The difficulty of counting speaks to the unique nature of youth homelessness, which isn’t always as clear-cut as adult homelessness. For example, rather than living on the streets, many young people “couch surf,” staying with friends or sex work clients on a day-to-day basis. Homeless youth can also become homeless for different reasons than adults—they may have run away to escape domestic violence or sexual abuse, or for LGBT youth, been thrown out of their house by families who don't approve of their sexual orientation.
Homeless youth advocates hope the report will draw attention and funding to what they consider to be an overlooked problem. There are currently only 500 beds in the city available for a population of thousands, said Carl Siciliano, founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which serves LGBT homeless youth. “Every homeless youth in New York City deserves to have a bed. That is the fundamental issue,” Siciliano says.
Nish at Safe Horizon agrees: his organization sees about 450 homeless youths every month, but only has 36 beds to offer.
At the city's Department of Youth and Community Development, which funds 93 crisis beds and 95 transitional beds, the Empire report is not affecting programming yet. "We're not really in the business of assessing outside studies," spokesman Ryan Dodge said. "It's useful in that it's another perspective."
DYCD Director of Youth Initiatives Robyn Causey says her agency publicizes its youth homeless services the best it can, and the contractors who administer the shelters have never told her they've had to turn anyone away. "We feel that our continuum ... is adequate," said Causey, pointing out that the spectrum of services also has grown in recent years. There are five youth drop-in centers in the Bronx where there used to be just one, and there soon will be four certified crisis facilities throughout the city instead of one, she said. The Runaway and Homeless Youth budget is $10.8 million in the present fiscal year; City Council provides the largest chunk of that.
Advocates would also like to see more funding for community-based services and permanent housing, and more effort on the part of the Administration for Children's Services and juvenile justice centers to prepare young people for living independently after discharge. Councilman Fidler says he will continue to press the issue in City Council. “Every one of these young people is somebody’s kid,” he said. “On the basis of human compassion, this should be something we work on with a strong commitment.”
