Children make up more than one quarter of the U.S. homeless population; more disturbingly, they are its fastest growing segment.
Children make up more than one quarter of the U.S. homeless population; more disturbingly, they are its fastest growing segment. In Boulder County, the number of homeless kids between the ages of 13 and 17 has increased 233% in recent years, dwarfing the number of available youth shelter beds, according to non-profit agency Attention Homes. Within 48 hours of leaving home, 33% of kids will be recruited for sex and other forms of human trafficking.
The Community Foundation explored the topic of youth homelessness during our monthly radio show with KGNU, which airs the fourth Monday of every month from 8:35AM to 9AM. On the 11/26/12 episode of “A Public Affair,” we talked with local experts Katie Green and Benny Nowell about how kids become homeless, what life is like on the streets, and what resources are available to the youth homeless population. Green is the runaway and homeless youth program manager for Attention Homes in Boulder, while Nowell is a street pastor at SEVENS street ministry.
How many kids are homeless in Boulder County right now? It’s hard to say definitively, as there are differing ways of defining homelessness and challenges to counting a vulnerable population that sometimes prefers to stay hidden. The 2012 Point in Time Survey by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative counted about 160 homeless youth and young adults in the county and 1,500 in Colorado as a whole. That’s likely a very conservative estimate, experts say.
Through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, school districts annually tally the number of homeless kids they serve. They define ‘homeless’ as living in shelters, transitional housing or hotels; awaiting foster care; going unsheltered; or being doubled up with other families. By these standards, the St. Vrain Valley School District counted 763 such kids in the 2010-2011 school-year, while the Boulder Valley School District counted 1,024. That’s a total of almost 1,800.
While entire families may end up homeless due to economic hardship, there are also a growing number of kids living on the streets on their own, Green and Nowell said. These kids are generally classified in three ways: runaways, who leave home voluntarily, often because of an abusive situation; throw-away kids who are kicked out of their homes by their parents or guardians; and systems kids who age out of foster care or state services and aren’t yet prepared to make it on their own.
- One of biggest obstacles kids face is securing identification that will permit them to obtain jobs and access services; from start to finish, obtaining ID can take up to six months, Green said.
- Runaway kids can be reluctant to stay in youth shelters or seek assistance because many fear being returned to their homes, and to an abusive relationship, she added.
- While Attention Homes, which offers emergency shelter to homeless youth ages 11 to 20, has never turned away anyone under the age of 18, the number of beds available in the Metro Denver area is dwarfed by the number of kids in need of shelter.
- Some kids face mental health and addiction issues.
- Some kids are not ready to truly seek help for a variety of issues ranging from trust issues and illness to good old fashioned immaturity.
- A disproportionate number of homeless youth are LGBT.
How to help
- One of the best and easiest things you can do to help homeless kids is acknowledge them in public and ask them how their day is going, Green and Nowell said. Kids often feel ignored and rejected, and, thus, farther removed and disconnected from the wider community.
- If a kid asks you for assistance, it’s helpful to let them know about some of the resources available. Both SEVENS and Attention Homes do street outreach and offer kids basic needs supplies and meals. While SEVENS does not have a permanent physical location, Nowell and his crew serve a hot meal at 6PM every Saturday at 11th and Canyon. Attention Homes runs a drop-in center from 12:30PM to 5PM, Tuesday through Sunday, where young people between the ages of 11 and 24 can take showers, pick up hygiene supplies, and eat a meal. The group also offers emergency shelter from 5PM to 8AM nightly.
- There are also plenty of opportunities to volunteer in some capacity, whether that’s dropping off a tray of lasagna or extra canned goods at a meal-serving location or showing up during drop-in hours at Attention Homes to play board games with kids.
For more information, check out the Attention Homes and SEVENS websites.
Attention Homes: www.attentionhomes.org
SEVENS: www.sevensonline.org
