youth
Kids Could Get Axed in Washington State Budget Cuts
Published November 23, 2009 @ 08:21AM PT
Debates on budget shortfalls are taking a turn for the worse in Washington state this week. Who's on the chopping block? Homeless kids. Human services officials are hurting to find programs to cut and plan to phase out sheltering and outreach for homeless minors in months to come. Bad idea.
Two things are flawed about this proposal.
The premise to start with. Though a combination of cuts and tax hikes are necessary when legislators find themselves toeing the edge of a yawning revenue chasm, it's curious that the hole is all too often filled with food and cash taken from the mouths and hands of the poor. Erring is usually on the minus rather than the plus side. And if you argue that raising taxes ultimately hurts everyone by, um, probably, in the future you see, leading to job cuts, talk to the director of the Washington Sate Budget and Policy Center, Remy Trupin. In a recent story concerning the budget crisis, he cites evidence that "tax increases can be less harmful to families and state economies than deep cuts to services." That a strong safety net leads to greater stability is self-evident.
Why force the helping professions to choose who suffers?
The New Faces of Homelessness
Published November 09, 2009 @ 07:42AM PT
Today I am live-blogging from Rhode Island's "Yes We Will" Conference on Homelessness and Housing. The first workshop of the day will examine the "new faces of homelessness" - not necessarily new categories of people experiencing homelessness, but groups that have started receiving more priorities and attention from funders and policy-makers.
10:22 - I like the note that we're starting out on: moderator Mike Burk from the RI Dept. of Children, Youth, and Families notes that many of the groups facing homelessness we will discuss today are homeless as a direct result of policy decisions. For example, Rhode Island intentionally cut off services for foster youth at age 18; homelessness has become an unintended effect.
Homeless Youth and Survival Sex
Published November 01, 2009 @ 06:27PM PT
It's a sad but ugly truth: roughly one in four homeless youth engages in survival sex. A new research brief out this week from the National Alliance to End Homelessness paints a scary picture of the harsh realities faced by homeless runaway youth. Whatever you do, do not just read these numbers and shake your head. Let this be a call to action, the start of a grassroots movement to help these victimized homeless youth get the help they desperately need.
Here are a few of the most compelling (terrible) points that caught my eye from the research brief:
- 40-60 percent of homeless youth have experienced physical abuse and 17-35 percent have experienced sexual abuse. These young people are much more vulnerable to survival sex, prostitution, and sexual exploitation.
- Homeless girls face a significantly greater risk of being raped or assaulted than homeless boys.
- Sexually exploited youth rarely report their situation or ask for help.
- LGBTQ homeless youth experience are at a greater risk of sexual exploitation than non-LGBTQ homeless youth.
- Long-term psychological effects from sexual exploitation are more likely the longer a youth remains on the street following an assault.
- Sexual exploitation of homeless youth is not a city or coastal issue - research shows it is just as common in rural and Midwestern communities.
- One study noted that of the youth engaging in survival sex, 48 percent reported exchanging sex for housing or food, 22 percent traded sex for drugs, and 82 percent traded sex for money.
If these numbers don't trouble you, then maybe this will: the research brief concludes by pointing to the complete lack of community-based resources for victimized homeless runaway youth. In other words, their plight is largely unknown by most of America and there are few specialized services to help them.
But here's the good news: you can take action to stop this type of activity in your community. Here are a few things you can do (straight from the report):
- Learn about youth homelessness in your community. Find out how many homeless youth are enrolled in the public schools and what kinds of resources are available to help them. Be informed about the realities of your community.
- Be a vocal advocate for increased housing resources. Youth are less likely to be exploited when they are off the streets and in stable housing. There are model youth housing programs that can be developed in rural, suburban, and urban neighborhoods. Is there enough affordable housing in your neighborhood for older teenagers and young adults who are fleeing abuse and neglect?
- Make sure that local law enforcement is targeting the businesses (pimps, strip clubs, escort services) and customers (johns) of the commercial sexual industry and not the victims (youth and young adults) for prosecution.
Learn more here.
Youth homelessness should not be a reality. But the sexual exploitation of runaway homeless youth is flat out unacceptable.
Golden Girl Includes Homeless GLBT Youth in her Will
Published October 28, 2009 @ 11:55AM PT
She's the Golden Girl with the golden heart. Bea Aurther, the late actress of Golden Girl fame, left a $300,000 gift in her will to a New York City organization that serves gay and lesbian youth.
The Ali Fornay Center is one of just a handful of organizations that exclusively shelters GLBT youth in New York City, serving roughly 1,000 youth annually. "We are overwhelmed with gratitude that Bea saw that LGBT youth deserve as much love and support as any other young person," said Executive Director Carl Sicilliano. The organization said today that they plan to name a building for Bea in light of her posthumous generosity.
