat
    pregnancies each year, we must do all that we can to help improve the
    prospects for teen parents and their children.
        Therefore, I direct the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and
    Housing and Urban Development to work together to implement the
    following actions:
     (1)         Within 60 days, issue guidance to nonprofit organizations
                (both faith-based and other community-based organizations)
                and State and local governments to create awareness about
                the second chance home model, highlight States'
                responsibility to provide access to adult-supervised living
                arrangements for minor parents who

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                cannot live at home, provide best practices concerning
                program design, and provide user-friendly information about
                existing funding sources for both facilities and services
                costs, for the creation or expansion of second chance homes;
     (2)         Create a joint technical assistance effort to help
                communities interested in establishing or expanding second
                chance homes;
     (3)         Use all available legal authority to provide organizations
                interested in establishing second chance homes access to
                foreclosed, underutilized, and surplus real estate or
                facilities at the maximum allowable discount. The Department
                of Housing and Urban Development should also explore
                opportunities to increase the availability of Supportive
                Housing Program funds to second chance homes for teen
                parents; and
     (4)         Clarify that teen parents in second chance homes may be
                eligible for low-income housing vouchers and encourage
                second chance home operators to accept housing voucher
                holders into their programs.
        The swift and collaborative implementation of these actions is vital
    to achieving our goal of helping teen parents take responsibility for
    their lives and their children's futures.
                                                William J. Clinton

    Note: This memorandum was embargoed for release by the Office of the
    Press Secretary until 10:06 a.m. on August 12.