Every Young Person Deserves the Opportunity to Thrive
All young people deserve a safe place to call home with endless opportunities to reach their full potential. Yet millions of young people in the United States experience homelessness each year, disrupting their safety, health, education, relationships, and pathways towards a healthy, stable adulthood. But through targeted, youth-centered federal, state, and local cross-systems solutions, youth homelessness is preventable.
The Scope of the Crisis
Every year, 4.2 million youth, young adults, and young parent families experience homelessness on their own. This includes young people experiencing visible homelessness like sleeping outside or staying in emergency shelters, as well as those experiencing hidden homelessness like living in motels or staying temporarily with others (couch surfing). Most young people experiencing hidden homelessness never appear in official homelessness counts, making youth homelessness one of the nation’s most widespread but least visible crises.
One in 10 young adults ages 18-25 experienced homelessness over a 12-month period.
That’s approximately 3.5 million young adults.
One in 30 youth ages 13-27 experienced homelessness over a 12-month period.
That’s approximately 700,000 youth.
Homelessness does not affect all youth equally.
- Black youth face an 83% increased risk over their White peers.
- Hispanic youth face a 33% increased risk over their White peers.
- LGBTQ+ youth face a 120% increased risk compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers. Learn more about LGBTQ+ youth homelessness here.
- Young, unmarried parents are twice as likely to experience homelessness as their non-parenting peers.
- Youth without a high school diploma or GED are four and a half times more likely to experience homelessness than those who complete high school or an equivalency.
- Youth involved in foster care, the criminal legal system, behavioral health system, or other public systems are significantly more likely to experience homelessness.
- Youth who have experienced the death of a parent or caregiver are significantly more likely to experience homelessness.
These disparities do not reflect individual failures or personal deficiencies. Historic and ongoing systemic inequities such as racism, discrimination, and poverty create unequal pathways to homelessness and access to housing, resources, relationships, and opportunities that young people need to maintain stability.
For most young people, homelessness develops through the intersection of multiple, compounding issues.
- Family Conflict and Abuse Many young people experience homelessness due to family conflict, including abuse, neglect, domestic violence, parental substance use, untreated mental illness, caregiver incarceration, and rejection. Rejection is particularly prevalent among LGBTQ+ youth who are rejected because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Poverty and Economic Instability Rising rents, stagnant wages, inflation, unexpected expenses, and job loss can quickly push whole families or individual youth into homelessness.
- Lack of Affordable Housing Even when young people are employed, affordable housing options are scarce and full-time wages aren’t always enough. Limited affordable housing options, high security deposits, poor credit history, age restrictions, and discrimination make it extremely difficult for young people to obtain their own housing. Learn more about affordable housing for young people here.
- Exiting Systems to Homelessness Many young people who were involved in the child welfare, criminal legal systems, or behavioral health programs age out or are released from those systems without a safe and stable exit plan. Without coordinated discharge planning and continued services, many young people transition directly from these systems into homelessness.
- Pregnancy and Parenthood Young people who are pregnant or parenting face additional barriers like childcare costs, reduced educational opportunities, employment challenges, and limited access to affordable family-sized housing. Without adequate support, many young parent families face repeated episodes of housing instability. Learn more about young parent family homelessness here.
Youth homelessness is widespread but difficult to see because most young people experience a combination of visible and hidden homelessness.
- Moving between the homes of friends, relatives, acquaintances, or strangers.
- Staying temporarily in emergency shelters, transitional housing, hotels, or motels.
- Sleeping outside, in vehicles, or in other places not intended for habitation.
Many young people avoid adult shelters because they fear violence, theft, discrimination, or being separated from their siblings, partners, or pets. Others intentionally remain hidden to avoid involvement with child welfare, law enforcement, or because they have had negative experiences with service or care systems. As a result, the true scale of youth homelessness is frequently underestimated, limiting the attention, funding, and services available to address it.
Prevention and Early Intervention Matters
Experiencing homelessness during adolescence or young adulthood can significantly alter the course of a young person’s life. These are critical years for education, employment, identity development, relationship building, and the transition to adulthood. Investing in prevention and early intervention not only changes the trajectory of individual lives, but it reduces chronic adult homelessness and lowers long-term public costs across healthcare, child welfare, criminal legal systems, and emergency services.
Cities across the country have conducted in-depth surveys of their homeless constituents and have found that many of their chronically homeless adult populations first experienced homelessness as a young person.
- In San Francisco, 49 percent of adults experiencing homelessness first experienced homelessness under the age of 25.
- In Los Angeles, 45 percent of adults experiencing homelessness first experienced homelessness under the age of 25.
- In Seattle, 48 percent of adults experiencing homelessness first experienced homelessness under the age of 25.
- Statewide surveys from Minnesota found that 52 percent of adults experiencing homelessness first experienced homelessness under the age of 24.
Without prevention and early intervention, young people experiencing homelessness are at increased risk of:
- Long-term or chronic adult homelessness.
- Poor physical health, including untreated chronic illnesses and limited access to preventive healthcare.
- Higher rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance use disorders, and suicide.
- Educational disruption, including lower rates of high school graduation and postsecondary education completion. Learn more about the intersection of homelessness and education here.
- Financial instability, including lack of stable employment, and inability to achieve financial independence. Learn more about youth employment.
- Involvement with public systems, including child welfare or the criminal legal systems. Learn more about the intersection of homelessness and child welfare, and about the criminalization of homelessness here.
- Victimization and violence, including assault, robbery, sexual violence, and other forms of exploitation.
- Human trafficking and exploitation. Learn more about the intersection of homelessness and trafficking here.
- Premature death, including a substantially elevated risk of suicide compared with young people who are safely housed.
Solutions: What Young People Need
Youth homelessness is preventable and solvable. Ending it requires coordinated investments in prevention and early intervention strategies, housing and supportive services, and cross-systems change.
All young people need the same basic building blocks to thrive, and youth experiencing homelessness are no exception.
When young people thrive, communities thrive.
National Network for Youth’s Role
At NN4Y, we believe that every young person deserves safe shelter, access to services, housing options, connections to caring adults, and the opportunity to thrive.
As the national nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to preventing and ending youth, young adult, and young parent family homelessness, NN4Y works alongside young people with lived experience, community organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and national partners to create lasting systemic change.
We partner with youth who have experienced homelessness, youth service providers, advocates, and policymakers to:
- Expand access to housing, education, and support services for youth experiencing homelessness.
- Promote prevention strategies that stop homelessness before it starts.
- Center the voices of young people with lived experience and youth service providers in shaping solutions.
We believe that young people are experts in their own lives. Their experiences, leadership, and solutions are essential to building policies that work.
Together, we can create a future where every young person has a safe place to call home, the support they need to thrive, and the opportunity to build the future they deserve.
