For the month of April, I am highlighting youth homelessness. I feel that this topic is not talked about nearly enough. Each year, an estimated 4.2 million youth and young adults experience homelessness, of which 700,000 are unaccompanied minors, meaning they
are not part of a family or accompanied by a parent or guardian. On any given night, approximately 41,000 unaccompanied youth ages 13-25 experience homelessness.
You may ask yourself why young people experience homelessness, there are many reasons why young people experience homelessness. Family/relationship breakdowns, mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, housing crisis, inadequate or inappropriate living conditions, and insufficient income are just some of the factors that can lead young people into homelessness.
Here are some of the main problems that homeless youth can face:
Poverty.
Unemployment.
Lack of affordable housing.
Not being able to rent an apartment
Mental and substance use disorders.
Trauma and violence.
Domestic violence.
Justice-system involvement.
Sudden serious illness.
Lack of resources
How can the youth address homelessness?
Leverage drop-in centers, street outreach programs, and public systems, including child welfare, criminal justice, schools, community programs, and other youth-serving systems to quickly identify and engage at-risk children and intervene early to reduce the duration and impact of homelessness.
After reading this you might ask yourself, how we can solve homelessness. We can start by taking a coordinated approach. To end homelessness, a community-wide coordinated approach to delivering services, housing, and programs is needed. To address homelessness, communities should take a coordinated approach, moving from a collection of individual programs to a community-wide response that is strategic and data driven. Communities that have adopted this approach use data about the needs of those experiencing homelessness to inform how they allocate resources, services, and programs.
Housing as the Solution. The solution to homelessness is simple – housing. Rapid re-housing provides short-term rental assistance and services. The goals are to help people obtain housing quickly, increase self- sufficiency, and stay housed. It is offered without preconditions (such as employment, income, absence of a criminal record, or sobriety) and the resources and services provided are typically tailored to the needs of the person.
Assistance for the Most Vulnerable. Sometimes people need longer-term rental assistance and services supports to achieve stability. Permanent supportive housing is a proven solution to homelessness for the most vulnerable. Permanent supportive housing is an intervention that combines affordable housing assistance with voluntary support services to address the needs of chronically homeless people with community-based health care, treatment and employment services.
Designing a Crisis Response. An effective crisis response can help people quickly exit homelessness. The goals of an effective crisis response system are to identify those experiencing homelessness, prevent homelessness when possible, connect people with housing quickly and provide services when needed. An effective crisis response system achieves those goals through the following:
Outreach: Outreach workers connect youth at risk of or experiencing homelessness to coordinated entry, emergency services, and shelter. They work with other programs in the system to connect youth to stable, permanent housing.
Coordinated entry: Coordinated entry is a process designed to quickly identify, assess, refer and connect people in crisis to housing and assistance and services.
Diversion and prevention: Prevention and diversion are important components of a community's crisis response and can help it reduce the size of its homeless youth population. Prevention assistance can aid households in preserving their current housing situation while diversion prevents homelessness for youth seeking shelter by helping them identify immediate alternative housing arrangements and, if necessary, connecting them with services.
Emergency shelters and interim housing: Youth experiencing a housing crisis or fleeing an unsafe situation need to find a safe place to stay, quickly. Emergency shelter and interim housing can fill this role in a crisis response system. These interventions should be low-barrier and align their goals and program activities with the larger system's goals.
Permanent Housing: A crisis response system must have the capacity to connect people experiencing homelessness with permanent housing programs, such as rapid re-housing and permanent supportive housing, and other stable housing options.
Increasing Employment and Income. Programs designed to assist low-income people increase their income are critical to supporting housing stability. A housing crisis can often be related to the result of a financial one. With incomes typically much lower than is needed to comfortably pay average rental costs, millions of people are financially vulnerable to homelessness and housing instability. A reduction in work hours, a lost job, an inability to pay the rent, an eviction, reliance on extended family for a place to stay, and, sometimes, entry into a homeless shelter.
Here are some resources, if you are currently experiencing homelessness, or you know someone who is, don't be afraid to speak up for yourself and use these resources!
For Legal Advocacy, Behavioral Health, Behavioral Interventionist, Fostering Prevention, Food Pantry/Clothes Closet, Respite Care, Support Groups, and Advocacy.
Get Connected
Start volunteering at any of these programs!
Stay Informed
Don't stop learning here, find out what you can do to help your community. Provide Visibility to this issue and address it head on. You are the change you want to see in the world:)
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