Lessons of Hope: A Forum Discussion on Youth Homelessness, was hosted by Street Sense July 16. A panel of professionals offered insights into the challenges of addressing what they described as a hidden crisis. While homeless and runaway teens are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, communities often lack the types of services they need. To make matters worse, reliable data on the size of the population is unavailable.
“We do not have a very good number on homeless youth,” said Mary Cunningham, a researcher at The Urban Institute. “The numbers are really dated.”
When moderator, Kavitha Cardoza a special correspondent for WAMU radio, asked about the type of young person who is at-risk for homelessness, panelist Jasmine Williams offered a personal story.
She said she left home to escape her abusive stepfather. Luckily, she found a safe haven at Sasha Bruce Youthwork, an organization aimed at providing resources and improving the lives of homeless and neglected youth.
While some teens leave home to escape abuse and exploitation, many also fall prey after they are on the streets, panelists said.
“Traffickers know where to go for kids- they are outside of schools,” said Priya Dhanani, Director of Prevention Education at FAIR Girls. She explained that “there is a very high correlation” between youth that experience sexual violence and those involved in sex trafficking.
Kenneth Walker, Director of Workforce Development at Sasha Bruce spoke of the special vulnerability of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth, who may run away after being misunderstood or rejected by their families. When he posed the question “If you weren’t LGBTQ would you be homeless?” to twelve of his clients, all responded that they believe they would not be.
More awareness and funding is needed to provide the kind of programs that communities need to address youth homelessness, panelists agreed.
“It’s very important that there is a unified message to Congress about what works and what they can do,” urged Darla Bardine, Policy Director at National Network for Youth.
