Keanu Yamanaka

Location: California

Keanu Yamanaka is a fierce advocate for young people surviving youth homelessness, foster care, and the juvenile justice system. Yamanaka’s advocacy work extends to multiple publications including the YAAH Guidelines, a 205-page document to prevent, address, and end youth homelessness. 

Additionally, Yamanaka has collaborated with the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CAL ICH) providing statewide recommendations for the creation of the first standardized measures for unhoused youth. His advocacy was tailored to the specific needs of survivors of domestic violence and the intersection of homelessness. Yamanaka believes treating people with dignity is the most crucial action that you can provide toward young people and survivors.

At the federal level, Yamanaka has represented California with a delegation to the offices of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and U.S. Senator Laphonza Butler as an unwavering advocate for the reauthorization of the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act (RHYTPA), expansion of HUD’s federal definition of homelessness, and unhoused youth to access to affordable housing while enrolled in community colleges.

In California, federal cuts left the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding depleted. Yamanaka joined a state coalition advocating to reinstate $200 million for VOCA funding and extensive homeless policy reform. Collectively, Yamanaka and advocates met with more than half of California’s legislative branch.

Keanu Yamanaka has achieved a bachelor’s degree of Political Science at Grinnell College.