Prior to her death several months ago, Bea was a lifelong advocate of GLBT rights. Her generous legacy gift illustrates that she made the connection between intolerance and the rising prevalence of GLBT homeless youth.
As I've written in the past, GLBT youth are disproportionately represented among homeless youth. Roughly 20 percent of homeless youth self-identify as LGBTQ, and that's a conservative estimate. This population is much more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse than their heterosexual peers. To make matters worse, the social service safety net to catch these troubled teens is, in many communities, nonexistent.
This is precisely why organizations like the Ali Fornay Center are so important. They provide a safe, non-threatening haven that will accept them when their families do not.
Why can't we all just be like Bea?
Image: SheWire
Homeless Runaway Youth, In Their Own Words
Published October 27, 2009 @ 09:41AM PT
This is Clinton. He's 18 years old, but he's been living on the streets since he was 12. He knows how to sleep without being seen, survive on a jar of peanut butter for a week, and remain invisible in plain sight.
This week, the New York Times featured two powerful exposes on homeless youth. But neither moved me as much as this video. There's something about hearing stories from those who have experienced it - seeing the conditions they live in - that is both powerful and incredibly sad.
Take seven minutes and watch this video. I hope it changes the way you look at the issue of homelessness in America.
Is the National Surge in Homeless Students Bailout-Worthy?
Published October 05, 2009 @ 08:51AM PT
In schools across the country, the heat is on. And we're not just talking about the chilling weather. In addition to the pressure to produce higher test scores and graduation rates, schools are also grappling with economic issues, like the gargantuan task of serving skyrocketing numbers of homeless students with tighter budgets.
The rising numbers of homeless youth speak for themselves. The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth says there were 679,000 homeless students reported in the 2006-7 school year. As of last Spring, the New York Times reported that this total had surpassed 1 million. In areas of the country hit hard by job losses and foreclosure, these numbers are much worse. In Central Florida, for example, the number of homeless youth enrolled in schools is up 20 percent over last year. Last Spring, Fairfax, Virginia saw a 63 percent increase over the previous year.
Sure, these numbers look bad on paper. But for the schools that must keep these students in pace with their classmates, this often means resources. Resources in the form of transportation costs, counseling, food and supplies, and classroom time. One community in Central Florida will spend $17,000 just to provide transportation to 10 homeless students this academic year.
But when it comes to meeting the basic needs of the youngest among us, we cannot afford inaction. The federal requirements in place to ensure that children without a home do not fall behind in school are - simply put - good policy. What McKinney-Vento requires of schools is critical for ensuring that homeless students do not miss educational opportunities simply because they are homeless.
But these things are useless if they drain the budgets of schools that are already stretched due to the economy.
How dire must a situation be to be dubbed bailout-worthy?
Image from the Orlando Sentinel.
Journal of a Homeless Youth
Published October 04, 2009 @ 09:57AM PT
The best way to get a glimpse into life on the streets is to talk to someone who has experienced. I want to share with you the journal of an Australian homeless youth that has been written over more than five years at the Homelessness Forum. Over 70,000 people have read her journal already -- now it's your turn. I believe it's the most engaging and educational first-person account of homelessness available online.
Be prepared, though. The entire journal is long, and will take you more than a few hours to read.
Most of her journey is there though warts and all; it's a very honest and confronting account. Here's an excerpt from one of her first entries in 2004, when she began writing at just 17 years old. It provides a pretty good glimpse into why she began writing about her experiences online:
i wish there were more streeties from australia to talk to online. i'd spend an hour scabbing EVERY day to get on the net to talk. most of them are too busy chroming or sleeping. u know ive kept off all drugs so far! i havent even smoked. but its pretty hard, and i think ill have to give in soon. im going to book a library computer for like the next week so i can get on the net every day. sorry about going on and on but u dont get to talk to many people about being on the streets, like the people at the food vans are good, but they dont stay very long and not many people (volunteers) come.
The author has been a long-term moderator at the International Homeless Forum. Perhaps the neatest thing about this journal is that you can interact with the author. If you read her story and want to comment, she is available to respond.
Recently I arranged for her to appear on the Aussie-equivalent of Good Morning America. The video of that interview is available here and also included in the journal.
Out of respect for the author of this amazing journal, please don't comment in reply to this blog post unless you have read her journal in full.
If you want the author of the journal to reply to your comment, join the Homelessness Forums and reply to the thread Diary of a Homeless Youth.
Image from the8rgrl's public Flickr photo stream.
