By
Theodora Filis
Update: This article was written in 2012. Today, in 2023, a staggering 2.5 million children are now homeless each year in America. This historic high represents one in every 30 children in the United States. Eleven years may have passed, but, the reality of being a homeless child in America has not.
It
is estimated that as many as 50,000 youth sleep on the streets in the
United States, and evidence suggests that the problem is real and
growing.
More
families entered the homeless shelter system in September of 2011
than in any other month since data has been collected – 25 years
ago. An estimated 600,000 Americans are currently homeless, including
nearly 70,000 veterans, according to the recently released The State
of Homelessness in America from the National Alliance to End
Homelessness.
US
rates are alarmingly high: 21 homeless per 10,000 people across the
country.
Compared
with low-income housed children, homeless children experience more
health problems, developmental delays, increased anxiety, depression,
behavioral problems, and lower educational achievement.
Young
people who are too old for foster care and too young to apply for
social services face devastating short- and long-term consequences
from being forced to survive on the streets.
“There's
not enough space for all these lost kids in shelters, which are
relatively safe. On the street, they panhandle, steal, and prostitute themselves in order to survive. Rape, sexual exploitation, physical
assault, addiction, mental illness, and physical illness like HIV/AIDS
can be hard to avoid. Some commit suicide. Like their adult
counterparts, however, youth receiving shelter services fare better
than those on the streets. Teens who find beds and make connections
in shelters are more likely to complete high school, escape
victimization and make homelessness a fading memory.” Change.org
A
study by the US Department of Health and Human Services found that
46% of homeless youth escaped a home where they suffered physical
abuse, while 17% left because of sexual abuse. Children who have been
in foster care have a greater risk of becoming homeless at an earlier
age than other youth and are more likely to remain homeless for a
longer period of time. Young people are at far greater risk of
becoming homeless if their parents engage in substance abuse or have
mental health problems, if there is child abuse or neglect in the
home if the family has been homeless previously, or if they identify
themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Poverty,
racism, and homophobia, reports Change.org, are “the trifecta of our
failure to these youth – are often silent, but pervasive. Black and
Native American youth and youth from low-income and working-class
families are overrepresented among teens on the street. “LGBTQ
youth are overrepresented at extreme rates, with 20 to 40g percent of
homeless youth identifying as LGBTQ versus two to three percent in
the general population.”
According
to the National Alliance To End Homelessness, “A
large contributor to youth homelessness is discharged from state
institutions. Without a home, family support, or other resources,
homeless youth are often locked up because they are without
supervision and arrested for “status” offenses, such as running
away or breaking curfew. In addition, as youth age out of the foster
care system or are released from juvenile detention, they may lack
support systems and opportunities for work and housing. In fact, 25
percent of former foster youth nationwide reported that they had been
homeless at least one night within two-and-a-half to four years after
exiting foster care.”
On any
given night, between 300,000 to 400,000 youths sleep on the streets:
- The US Federal Government must increase the budget for the Chaffee Foster Care Independence Program.
-
Early
intervention services for family preservation and housing options
are key to ending youth homelessness.
- Funding should also be increased for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act in order to increase services like outreach and emergency shelter.
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