But How Homeless Are You? Toward a More Just and Effective Response to Youth Homelessness

Abstract

Each year, an estimated 4,200,000 unaccompanied youth ages 13 to 25 experience homelessness in the United States. The threats facing young people in housing crisis are many, and their potential impacts, harrowing. Youth are at high risk for physical and sexual victimization, mental and physical illness, and involvement with the criminal legal system and face serious threats to their education, their future economic stability, and their lives. Despite these dangerous consequences, the response to this issue in the United States continues to lack urgency, meaningful investment, and empirical support. This article critically examines the current approach to services for youth in situations of homelessness in the United States. Directly informed by the lived experiences of young people, it calls for a shift in understanding of the nature and scope of the problem and, consequently, the practice and policy strategies being implemented to address it. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness, along with corresponding procedures that further limit access to services, is examined in a call to change course in response to youth homelessness.

Behavioral Interventions Contributing to Reducing Poverty and Inequities

“…This includes applications to increase work and traffic safety, prevent substance abuse, reintegrate incarcerated felons, and strengthen community commitment of police officers; often by increasing rates of public positive reinforcement within organizational structures. In another example, the LYTE Collective in Chicago, which has developed a new form of locally grounded partnership with homeless youth, has worked to develop a culture of respectful, reciprocal relationships (consistent with Biglan’s and Geller’s approaches); in part this is due to some lead participants’ exposure to behavioral science principles during education at Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois Chicago (Holtschneider, 2021 ).…”

“…Many other behavioral scientists have engaged in advocacy and systems change efforts addressing poverty and inequities. Examples include research and action to address chronic poverty and social exclusion in Brazil (Freitas Lemos et al, 2019 ; Freitas Lemos & Todorov, 2020 ); challenging conditions related to colonialism in Africa (Smilak & Putnam, 2022 ); increasing supports for people immigrating to the United States (Rakos & Switzer, 2021 ); and working on improvements in services for unhoused persons in the United States (Holtschneider, 2021 ; Switzer & Rakos, 2022 ). Mattaini and colleagues have also developed an analysis of possible ways to reduce violence by police in the United States (Mattaini & Rehfeldt, 2020 ), promote youth activism as violence prevention (Aspholm & Mattaini, 2017 ; Roose & Mattaini, 2020 ), and (referencing Gandhi) establish a “constructive program” for the twenty-first century (Mattaini, 2015 ).…”