Haynes 1

Kalea Haynes
Ms. Honey
Government 2
20 October 2015
Homeless Youth and Their Struggles in America
One in five youths under the age of 18 will run away at least once (Homeless Teens,
2015). These children are forced to escape their homes for a multitude of reasons such as mental
abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and many others. Thousands of youths go homeless for
periods of time spanning weeks, months, and in the worst cases years. When homeless it
becomes difficult to maintain former stabilities in life. Homeless youth often stop attending
school regularly because of the other hardships in their lives and some even drop out of school
all together. They are forced to have to grow up faster than regular children and make difficult
decisions in order to survive. While on the streets they often have to engage in inhumane acts to
gets things that they need. These heavy weights can devastate homeless youths with life lasting
mental problems that make them unable to function properly in the adult world. It is imperative
that homeless youth are given mental and physical health care to fight perpetual homelessness,
crippling mental problems, and life threatening sexually transmitted diseases and other viruses.
When people become homeless in their youth it is more likely that they will become
perpetually homeless. In a years census year approximately 550,000 unaccompanied, single
youth and young adults up to age 24 experience a homelessness episode of longer than one week.
Approximately 380,000 of those youth are under the age of 18 (Youth, 2015). This means that
there are 550,000 youths at risk of living their entire lives in shelters, alleyways, on street

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corners, and under bridges. The longer children and teens live on the streets without proper
housing and necessities the more unlikely it is that they will be able to stabilize their lives and
bring themselves out of homeless. This is because perpetual homelessness is mainly caused by
lack of education and social skills. Children without stable homes are more than twice as likely
as others to repeat a school grade, be expelled or suspended, or drop out of high school
(Homeless Children and Youth, 2015). When a child drops out of school due to homelessness
they are deprived of not only useful education that will propel them later to college and further,
they also miss out on key life lessons and skill training. These exact things that homeless youths
loose when dropping out are exactly what they need to function better in society, get a legitimate
job, and pull themselves out of perpetual homelessness. If homeless youth were given mental
health care they would have someone to boost them in the right direction and put them back on
track to stable futures.
Mental and physical health care would also immensely help every homeless youth
dealing with the trauma that comes from not only living on the streets , but also for some the
additional mental damage caused by the living situation they have escaped from. When youth are
living on the street it is very common for them to suffer from depression and other mental
disorders. Of 354 homeless youth, 76.9 percent met the American Psychiatric Association's
DSM-III-R criteria for at least one disorder - about eighteen percent were depressed and fortythree percent reported having attempted suicide.(Promising Strategies to End Homeless Youth,
2015). The effects that homelessness has on youth can detrimental and even life ending. Besides
depression, the other mental disorders youths develop when being homeless can cause them to
act irrationally and disregard what is best for them. It is impossible to know exactly what they
face every day but it not something that anybody, especially children and teens should have to be

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subjected to. From these feelings homeless youth who think that they are trapped in their
depression will tend to turn to other unorthodox methods in desperate attempts to cure
themselves. About 80% of homeless youth (aged 12-21) use drugs or alcohol as a means to selfmedicate to deal with the traumatic experiences and abuse they face (Homeless Teens, 2015).
When anxious, depressed youth turn to substance abuse as a way to try to cope or remedy their
depression it really only makes their situations worse. When homeless it is very easy to become
addicted to drugs and alcohol, especially when it is believed these are things needed to help keep
sane. Homeless youth who become addicted only become more mentally unstable and also stop
caring about their health state in favor of their addiction.
When youths become homeless their health decreases and in fact many homeless youths
are known to catch STDs and other viruses. Poor health and disease among homeless youth is
partially due to the environment in which they live. Not bathing regularly and living in harsh
unsanitary conditions surrounded by people in the same situation, it is inevitable that homeless
youth will get sick more often and worse than the average child. Homeless youth are at a greater
risk of contracting AIDS or HIV-related illnesses (Homeless Youth, 2012). Both of these
diseases are life threatening and sadly seem unavoidable for homeless youth. They can catch
theses illnesses simply from being around someone who is sick and not containing it well. They
can also get such sickness from using the same needle as someone who currently has it when
partaking in drug abuse. Homeless youth are also known to catch such viruses when engaging in
sexual activities, consensual or otherwise. 28% of youth living on the street and 10% of those in
shelters engage in 'survival sex' in exchange for food, shelter or money. (Bardline, 2015).
Survival sex is not consensual because the child is only participating because the other had
something they need and is only willing to give it to them through sex. This activity is another

