More than two million kids in the U.S. face homelessness each year, with 57 percent going without food for at least one day a month. Teens represent a shocking 7 percent of the country's total homeless population. Whether they're crashing on someone's couch, living in cars, staying in shelters, or literally sleeping on the street, studies show that the plight of homeless youths is only growing worse. The viewpoints in this book tackle the economic and societal factors that contribute to teen homelessness, the stark situations faced by young transients today, and what can be done to curb this alarming trend.

Nearly two million teens face homelessness a year in the United States alone. This book shares the stories of teens who are homeless and live on the streets or in shelters, with or without their families. Readers are presented with relatable facts about a vulnerable population. They will learn what can be done to address homelessness, and how to remedy the long-lasting consequences of the epidemic.

A readerʼs guide is provided to assist readers in locating entries on related topics. It classifies entries into 14 general categories: Causes, Cities, Demography and Characteristics, Health issues, History, Housing, Legal issues, Advocacy and policy, Lifestyle issues, Organizations, Perceptions of homelessness, Populations, Research, Service systems and settings, World perspectives and issues.

Homelessness can result from poverty, natural disaster, or other causes. This book deals with the particular stresses with which homeless teens must cope.

This straightforward reference surveys the knowledge base on homeless, runaway, and thrown-away children and adolescents and makes concrete recommendations for policy and practice. It is a comprehensive volume, that covers new state legislation in the U.S. dealing with runaway and homeless youth. The book’s ecological approach grounds readers in the demographics of this diverse population, family and other risk factors for leaving home (and alternative arrangements such as foster care), and the survival skills homeless young people use to sustain themselves. Chapters cover a gamut of physical, psychological, and social problems, from drug abuse to depression to STIs, with special attention paid to the multiple difficulties faced by LGBT street youth and street youths’ experiences with the legal and justice systems. The author also assesses established and emerging interventions used with runaway youth, and the effectiveness of policy initiatives dealing with improving conditions for youth on the streets and at risk. Included in the coverage: · Runaway youth at the time of their disappearance. · Food insecurity and related problems among homeless and runaway youth. · Substance use among homeless and runaway adolescents. · Runaway and homeless sexual minorities. · Court responses to runaway offenses and other juvenile status violations. · Street youth in different countries. Presenting the complex situation as it stands, and with clear suggestions for action, Runaway and Homeless Youth is a valuable resource for family therapists, sociologists, social workers, school administrators, health professionals, police, judges, and other criminal justice professional, along with professionals involved in young people’s well-being and policy-making initiatives.

In his preface to this volume, Lester M. Salamon writes that "Homelessness among children and youth is too serious a problem to be ignored in our national social policy. Both for its immediate effects on those who are homeless, and for the inadequacies it reveals in our social support systems, homelessness among children and youth has truly become a national tragedy. If this book helps to bring this problem to national attention, to document its scope and consequences, and to point the way toward possible solutions, it will have amply served its purpose." Based on a conference sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies last year, this volume brings together some of the best research and policy analysis ever assembled on this important issue. Among the contributors are Lisa Mihaly, Marjorie J. Robertson, James D. Wright, Yvonne Rafferty, Kay Young McChesney, Chester Hartman, Michael A. Stegman, Linda A. Wolf, and Carol W. Williams. The volume covers issues from the scope of child homelessness to its broader impacts and causes and the social responses needed to copy with it. The volume focuses on two populations with differing needs and solutions: very young children (infants, pre-schoolers, and school age children) who are part of homeless families, and older young people who are homeless but on their own (pregnant teens and teen parents, runaways, and older adolescents). Central to the volume is a critical examination of the health, mental health, developmental and educational impacts produced by homelessness; causes of the problem in society, the economy, and our housing market, and the levels of existing support systems. In short, this is a comprehensive state-of-the-art examination of homelessness as it affects children, and will be greeted as such by policy-makers at all levels of government and by professionals in economics, sociology, social work, and urban studies.