Winter 2025 Issue

Youth Homelessness: Addressing the Complex Issue of Youth Homelessness
By Elizabeth S. Goar
Social Work Today
Vol. 25 No. 1 P. 8

Social workers are uniquely positioned to solve youth homelessness.

More than 4 million youths experience homelessness in the United States each year, including 700,000 of whom are unaccompanied minors and nearly 41% of whom are unsheltered—figures that are likely low given the challenges associated with tracking a transient population that often relies on temporary sleeping arrangements with friends and acquaintances over shelters.1,2

Geographically and socioeconomically, a broad spectrum of youth is impacted by or at high risk of homelessness, making it a complex issue that must be addressed by an equally broad intersection of public and private efforts.

This is why social work is playing an increasingly prominent role in the search for solutions. Social workers “have the macro-level skills and an orientation to the well-being of humans in those macrosystems that makes us uniquely equipped to do work at that level,” says M. Alex Wagaman, PhD, an associate professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, pointing to the emergence of a movement to tap those with the lived experiences to help guide efforts to address the problem.

“It’s something that social workers are uniquely equipped to do … partnering with people from different perspectives, different walks of life, and different experiences with the issue that you’re trying to address,” she adds. “We’re good at interpersonal skills and building spaces where people can feel heard [and] the coalition building and bridging work [needed] to come up with solutions that are collaborative and rooted in what young people say they need, which is centered in our values of dignity and respect.”

Ferreting out Root Causes
According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), youth homelessness was up 15% between 2021 and 2022 compared with a 12% increase in overall homelessness. 3 The US Department of Education further reports that 1.28 million K–12 students experienced some form of homelessness during the 2019–20 school year.4

Research into the root causes of youth homelessness reveals layers of issues ranging from sexual orientation, school problems, pregnancy, and substance use—primary risk factors for family conflict or disagreement, which youths cite most often as reasons for their homelessness—to past encounters with child welfare systems, familial housing instability, and structural inequities.

This complex and multifaceted makeup is why “social work is an important part of addressing homelessness,” says Barb Eager, MSW, LICSW, regional supervisor for the Boston Office of Youth Villages. “Being homeless is traumatic and can impact a person’s entire life related to school, employment, mental health, and their social environment.

“It is important for a social worker to be a part of that person’s support system not only to help address homelessness but to help address all other aspects of that person’s life that may be impacted and make sure those other important pieces aren’t negatively impacted. It’s a full-time job for someone to find safe and stable housing, so having support for everything else in their life is so impactful,” she adds.

In its Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) blames policy failures, including severely underfunded programs and inequitable access to quality education, health care, and economic opportunity, have created an inadequate safety net.

For example, children in foster care are at higher risk of homelessness due to age, the number of placements, history of running away from placements, and time spent in a group home or institutional setting. In fact, 20% of young adults in foster care become homeless the moment they’re emancipated at age 18, and half of the nation’s homeless population spends time in foster care.5

USICH’s plan also points to insufficient investments in affordable housing that have significantly limited availability and soaring costs that have created persistent housing insecurity and exacerbated poverty levels. It further notes that at the heart of many of these systemic failures are policies and programs that result in discriminatory practices against people of color and members of marginalized groups.6

Chapin Hall’s National Strategy to Prevent Youth Homelessness also points to “longstanding structural inequities and discriminatory policies” that put youth identifying as Black and Latinx, American Indian and Alaskan Native, and LGBTQI+ at higher risk for homelessness, as are those who have experienced a parent’s death, are young parents, don’t have a high school degree, or have contact with criminal legal systems. Many impacted youths also come from families where housing instability is normal or have endured losses, longstanding family conflict, and substance use in the household.7

“While not every social worker has a focused job role in addressing problems like homelessness in their day-to-day work, social work as a field is strongly founded on addressing the needs of individuals and communities,” says Jillian Amodio, LMSW, who provides services to adolescents and young adults through her position with Waypoint Wellness Center.

Liaisons for Change
Its unique intersection with the multiple factors contributing to the rise in youth homelessness makes social work an important tool in identifying, implementing, and improving solutions. Through her work at Youth Villages, Eager says she can see social work integrated heavily into how the organization is addressing youth homelessness “by proactively planning around potential housing disruptions, as well as supporting our youth with finding and maintaining stable housing in their communities. And maintaining stable housing is just as important as finding housing.

“I think other agencies could implement these more proactive strategies to help youth maintain stable housing vs a more reactive approach of supporting youth/families with housing once it’s been lost,” she adds. “I also believe there could be more emphasis on the youth as a whole, meaning while someone is supporting a young person in finding housing, they are also looking into resources to help with employment, education, and anything else that might be needed.”

Wagaman points out that social workers are well-suited to open the lines of communication between the boots-on-the-ground program implementers and the state and federal agencies that fund or oversee the initiatives. This is particularly true when it comes to identifying unintended consequences and gaps in macrolevel solutions that surface during microlevel implementation.

One example is the initiative to change the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to make it easier for students experiencing homelessness to apply for federal student aid. Implementation quickly revealed it was falling far short of its goal of simplification.

