Busting Myths On Youth Homelessness

During these busy months of advocacy season, it’s always a good idea to do a quick refresher on the basics. That’s why we’ve updated our Youth Homelessness one-pager. Take a look! The one-pager gives the basic stats on youth homelessness in DC and summarizes recent efforts to tackle the issue.

Besides just the facts and figures though, advocacy season is also an important time to identify and debunk policy myths that have been floating around. So here are the top three youth homelessness myths that we’ve heard this past the year, along with how we debunk them.

  

Youth Homelessness One-Pager

MYTH: Providing emergency shelter for youth encourages them to leave their families.

REALITY: 

Family reunification is the top priority for DC agencies and community-based organizations. From the moment a young person walks through their door, the service providers are thinking about if, how, and when the youth can connect to family members who can support them. This is best practice and follows federal guidelines. 

Family reunification is achieved through different paths, depending on the dynamics of the situation. Sometimes functional family therapy is the best tool. Sometimes finding other relatives where the youth can stay for a period of time is the best solution. Other times the youth needs to form a therapeutic bond with service providers before they can learn to mimic that with their own family. Usually the solution is some combination of these three. 

It is important to remember, though, that family reunification is not always achievable or a good idea. One quick example is when a youth identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community and no family member is willing to support them based on their sexuality. 

Remember, these youth are not leaving home as a result of a little fight with their parents. Youth do not check into shelter like you would check into a hotel. DC homeless youth have told us that they seek services because they have nowhere else to turn.

MYTH: Youth from outside DC come into DC just to take advantage of our homelessness services.

REALITY:

Historic oppression, a struggling education system, and rising inequality have created a dire situation for DC youth. It is heartbreaking. Yes, youth, like most people, go in and out of the boundaries of DC every day. Homeless youth, especially, have to shuffle from family member, to friend, to acquaintance in order to find food and shelter. But make no mistake: these are our youth, and they are not “shopping around” to find the best deal. 

Sleeping on peoples’ couches, whether they are in DC or a half mile outside it, can be dangerous for a young person. Youth will tell you, receiving favors usually comes at a cost; some form of payment for sleeping on a person’s couch is eventually required, which could mean running drugs or engaging in unwanted sexual acts. We have to protect our youth and that starts by claiming them as our own.

MYTH: Youth homelessness issues should only be dealt with by the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA).

REALITY:

CFSA's mandate is to remove minors (under age 18) from high-risk, domestic situations where parental abuse or neglect is reported. This unimaginably difficult work is critical to protecting DC children and youth. 

However, youth who are experiencing a hostile home environment – but not abuse or neglect – are the young people who fall through the cracks and often become homeless.  

Take the earlier example of the young person who identifies as LGBTQ. The young person may be experiencing a hostile environment because their parent or guardian does not support them based on their sexuality. This fact does not necessarily mean that the parent or guardian is abusing or neglecting their child, however, the young person is at a high-risk of leaving or feeling forced to leave and becoming homeless 

CFSA does however, have the power to refer parents of minors in low- to mid-risk situations to Community Collaboratives which provide voluntary services, such as family reunification and counseling programs. Many times though, families will not follow up with the Community Collaboratives because of a lack of trust and fear of stigma around receiving services from the child welfare system. 

This is why DC must look beyond just using CFSA as an agency to house homeless youth and work closely with community based organizations that are designed to provide services to both minors and youth up to 24 who leave their home because of reasons that fall outside of CFSA’s mandate.

Thanks for brushing up on your youth homelessness policy basics. Be sure to let us know if you’ve heard any youth homelessness policy myths floating around and tell us how you debunk them!

Katie Dunn is the youth homelessness and expanded learning policy analyst at DCAYA. You can follow learn more about youth issues in DC by following Katie on twitter at @kdunntweets.

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook,SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

A Step Forward for Homeless LGBTQ Youth

As you’ve likely heard by now, DC is facing an unprecedented family shelter crisis. On Monday, dozens of shelter residents, advocates and providers shared heartbreaking stories with DC Council at the Committee on Human Services Roundtable. As of February 2^nd, 754 families, including 1,433 children, were placed at either DC General or in emergency hotel rooms. As families continue to seek assistance at the District’s family intake facility Virginia Williams Family Resource Center, the Department of Human Services has admitted that the situation is rapidly spiraling downward as options become increasingly limited. 

What much of this coverage hasn’t reported is that between 30-40% of these families are headed by a young parent or parents 24 years old or younger. Homeless youth are often referred to as an invisible population because they utilize family and friends as a resource to stay warm by couch surfing, finding temporary living situations, or placing themselves in an unsafe environment to avoid the stigma of homelessness. This year however, many youth have run out of such options as family and friends are beginning to experience the same plight.Youth and their families are now being forced out of doubled up situations and into a more traditional shelter system.

DCAYA seeks to cut off the pipeline to family and chronic homelessness by supporting investments in front-end youth services. By catching these young people and flooding them with supports before they’ve used up their options, youth may avoid walking through the doors of an adult or family shelter.

So, while there is still much to be done to resolve the family shelter crisis, the sadness of Monday’s hearing was followed by at least a glimmer of hope on Tuesday when DC Council voted almost unanimously (Marion Barry was absent) to pass the “LGBTQ Homeless Youth Reform Amendment Act of 2014”.

After 18 months of diligent work by providers, advocates and policy makers, the Homeless LGBTQ Legislation is a step forward in creating a system where our most vulnerable youth do not need to hit rock bottom before they can access supports and services.

The legislation accomplishes a number of things:

• It increases the number of beds for homeless LGBTQ youth, an already underserved population, from 8-18.
• It establishes a routine count of homeless youth that includes LGBTQ youth, so we can continue to grow our system in a data informed way.
• It mandates and funds cultural competency training for all shelter providers to ensure that no matter where a youth makes contact with the shelter system, the staff they encounter are sensitive to their unique needs.

Now we are awaiting for Mayor Gray’s signature to pass the legislation into law. He has 10 days to sign and it is our responsibility as a community so let the office of the Mayor know you support this legislation! While, the work towards ending chronic, youth, and family homelessness is far from over, Tuesday’s win is a great example of what government officials, youth providers, community members and, most importantly, youth can accomplish when we come together towards a solution-based goal. 

Contact the Mayor’s office by:

• Emailing the Executive Office of the Mayor 
• Tweeting Out Your Support to Mayor Gray
• Calling the Executive Office of the Mayor to Voice Your Support 

Maggie Riden is the Executive Director of DC Alliance of Youth Advocates and was a involved in the creation of the LGBTQ homeless youth legislation since it's conception. To learn more about the issues our homeless youth face in the District, visit www.dc-aya.org and read our Youth Homelessness issue brief one-pager. 

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.