THE ISSUES

Youth Homelessness

Young people facing homelessness often retreat to the shadows, so getting a sense of the scope of youth homelessness is both challenging and indispensable. Here’s what Covenant House has learned about children and youth facing homelessness in the countries or regions where we work. 

United States

Chapin Hall of the University of Chicago released its first groundbreaking report on youth homelessness in the United States through its Voices of Youth Count (VoYC) initiative in 2017. The VoYC study was conducted over the course of a full year rather than a single night, making it the most comprehensive research to date on youth homelessness in the U.S. 

Here is what we learned:

• More than 3.5 million young adults ages 18 to 25 experience a form of homelessness in the course of a year — that’s 1 of every 10 young adults. 
• At least 700,000 adolescent minors ages 13 to 17 experience a form of homelessness in the course of a year — that’s 1 of every 30 adolescent minors.
• In total, at least 4.2 million young people experience a form of homelessness in a given year, from couch surfing to living on the streets.
• Half of the youth who experienced homelessness in the past year did so for the first time.
• About 42% experienced two or more episodes of homelessness.
• Youth homelessness affects urban and rural youth at similar levels.

Who is at risk?

• Youth lacking a high school diploma or GED had a 346% higher risk of homelessness than did young people who completed high school.
• Youth in households making less than $24,000 a year had a 162% higher risk of homelessness.
• Unmarried parenting youth had a 200% higher risk of homelessness.
• LGBTQ youth are at more than double the risk of homelessness than their non-LGBTQ peers, and had over twice the rate of early death among all youth experiencing homelessness.
• Black or African American youth had an 83% higher risk of homelessness.
• Hispanic, nonwhite youth had a 33% higher risk of homelessness.

Resources:
Read the groundbreaking Voices of Youth Count: Missed Opportunities series of reports. 

• "Youth Homelessness in America: National Estimates," 2017
• "LGBTQ Youth Homelessness in America," 2018
• "Pregnant and Parenting Youth Experiencing Homelessness in America," 2018
• "Counting Youth Experiencing Homelessness in America," 2018
• "Youth Homelessness in Rural America," 2018

Homelessness in general increased modestly in the United States in 2018, the second increase in two years. On a single night in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 552,830 people were found to be experiencing homelessness in the United States.