“Advocates were able to take feedback from young people, financial aid officers, and high school counselors and bring it back to strengthen the implementation,” she says, adding that it’s an example of the value of ensuring those with lived experience have a seat at the table. “It is helpful when policies are passed, or programs are created … to have feedback loops and constant communication with people who are experiencing them in action or being served by those systems to hear if it is actually being carried out in the way it was intended.”

Shaquita Ogletree, MSW, federal policy director for Youth Villages, highlights the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood as another example where social workers have played an important role in policy improvements. The only federal funding initiative dedicated to supporting youth as they transition from foster care to adulthood, one of Chafee’s primary goals is to prevent youth homelessness by providing services that help young people build independence and stability.

Since it was enacted in 1999, Chafee has been amended five times based on the evolving needs of young adults transitioning out of foster care, including expanding eligibility to age 23, which research shows can lead to better outcomes.8 Congress is also considering bipartisan legislation to help ensure older youth in foster care successfully transition into adulthood.9,10

“Nationally, 25% of youth leaving foster care experience homelessness within the first year of aging out. By extending foster care and leveraging Chafee funding, Congress and the Administration are taking important steps to address this issue, providing states with the resources needed to support youth aging out of foster care,” Ogletree says. “With bipartisan backing, these efforts have the potential to reduce homelessness and promote long-term stability and independence for transitioning youth, laying the groundwork for future policies that can build on existing solutions and improve outcomes for young people in foster care.”

Stepping into the Breach
There are numerous ways social workers can impact youth homelessness. It could be as simple as voting responsibility, Amodio says. Or they can identify and match at-risk clients with services and resources or get involved in advocacy initiatives.

“As social workers, we do not only have a responsibility to our clients, but to society as a whole. This can look like advocating for social justice, raising awareness about, and making efforts toward assisting vulnerable populations, and voting for people and policies that will assist those in need and those who are vulnerable,” Amodio says.

Eager recommends social workers familiarize themselves with shelters and other local resources so appropriate referrals can be made and connect with others involved in similar work.

She adds, “It is important to understand the point of view of the person who is experiencing homelessness—what is most important to them and what support is most beneficial to them? At the end of the day, their voice is what we all need to be listening to.”

There is also a need for more social workers with a macro-level orientation on the policies and structures in place that impact homelessness. For Wagaman, that realization led her back to school for a doctorate in social work.

Social work “isn’t always perceived—and this is something that we struggle with in terms of thinking about macro social work—as being in policy realms, as in ‘We need a social worker at the table.’ But that’s part of what we’re trying to change,” she says. “More social workers need to be in macro spaces, doing system change and policy work.”

This is not to say a return to school is required. There are many other ways to get involved with the formal systems set up to address homelessness. A plethora of data is available from HUD and the Department of Education for those interested in researching the problem. Social workers can also join community-based HUD-mandated continuum of care for homeless services, or advocacy groups that are working to make systems more accessible and inclusive.

Finally, Wagaman says, “It’s important for us to be thoughtful about how we’re working ourselves out of a job. … In homelessness, the language we use is about preventing and ending. It’s not ‘minimize.’ It’s not ‘decrease.’ The goal is to end youth homelessness.”

— Elizabeth S. Goar is a freelance health care writer in Wisconsin.

References
1. Youth homelessness overview. National Conference of State Legislatures website. https://www.ncsl.org/human-services/youth-homelessness-overview#:~:text=Each%20year
%2C%20an%20estimated%204.2,urban%20communities%20at%20similar%20rates. Updated March 29, 2023. Accessed November 14, 2024.

2. Youth homelessness. National Alliance to End Homelessness website. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/who-experiences-homelessness/youth/#:~:text=How%20Many%20Youth%20Are%20Homeless,not%20
meant%20for%20human%20habitation. Published 2023. Accessed November 14, 2024.

3. Baldari C. Child and youth homelessness continues to increase: we know what works; will congress act? First Focus on Children website. https://firstfocus.org/update/child-and-youth-homelessness-continues-to-increase-we-know-what-works-will-congress-act/. Published January 16, 2024. Accessed November 14, 2024.

4. National Center for Homeless Education. Student homelessness in America: school years 2017-18 to 2019-20. https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Student-Homelessness-in-America-2021.pdf. Published 2021. Accessed November 15, 2024.

5. Housing & homelessness. National Foster Youth Institute website. https://nfyi.org/issues/homelessness/. Published 2023. Accessed November 15, 2024.

6. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. All in: the federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. https://www.usich.gov/sites/default/files/document/All_In.pdf. Published December 2022. Accessed November 15, 2024.

7. Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. New Opportunities prevention strategy: a national strategy to prevent youth homelessness. https://www.chapinhall.org/wp-content/uploads/
Chapin-Hall_New-Opps-Prevention-Strategies_July-2024.pdf. Published July 2024. Accessed November 14, 2024.

8. National Youth in Transition Database outcomes data snapshot :national. Administration for Children and Families website. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/nytd-outcomes-national-2022.pdf. Published 2022. Accessed November 17, 2024.

9. Increasing Access to Foster Care Through Age 21 Act, HR 7010, 118th Cong, 1st Sess (2024).

10. Brighter Futures for Teens and Young Adults in Foster Care Act of 2024, HR 9316, 118th Cong, 2nd Sess (2024).