There are about 550,000 homeless youth every year across the United States on any given day, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and the paths that young people take into homelessness are very different. The most common way that young people become homelessness is family conflict, but other situations like poverty or substance use can make a person more likely to become homeless. Certain groups are at much greater risk of being homeless, including those identifying as LGBTQ, teenage parents, or black and Native American children. While many of young people have experienced trauma that led them into homelessness, homelessness itself can be a traumatic experience having lasting effects.
Homelessness and involvement in criminal justice can lead to one another in a paradoxical cycle for young people. Although the exact overlap of young people who are both homeless and in the criminal justice system is unknown, one study reported that over three quarters of young homeless people being interviewed had interacted with the police and over 60% had been arrested at least once; these numbers are way above the average for housed youth. Youth in the justice system are also more likely to become homeless in the future because time in the system can hurt their education, job prospects, and family stability.
Most people are aware of the disproportionate number of minority youth in the juvenile justice system, but less people know about the disproportionate makeup of homeless youth. Even less people relate the two disparities in populations to each other. It is almost impossible to know how many children of color are directly affected by both issues, but it would be a mistake to assume that these systems are not related.
Criminalization of “survival activities” that people use to cope with homelessness impact future housing prospects. Expunging these charges is a large part of what the Homeless Person’s Representative Project’s Youth Initiative does. Ingrid Lofgren, the director of the Homeless Youth Initiative at HPRP, sees a range of charges in her line of work, most of them minor. Minor theft, panhandling, or even sleeping or sitting in certain places can result in fines or arrest. Teens who miss school because of housing or family conflict may be charged with truancy. If they can’t pay the fines for these charges, they can be arrested, which causes them to miss more school or work. Many experts and service providers agree on the important of decriminalizing these survival activities.
Keeping young people in their homes in the first place is part of the solution. It is much more difficult to intervene in the cycle of homelessness once it is already begun. Teenagers can be difficult to locate without a permanent address, especially if their school attendance is lapsed and they do not have a job to report to.
However, keeping children and teens in their homes with their families is not always possible. It may not be their choice to leave; gay, bisexual, or trans kids could be kicked out, or poverty could put a whole family on the street. Solutions for youth outside their homes must be comprehensive and wrap-around. Karen Thomas, the Lead Case Manager for the Family Stability and Shelter Diversion Program at Project Plase, a Baltimore-based non-profit, provides some insight into what those solutions could look like. While Thomas’ official job title focuses on rapid rehousing, which is a housing strategy that prioritizes stable housing first before tackling other issues in a person’s life, her day-to-day work involves anything to help families out. In her own words, “I’m always putting out fires.”
Thomas is almost always available for client questions and requests, answering the phone to help one client unlock her new apartment to filling out forms. Her office is cluttered with toys, bags of clothes, and even a microwave, giving the impression of a flea market more than a cubicle. She says that she gives whatever she can to the families that she is serving, from furniture to uniforms, hygiene products to transportation tokens. Not only does Thomas help with material needs, but she connects them to drug treatment or childcare if needed and helps families make a budget. Every family brings new challenges and issues, but Thomas’ flexibility is what makes her so successful at her job. Each young person experiencing homelessness, whether they are with their families or on their own, in school or dropped out, or involved in the criminal system or not, needs a different combination of services and help. A one-size-fits-all solutions is not plausible for this population.
Both Thomas and Lofgren have similar suggestions for solutions even though their lines of work are quite different. The siloed relationship between criminal justice and housing efforts reflect a larger pattern in service providers. Lofgren remarks on the disconnect between homeless, child welfare, healthcare, and school services. To combat the problems of homelessness, Lofgren believes that young people need more support between all these areas. Lots of this disconnect has to do with how services are separately funded even though these issues are intertwined in their causes and outcomes.
Most people learn independent living skills such as how to lease an apartment, pay utilities and rent, or navigating transportation, on a trial-and-error basis with a safety net from their families. However, homeless youth may not have this safety net. Giving older kids living skills, supports, and second chances is an underrated but important part of helping them be stably housed. Thomas says that you have to change how people think and live before their housing situation becomes stable, especially if they have not had a permanent home before; just placing them in a home is not the end solution. Lofgren emphasized the need to help young people navigate legal systems too since kids may be scared to get services because of the fear of getting arrested, and they may not be aware of a warrant because there is not permanent address to send it to. Since public defenders are very overloaded, Lofgren believes that the courts have a role to play in making this system more accessible.
What role do courts play in reducing youth homelessness? One problem comes when youth leave the legal system without a home to go to. Young people should have re-entry plans that involve housing, and courts can mandate or facilitate this process. This strategy would require lots more coordination between courts and child welfare service stakeholders. Judges in both family and juvenile courts must develop alternative measures for homeless youth that support their journey off the streets even if those youth have technicality committed a crime. It is irrational to expect young people to exit the cycle of homelessness with more punitive measures and requirements put on them by the justice system. Punishing kids for missing school because of their family is homeless or taking them out of their homes for minor crimes does nothing to keep families together or keep youth off the streets.
The two experts believe it is important to keep families together whenever possible. Thomas says that some kids are on their own before they arrive at Project Plase but get reconnected with families through their services and that they avoid calling child protective services unless absolutely necessary. Lofgren also advocates for providing supports ton reconcile and connect young people back with their families even if there is a deeper conflict there because the extra support families can give, both financially and emotionally, is invaluable.
Young people who are homeless are often an invisible population. It is difficult for even the best-intentioned of people to track the problem and know how to tackle it. Service providers need to collaborate to provide a range of options for homeless youth, and courts need to orient their mission and processes to support young people in vulnerable situations, not punish them. Only with these changes can society make a marked dent in the experiences of youth experiencing homelessness.
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