Defining Youth Homelessness

Homelessness is a problem that goes beyond ‘rooflessness’ and a lack of access to safe shelter. The homelessness experience of young people is often a fluid experience moving between different types of homelessness from night to night, based on where they can find space or feel safe for the evening.

Why do definitions matter?

Currently, there is no single federal definition of homelessness. The Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education, and Department of Housing and Urban Development each use a different definition. HUD, for example, implements the narrowest definition of homelessness that leaves out youth who are couch-surfing or temporarily staying with others—leaving those youth at particular risk of being drawn into a cycle of long-term homelessness.

Federal agencies and programs use the definitions to guide how much federal funding is available and who can receive support from those programs. Unfortunately, multiple definitions have resulted in youth experiencing homelessness being undercounted and not prioritized as overly restrictive definitions have resulted in less access to shelter, housing, and supportive services that could prevent and ultimately end homelessness for a young person.

Expanding the definition of homelessness

Expanding the definition of homelessness as including youth staying with others or in motels would not mean that those youth would be more or less likely to receive services than other individuals who meet the current definitions (e.g., higher priority). Instead, it means that youth would be eligible to be assessed and receive services instead of being turned away.

Programs could prioritize youth (or other populations) according to their assessed vulnerability level or other factors used to determine service provision. Programs could also use different population-specific definitions of vulnerability to address the fact that what makes an unaccompanied youth more vulnerable may be different than what makes a family or chronically homeless adult more vulnerable.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Youth homeless services providers across the country turn away young people daily because their resources are nowhere near what is needed to serve the enormous number of young people experiencing homelessness. As long as definitions only reflect how adults experience homelessness – rather than how youth experience it – youth will be undercounted and underserved.
The same young person may be considered “homeless” and eligible to access services under one definition and set of programs, but not another.
Youth homelessness service providers and advocates have long tried to provide an “open front door,” that allows young people to be helped as soon as possible, with services targeted to their needs and situations, rather than waiting until they have experienced “enough harm” due to homelessness, or have been homeless “long enough”.