Personal Finance and Money Management

Shelters in Minneapolis, Minnesota and in other cities across the country are seeing sharp increases in young people aged 16 to 21 approaching homeless shelters for help.

According to analysts, the number of homeless young people is rising largely because of job losses, home foreclosures, family problems and other forms of abuses. Barbara Duffield, policy head for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, explained that when families suffer extreme difficulties and cannot afford to feed and house all their children, the older children are forced to fend for themselves.

In the Twin Cities, social service workers estimate that each night, around 1,500 young people are looking for a bed to sleep on to pass the night, but there are only about 50 shelter beds available.

At Hope Street Emergency Shelter in Minneapolis, which is run by Catholic Charities for young people, only 16 beds are available. According to Hope Street director Andrea Simonett, those accepted can stay for as long as they want, but most stay for around 25 days.

In 2009, the shelter had to turn down requests for help from 1,078 young people – a much higher number than the figure in 2007 and in 2008. Simonett and other youth advocates are concerned about the situation of homeless youth, stating that shelters for adults are generally unsafe for teenagers and older youth who are new to life on the streets.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, there were 794,617 homeless children and youth attending public schools during the 2007-2008 school year, a 17-percent increase from the previous school year.

Duffield said that the initial homeless youth data for the 2008-2009 school year showed that the numbers are increasing significantly in California, Florida and Colorado – states which have been topping foreclosure rate charts. Homeless students increased in California and in Colorado by 28 percent while the number increased in Florida by 21 percent.

Housing advocates added that while job losses, foreclosures and other economic factors are among the major reasons for the increased homelessness among youth, family troubles such as physical abuse and substance abuse also contribute to youth homelessness.

Ed Murphy, head of The Bridge youth shelter in Minneapolis, said that homeless young people can be helped much better in youth shelters than in adult shelters. In youth shelters, they receive early intervention assistance and they are protected from predators and pimps.

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