Myth: IT’S FUN.

       Youth on the street may say it is completely their choice to be homeless. They may say they just want to hang with their friends. This is a good way to maintain dignity or avoid talking about personal issues. When trust is built with someone who is really able to provide help, the stories of sexual abuse, abandonment, and other trauma invariably come out.

       Life on the streets is anything but fun. It is a constant looking over your shoulder, guarding all your belongings from theft, looking for food, dry clothing and shelter, and continually feeling insults and nasty looks from passers by.

Myth: MOST ARE RUNAWAYS.

       Many youth run away from home, and many runaway reports are filed with the police. Few of those runaways stay out for more than one or two nights and fewer still become homeless.  Only 2-8% of youth served in homeless youth shelters have a runaway report filed on them.

Myth: YOUTH DON’T WANT SERVICES.

       Most youth do want help. They want to have a normal life, go to school, start a career, develop relationships. They just don’t know how with the limited resources available to them. Many services are difficult or impossible to access without a parent’s signature, proper identification, medical insurance, etc. Others have long waiting lists. Waiting lists are difficult to use when the youth are moving around each night. Many homeless youth are distrustful of adults and social services. As much as they want a better life, they may be afraid to engage in services or cynical about the likelihood of getting real help. They have been let down a lot. But if trust can be slowly built, most do engage in services when they are available, and often do very well.

Underlying Causes of Youth Homelessness

       There are many reasons that a youth may become homeless. Often it is a combination of factors such as a mental illness, learning disability, or emotional issues; the actions or status of parents and other adults responsible for caring for the child; along with larger social issues such as racism, poverty and other forms of oppression. Rarely is youth homelessness clearly a symptom of personal economic crisis as it is for many homeless adults. However with the rising cost of housing, many young adults face insufficient income to maintain housing, especially those who have been in foster care or otherwise have little support from adults. While a wide range of circumstances might cause youth homelessness, there are three situations that stand out as common to large portions of the homeless youth population.

Family Conflict

       Of the 673 youth entering shelters in King County, 60% indicated emotional conflict at home contributed to their need for shelter. A study of a sample of homeless youth in Seattle found that "Although the reasons for leaving home varied considerably, conflict or fighting at home (53%) was named most frequently"

       Many families have significant problems of one sort or another, but are able to manage some difficulties while a child is small. When the child becomes a teenager, new challenges emerge. The youth needs to establish increasing independence and may begin to express strong new emotions that adolescents often experience. These normal developmental processes added to ongoing stresses such as a child’s learning disability, a parent’s mental health or substance abuse issue, cultural assimilation issues, or poor parenting skills, make the level of conflict intolerable for the parents or the youth. Little or no help is available for such families, and eventually the youth is told to leave or runs away.

       Many of these situations could be prevented if adequate support were available for families with parenting issues, children with disabilities or other stresses that affect parent child relationships. Counseling, parenting skills training, parent/family support programs and intensive family intervention services are needed in far greater supply than current capacity. Support must be provided long term to maintain therapeutic gains and help parents deal with new challenges as children reach different developmental stages.

Inadequate Child Welfare System

       In the King County Shelter system, 25% of youth had been physically abused and 12% had been sexually abused. Robertson and Toro conclude in their review of the literature on homeless youth, that "across studies of homeless youth, rates of sexual abuse ranged from 17-35 percent and physical abuse ranges from 40-60%…Rates of Foster placements ranged from 21 percent to 53 percent."

       More serious family issues may be identified early in a child’s life and she or he is removed from the home of an abusive or neglectful parent. A series of transitions between foster homes adds to the trauma of being abused and of being separated from parents. When the child becomes an adolescent, the effects of this trauma are very often acted out as running away and defiance or aggressiveness toward foster parents and other adults in authority. It becomes more and more difficult to find a placement for the youth and he or she eventually becomes homeless. Children involved in the juvenile justice system face even greater challenges in finding a placement.

       Children are often abused while in foster care as well. Development of high quality foster care is challenging, and inadequate resources exist for training, supporting and monitoring foster parents and group care providers. If longer term placements were provided, children might be exposed to less risk of being placed in an abusive situation.

       When a youth is living with an abusive parent, the Child Welfare System is less likely to intervene compared to the same situation with a younger child. Resources for investigation and placement are inadequate, and younger children are more vulnerable and therefore a higher priority for the use of scarce Child Welfare resources. The youth’s options are to suffer abuse or become homeless.

       More resources are needed throughout the system in child protection, family reconciliation, out of home placement and licensing. The HOPE Act has begun to address part of this issue in creating developmentally appropriate placement options for homeless teenagers. Much more must be done in order to provide protection and care for children whose parents cannot fill that role.

High Cost of Housing

       The wage needed to afford a one bedroom apartment in King County is $11.91 per hour. Youth in foster care generally must leave when they turn 18. State resources are no longer available for housing them once they are 18 and finished high school. Many foster youth have developmental, academic or living skills deficits as a result of their stay in the foster care system, many school changes, and trauma they may have experienced. They are less likely than the average youth to be capable of supporting themselves, particularly in the current housing market. Other youth decide to leave home or are told to leave at age 18, 19 or 20 without the means to pay for adequate housing. Sometimes return home is no longer an option.

       Increases in the minimum wage to a living wage would allow more young adults to afford adequate housing. Short of that, homeless youth may need a housing subsidy or access to subsidized housing to replace the support that other youth receive from their parents. The state should be encouraged to maximize housing subsidies allowed in the Chaffee Foster Care Independence Act to assist foster youth in their transitions to independence. Skills in successful shared living should be included in independent living skills curricula.

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