Understanding a complex issue
What is Youth Homelessness?
Just what exactly does it mean to be homeless?
Many homeless teens move from couch to couch and from friend’s house to friend’s house. They might sleep in hallways, stairwells, cars, tents, and other places not meant for human habitation. They trade favors for places to stay and are often sexually exploited. They don’t know where they’re going to sleep each night.
But regardless of where they live, the shared experience of runaway and homeless youth is housing instability. They don’t feel safe or welcome in their own homes, and though they may currently find shelter, it is not often permanent.
Homeless youth are not visible in the classic ways many perceive homelessness, i.e., sleeping on street corners, panhandling or passed out on a sidewalk. Because of their vulnerability, they hide, which is why they have been called an “invisible” homeless population.
This short film, from the Reciprocity Foundation, details the lives and experiences of homeless youth and helps the viewer break their misunderstandings about homeless youth. We encourage you to watch.
Fairbanks Youth Homelessness
Statistics gathered from The Door shelter in Fairbanks.
Number of Youth Sheltered
Youth Ethnicity Percentages
National Youth Homelessness Statistics
How many are homeless?
- Nationally, anywhere between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away from home each year.
- Many runaway and homeless youth go unreported and unidentified.
- Homeless youth are considered the “invisible homeless” because they are so difficult to locate and track.
Why Do They Leave?
- Nearly half (48 percent) say they were thrown out of their homes.
- Twenty-two percent describe the situation as both – some combination of running away and being thrown out.
- Youth commonly describe a significant family conflict that led to the youth’s departure.
- Sometimes a parent has insisted the youth leave. Sometimes a parent may only indicate the youth should leave and the youth feels s/he has no choice.
- For LGBTQ youth, some parents can’t accept their child’s sexual orientation and throw them out of the house. Other face difficulties due to lack of acceptance within their families, which may lead them to run away.
- Many youth leave home because of patterns of physical (46%) or sexual (38%) abuse, or ongoing substance abuse or mental illness in their parents. It feels safer to leave than to stay.
Learn more about youth at-risk
National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Throwaway Children; This is the most thorough and recent study (1999) that we have to go by. This is the source that is most widely quoted regarding the numbers of homeless youth.
Released every year by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, it details how homelessness is effecting communities across America.
The Campaign’s newly-released report on child homelessness in America. Alaska is 28th in the nation with 7,300 homeless children in 2010.
A 2009 report on Homelessness in Alaska, compiled by the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness is a statewide organization working to develop strategies to increase the availability of affordable housing and eliminate homelessness in our great state.
Safe Place is a national youth outreach program that educates thousands of young people every year about the dangers of running away or trying to resolve difficult, threatening situations on their own. They create a network of “Safe Place locations” – that connect youth in crisis with those who can help.
The primary mission of the Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs.
Kids Count tracks over 100 measures of child well-being, by state.
The National Network for Youth works with agencies serving homeless and runaway youth and connects them – and the kids they serve – with valuable resources.
The RHYTTC serves as a resource for FYSB funded Runaway and Homeless Youth grantees. Training and Technical Assistance Services are directed at assisting RHY grantees to engage in continuous quality improvement of their services and to build their capacity to effectively serve runaway and homeless youth
The National Runaway Switchboard is a 24-hour crisis line that helps connect runaway teens and their supporters with resources and information. 1-800-RUNAWAY
The Covenant House Alaska is located in Anchorage, AK and has served thousands of teens since their opening in 1988. Their programs include an emergency shelter, transitional living, workforce development, and daytime community services.
The legal definition of youth homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Act. See also: What Is Homelessness?