Rupal Ramesh Shah examines the intersection of public health and social justice in this periodic column she writes for Street Roots. Shah has a master’s degree in microbiology from Clemson University and a master’s degree in public health from Boston University. She has previously worked at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, as a tuberculosis research assistant and laboratory manager. She has also worked at Boston Children’s Hospital as a quality improvement specialist. She has extensive experiences in global health. Currently she serves as the executive director of Konbit Sante, an organization that supports the development of health systems in Haiti.
Youth homelessness is on the rise in the United States for various reasons, studies show. Family conflicts, housing insecurities, and mental health and substance use disorders are all contributing factors.
According to a Point-in-Time Count estimate by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on a single night in 2020, approximately 34,000 people under the age of 25 years experienced homelessness. Out of that, almost 90% were ages 18 to 24. Additionally, homeless youths were more likely to be non-white and female.
But the U.S. is not the only country with a homeless youth crisis, and in some places, it’s far worse. Organizations across the U.S. and around the globe are utilizing different approaches to solve this complex problem. There is much we can learn from each other’s successes.
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Boys & Girls Aid, founded in 1885, has a mission to improve the condition of children who are homeless, neglected and abused in Oregon. Suzan Huntington, president and chief executive officer of the organization, said there are many reasons for youth homelessness. One of the top reasons is related to the questioning of their sexuality, which causes discomfort in their families, at which point children leave their homes due to feelings of insecurity.
In other cases, when entire families lose their homes, older children are the first to be abandoned. To add to that, boys are often rejected by families who are committed to foster care because they are most often considered dangerous. Huntington said her organization works with families to provide systems of care, and most of the time, homelessness boils down to a matter of resources. For single parents, it can be tough to provide consistent support to their children. The organization works with them to improve and strengthen their environment so that they can focus their attention on their family.
Boys & Girls Aid focuses on lifelong connections, and it works with youths to address trauma and to understand the environment and homes they come from in order to enable healing and growth.
“We can always do better. While the organization has worked with thousands of youths over the years to reengage them with their families in their own homes, our work still remains incomplete,” Huntington said. “We will continue to work with social workers, mental health workers, psychologists and members of the community to continue the work together.”
Taryn Marino, a licensed certified social worker at the Boston-based organization The Home for Little Wanderers, said safety, security and basic needs are foundational in supporting children. If youths and their families are having a hard time paying rent, she said, then it will negatively impact their life in other facets as well. The consequence of that situation is stigma, which directly affects mental health.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Marino said, homelessness became more evident, yet challenging to address. Limited resources significantly impacted families and caused further stress.
The Home for Little Wanderers has been working with youths through various programs in which they train foster families, provide case management, facilitate adoptions and provide transitional support to those who age out of the program around the time they turn 19. This year, especially, the organization is focused heavily on housing support for transitional youths.
Marino explained transitional-age youths (ages 18 to 25) usually have goals to pursue school or obtain a job. They are interested in becoming independent members of their communities. The organization’s goal is to work closely with transitional youths to form permanency goals. They also want to ensure youths are able to leave the child welfare system and become independent. To that end, they work closely with community partners to find loving homes for the youths.
The organization has also been working at the government level with legislators and state representatives to drive policy changes. Marino said the need to advocate at state and national levels to ensure there is better access to housing and health care services for youths before they are severely impacted. The organization has been instrumental in driving policy changes with the support of their state representative.
Matthew Rasmussen, program coordinator of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program at the Oregon Department of Human Services, acknowledges that youth and adult homelessness look very different. He said young people who are affected by homelessness are often couch surfing or staying with friends and are under the radar. It can be difficult to see the problem, but that itself is a challenge.
Rasmussen recognizes that children and young adults experiencing housing instability face challenges as they navigate complex systems, including obtaining job and career opportunities. His agency collaborates with partners in the community to directly address the challenges these youths face every day.
“Establishing youth boards for programming so that they can be viewed as experts would also be a great step forward,” Rasmussen said. “Their voices should be at the table and heard.”
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In Haiti, which was severely damaged by an earthquake 10 years ago and is frequently destructed by hurricanes, many families suffer from homelessness. Children are often the first impacted, and then continue to live on the streets or move from one home to another. Other countries with limited resources experience similar issues.
Linsey Jorgenson, president and founder of Streethearts, has developed a unique phased approach to working with street children in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. The first phase is to establish a night shelter, in which the children are provided a place to stay overnight along with meals. The second phase is to earn an education. Children who demonstrate a commitment to getting off the streets undergo a medical and psychological evaluation, a school assessment and a family background investigation. Thereafter, they are enrolled in school and various after-school activities. The third phase is to enter the workforce. Youths are set up with an apartment to live in together and provided opportunities to start their own business or seek jobs in the community.
“We have to be understanding and cannot give up,” Jorgenson said. “When I first started doing this work, everyone said it won’t work, and now we have multiple children in the program and many more that have phased out of the programs to become fully independent.”
Jorgenson said obtaining trust and acceptance from the children is important. “We have to be patient with children. At times, the kids take several steps forward and a few backwards, and that is OK,” she said. It is also vital to have the support from the community, she said. The organization works with various community partners to ensure children have the support they need. At times, the organization also works with gangs and gang leaders to ensure they understand and accept what the organization is doing.
Lastly, she said, it is vital to build a strong, dedicated and trustworthy team.
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Every child deserves and needs an individualized plan, Jorgenson said. She does not believe in the mass institutionalization of children. “We have to meet the children where they are at,” she said. “The success of Streethearts lies in the success of the children and their ability to become fully independent.”
To address the challenges youths experiencing homelessness face, entire communities must play a role. There must be recognition of the issues at hand, and there must be the breakdown of stigma and bias toward those who are affected.
There must also be urgency within each person to act and address the challenges. While various organizations in Oregon and the rest of the country are working on this issue, many groups in other parts of the world, such as Haiti, are also facing similar issues and addressing them in different ways. In places like Haiti, it is important to obtain trust, not just from the children but also from the greater community.
Lastly, it is important to meet the children where they are and work with them with the available resources in that community. To bring meaningful change to the system, collective lessons need to be shared across the globe.