Tag

youth

Charge Your Phone, Change Your Life

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | 2 Comments

Kids these days. Gone are the times when people talked with each other, interacted in person. Today, young people spend hours glued to screens — phones, computers, tablets, perpetually connected to the internet, apps, and games.

Do I sound like your parents yet?

As parents and grandparents complain how things have changed, they might not realize just how different times really are. As an increasing number of families have fallen on hard times, poverty and homelessness is affecting a greater number of youth. Last week’s New York Times investigative piece, “Invisible Child,” which followed a New York City family led by a fearless 11-year-old named Dasani, showcases the extreme grips of family poverty — a reality that is becoming increasingly common. As the article points out, 22,000 children are homeless in New York City, including Dasani and her seven siblings, who all live with their parents in one room of a city shelter. The conditions are deplorable — the food expired, the bathrooms moldy, the roaches and bedbugs happier tenants than the human residents.

Baltimore doesn’t face this problem on the same scale as New York, but not because Baltimore has won The Race to End Homelessness. There are virtually no family shelters inside the city, so large groups must move to the county to stay together. Even so, Baltimore City saw an increase in youth and student homelessness — to around 1,700 students in 2012, although many of these youth have separated from their parents and family units.

One study reports homeless youth who end up couch surfing or dancing between different family members don’t really consider themselves “homeless,” although by standard definitions they are still unstable. Many times, they can hardly be considered “youth” either — one study demonstrates that children experiencing homelessness, tend to act as little adults, helping their parents pay bills and, find the next place to sleep. Most important, these young people feel it is crucially important to stay strong for their parents, so as not to worry them.

With no money for necessities, how can homeless youth be following the same supposedly unhealthy trends as their housed peers when it comes to technology use? Eighty percent of homeless youth reported using a social media site regularly. More than sixty percent of the youth surveyed own a cell phone, but the internet is also accessible at libraries and youth centers. While the average American youth might claim to be “addicted” to his or her phone, homeless youth in one study rank having a smart phone as equally important to having food.

How can this be? Is technological dependence just another detrimental effect of homelessness — along with the higher rates of mental illness, chronic physical health issues, and behavior problems? It may surprise older generations to learn that technological resources have some ability to curtail the strain of living unhoused. Youth on the street or separated from siblings in the foster system reported that the increased ease of contacting loved ones improved those relationships. Close ties to family in turn puts a child at an increased likelihood of making smart health decisions and staying emotionally strong.

It seems as though social networks are actually connecting homeless youth to what they need most — their support network. Certainly, there is more that both Baltimore and New York can do to support this group that has been forced to grow up too quickly, but while they wait, this population has impressively used their own devices to connect with resources and important people. Perhaps this generation of internet savvy, technologically addicted individuals will be able to network their way to a more promising future.

 

Leaving the Next Generation Outside

By | Homelessness, The Race to End Homelessness | No Comments

Yesterday, October 10th, marked the third annual observance of World Homeless Day, and many homeless youth in our country’s capital city spent the holiday outside. Since shelter staff members are not considered essential, Washington D.C.’s only youth housing program and drop-in center has been forced to downsize during the government shutdown. 

Forty-six staff members at Sasha Bruce Network, located in Capital Hill, were furloughed this week, and the program had to end its tutoring, job training, and HIV education/ prevention programs. The organization has managed to keep shelter beds open for the time being, but they do not know how long they can maintain their work without government dollars.

Other youth-centered programs are already being forced to close their doors, leaving youth vulnerable and with nowhere else to go. Even beyond Washington, agencies dependent on governmental money are nervous each day that the shutdown continues. As the temperature starts to dip, so do the bank accounts for many social service programs. Not unlike their clientele, many small organizations operate on a budget with little room for error. A non-profit is not created in order to rack up savings in a bank, so a freeze on funding — even a temporary one — can be devastating. Twenty-five transitional houses were waiting on bridge funding after a grant expired September 30th, but now they do not know if or when they will see that money. One program in Arkansas has already had to downsize its programming, and others worry they will have to do the same.

Traditional shelters will not accept individuals under the age of 18, so youth without a safe place to go must seek specific programs that can meet their needs. On the streets, unaccompanied homeless youth are at an increased risk for physical violence compared to adults, but this is a resourceful demographic. Without homeless shelters as an option, youth will frequently turn to breaking and entering or selling themselves in exchange for a place to sleep. Youth centers provide a crucial service to an underserved population, but not this week.

On the holiday known as “World Homeless Day,” youth education and health programming was suspended, leaving crime and risky behavior as some of the only remaining options for this generation. The youth programs in this country are doing extraordinary work to support our youth — when they are able to operate. It is crucial that these programs be restored so that young people experiencing homelessness can resume tutoring programs and job training in safe places, and one day focus their energies not on survival, but on on creating a future without youth homelessness.