Those involved in the project say the report should finally give both public officials and service providers a point of reference on the issue of youth homelessness, and hope the new information will lead to improved services for homeless youth. Previous estimates, after all, had put the number of homeless young people at more like 20,000.
“This study answers a lot of questions we had and confirms a lot of what we were thinking,” said City Councilman Lewis A. Fidler, the Youth Services Committee chairman who was responsible for allocating funding for the report. The difference, Fidler added, is that now the information is there in black and white for everybody to see.
One of the report’s most striking findings, say youth service professionals, is the significant overrepresentation of certain marginalized populations among the ranks of homeless youth in the city—particularly those who identify themselves either as black, or as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), or those who have experience in the foster care and criminal justice systems. Almost half of respondents identified as black and close to a third identified as homosexual or bisexual. More than a quarter reported time spent in foster care, jail or prison.
“The doors are opened and they’re let out without any preparation for living the next day,” said Margo Hirsch, executive director of the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services.
Additionally, half of the young people interviewed for the report did not have a high school diploma or GED. “Many of these young people haven’t been in school past the third or fourth grade,” said David Nish, associate vice president of youth programs at Safe Horizon, a city-based nonprofit that operates a homeless and "street-involved" youth program. The average age of respondents was 20, and their average duration of homelessness was over two years.
The study was conducted last summer by volunteers and youth service professionals who surveyed homeless youth at runaway shelters, transitional living programs and on the street. Both the report’s authors and professionals in the field acknowledge that it was not a comprehensive count—many think the report significantly undercounts the homeless youth population—but they say it provides a good estimate considering the study's limited funding and the significant challenges of identifying homeless youth.
“One of the things young people are very good at is fitting in. It’s much harder to identify youth homeless on the street,” said Hirsch. She recalled one young homeless person who used to get dressed up to sleep on the subway, so as not to let on that he was homeless.
New York City has never had a clear picture of its homeless youth population. Prior to the release of this report, many youth service professionals assumed there were 20,000 or more homeless youth, a figure taken from a 1984 study. Last year, the Department of Homeless Services’ street count identified just 700 homeless youths. The authors of the Empire State Coalition report use the 945 youths surveyed to make a set of extrapolations, including the figure of 3,800 homeless every night, and anywhere from 7,600 to more than 13,400 homeless over the course of a year (because people move in and out of that status).