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main way for homeless youth to contract AIDS, HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases, not
to mention also all the mental trauma that comes from selling your body. If offered mental and
physical health care homeless youth would be able to battle the mental factor and be provided
with vaccination and medicine for the sicknesses they currently face.
People will argue that homeless youth do not need our additional help because they are
already paying for welfare for homeless people and because youths who run away have chosen
to be homeless therefore they do not require additional help either. When money is involved it is
common for people to ignore the better of the solutions in favor for the cheaper and easier of
them, which is why people believed the things they do about homeless youth. However the case
is that both of those ideas are incorrect. Even though yes, there is currently a welfare system in
place to help homeless people and people with low incomes to get bare necessities, this program
is lacking and does not fully reach out and help homeless youths. Let it be known that youth ages
12 to 17 are more at risk of homelessness than adults (Homeless Youth Statistics, 2015).
Welfare for children includes getting them housing and for runaway children that means
returning them back to their abusive households that they ran away from in the first place.
Homeless youths are no better off back in their abusive situations at home then they are in their
abusive situations on the streets. Also just because they chose to escape their unlivable home
lives does not mean that they do not require help because it was their choice to live on the street.
46 percent of runaway and homeless youth reported being physically abused, 38 percent reported
being emotionally abused, and 17 percent reported being forced into unwanted sexual activity by
a family or household member (Homeless Youth Statistics, 2015). It never a simple or easy
choice to leave home but homeless youth who run away do so because they strongly feel that
whatever they will face on the streets it better than their tortuous lives at home. This is why,

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regardless of what the expenses may be, homeless youth need to be provided with mental and
physical health care or perish on the streets.
It is essential that homeless youth are provided with the mental and physical health care
they need to battle all of the situations they face on the streets or else they risk becoming stuck in
their current state of homelessness, riddled with mental disorders and depressions, and sick with
life threatening STDs and other viruses. All of these situations threaten their lives and it has been
shown that suicide is the leading cause of death among street youth (Consequences of Youth
Homelessness, 2015). It is very possible that if not properly assisted that the death rates of
children and teens who live on the streets could rise in the upcoming years. Homeless youth need
mental health care such as therapists in places accessible to them like schools, YMCAS, and
shelters so that they have a place to work out their inner turmoils and be able to later on function
in society, secure themselves a stable future, and uplift themselves from homelessness. They also
need physical health care in places accessible to them so that not only are their minds well taken
care of but so are their bodies. Homeless youths need vaccines to prevent illness that can be
caught while living on the streets and medicine for viruses already caught that, if untreated,
could threaten their lives in the immediate future. If not provided with all of these things this
problem will not be solved, and will only get devastatingly worse over time.

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Works Cited
J.D, Darla Bardline. "Human Trafficking and the Runaway and Homeless Youth
Population." (n.d.): 1-2. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. <http://www.1800runaway.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/05/Homeless-Youth-and-Human-Trafficking.pdf>.
"11 Facts about Homeless Teens." N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
<https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-homeless-teens>.
"Youth." National Alliance to End Homelessness:. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/youth>.
"Homeless Children and Youth." Child Trends. N.p., 17 Mar. 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=homeless-children-and-youth>.
Promising Strategies to End Youth Homelessness (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
<https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fysb/youth_homelessness.pdf>.
"Homeless Youth." National Coalition for the Homeless. N.p., 21 Feb. 2012. Web. 22
Sept. 2015. <http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/youth.html>.
"Homeless Youth-Statistics." Women's Center Youth & Family Services. N.p., 2015.
Web. 17 Oct. 2015. <http://www.womenscenteryfs.org/index.php/100-mcg-information>.
"Consequences of Youth Homelessness." (n.d.): 1-7. NN4Youth. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
<https://www.nn4youth.org/wp-content/uploads/IssueBrief_Youth_Homelessness.pdf>.

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Works Consulted
J.D, Darla Bardline. "The Current Status and the Way Forward." (2014): n. pag.
Nn4youth. 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Sept. 2015. <https://www.nn4youth.org/wpcontent/uploads/NN4Y-Youth-Homelessness-in-America-2014.pdf>.
Hyatt, Shahera, Brynn Walzer, and Patricia Julianelle. CALIFORNIAS HOMELESS
STUDENTS: A GROWING POPULATION (n.d.): n. pag. California Homeless Youth Project.
Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
<http://cahomelessyouth.library.ca.gov/docs/pdf/CaliforniasHomelessStudents_AGrowingPopula
tion.pdf>.
"Homeless Youth Statistics Whats the Issue?" (n.d.): n. pag. Greater Twin Cities United
Way. Web. 17 Oct. 2015. <https://www.gtcuw.org/_asset/59z07n/HYNM---Issue-Statistics.pdf>.
"LGBTQ HOMELESS YOUTH FACT SHEET." (n.d.): n. pag. National Alliance to END
HOMELESSNESS. Web. 17 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/LGBTQhomelessFactSheetbyNAEH.pdf>.

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