Daniel Lugo

Background

About Daniel Lugo

Daniel Lugo is pleased to serve as Director of Government Affairs at YouthCare, a Seattle nonprofit dedicated to ending youth homelessness. Having experienced the Washington state foster care system, Daniel is passionate about advocating for systems change that empowers people in need to achieve their full potential. Within his first year at YouthCare, Daniel secured $1m from King County,$4m from the City of Seattle, and $3.4m from the State Legislature for the development of YouthCare’s upcoming Constellation Center which will provide workforce education for young people transitioning from homelessness. Prior to YouthCare, Daniel worked for the nonprofit Treehouse as Manager of Policy and Government Relations. Treehouse is Washington state’s leading organization focused on educational equity for youth experiencing foster care. His accomplishments at Treehouse include:$2.2m to expand the Treehouse Graduation Success program to middle schools statewide;$920k to fund Educational Advocates who serve highly-mobile foster youth; and more. Daniel’s journey in advocacy began at the Washington State Legislature, where he served the 33rd legislative district alongside Representative Mia Gregerson, and later the 43rd Legislative District of Seattle with Speaker Emeritus Frank Chopp. He independently convened stakeholders to create policy to improve Washington state’s publicly funded systems of care. For example, he developed budget language to secure $1.9 million for the Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) to restructure their general framework for how they prepare young people to transition from foster care and juvenile rehabilitation to independence through their Independent Living Program. He also secured over $1.5 million for the Office of Homeless Youth to initiate a process to develop and implement a no-wrong-door access point for youth involved in public systems of care, as well as youth who are at-risk of entering public systems of care (e.g. homelessness), to access authentic crisis prevention services through a Lifeline for Independent Living pilot project. The YMCA of Greater Seattle now implements Lifeline statewide. Daniel is eager to continue his career in advocacy but in his free time, he enjoys learning, engaging with the community, collecting sneakers & trading cards, listening to music and spending time with his loved ones. His hometown is Monroe, Washington. He moved to Seattle in 2013 to attend the University of Washington and has lived in the city ever since graduating in 2017 with his degree in Political Science.