Youth Homelessness

A comprehensive new review of programs and practices aimed at tackling youth homelessness did not identify a silver bullet but rather suggested some promising areas for further study — and a crying need for more and better evidence of what works.

On a normal summer day, as many as 150 youth would hang out each day at SafeZone, a drop-in center for homeless youth in St. Paul, Minn. Its comfy couches, widescreen TV and air conditioning are a rare indoor respite for young people living on the streets or hopping around the couches of friends and family. 

Attempting to prove to a Santa Clara County court late last year that she had earned her monthly foster care check, a South Bay teenager couldn’t quite remember all the places she had applied for work.

Just a few years ago, Maddox Guerilla, now 24, was one of hundreds of young New Yorkers with no safe place to call home. Like many, Guerilla sought refuge in the network of drop-in centers and shelters dedicated to those younger than 25.

As voices everywhere speak about “our common experience of suffering” during the COVID-19 pandemic, we risk obscuring the struggles of our already marginalized young people — youth who are homeless, those being trafficked, and those involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. 

When Orlando first landed in New York in January, the 18-year-old dreamed of a life of independence and joining the heroic firefighters of the FDNY. He had completed high school in Silicon Valley last year through a special education plan and trained in handling hazardous materials.

Last week, a 19-year-old with nowhere to stay in a city being ravaged by coronavirus made a desperate phone call to Trinity Place, a 10-bed shelter for LGBTQ youth on the Upper West Side. 

Imagine you are 20 years old. You’ve been kicked out of your home and have no other stable place to live. According to research by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, you are among the estimated 4 million young people who experience homelessness every year in America.

Four of the top candidates in the race for the Los Angeles County Second District’s supervisorial seat met at a community forum Friday in South Los Angeles to discuss issues focused around vulnerable children, youth and families.