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Runaway and Homeless Youth: Support Strategies to Aid the Needy

The United States currently suffers from a crisis that encompasses up to 2.8 billion

children per year (Colby, 2011). Homeless and runaway minors put their lives in danger by

escaping the grips and jurisdiction of their guardians every year. The trouble is, when these

children escape and decide to live on their own, their legal status as minors puts them at risk of

not having access to the care they need. These children primarily aged 15-17 (Yates, 1998) are

often left alone with no safe place to go and no one to take care of them. They sexually exploit

their bodies just for food, shelter, or even a drug addiction they picked up while living on the

streets. Because of this, out of 1,000 cases of homeless children in San Diego, CA in 1991, there

were 691 confirmed cases of HIV or 70% of said population (Podschun, 1993). These children

still have no place to call home or even seek treatment for deadly diseases, drug addictions, and

many more physical and psychological tortures these youth endure. The United States

government must mitigate the youth runaway and homelessness crisis by creating a legal status

for underaged abandoned youth, giving access to healthcare services while under this protection,

and providing tailored education to help them flourish in the future.

In California, a report was published suggesting that there were over 120,000 homeless

and runaway youth annually (Yates, 1991). The child poverty rate in California increased from

just under 20% during the period 1979–1983 to 22% during the period from 1996– 2000. During

the same averaged time period, the national child poverty rate went from 19% to 18% (National

Center for Children in Poverty, 2002). Approximately 71% of the street youth, 46% of the

sheltered youth, and 25% of the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) youth

had used 3 or more substances; 35%, 13%, and 4%, respectively, had used 6 or more substances.
The mean number of substances used by street youth was 4.6, while the mean in the shelter

survey was 2.2 and that in the NHSDA survey was 1.7 (Greene, 1997).

Since 2000, a variety of government programs have been put into place. The Child Care

and Development Block Grant of 2014 provide states and with funding for low-income families.

It also provides job training programs that help the less fortunate learn skills to get jobs (National

Center for Homeless Education). This act gives money to public and private funds to provide

shelter not to exceed 21 days, counseling for children or families and may include drug abuse

and prevention services. Acts such as these are categorized as crime control, law enforcement

acts, and juvenile justice and delinquency prevention (Family and Youth Services Bureau, 2017).

Homeless runaway children cannot receive medical care from federally funded hospitals,

because of their illegal status as underage and unaccompanied minors. This resulted in a few

youth-focused shelters to add healthcare to their list of amenities provided to the children. In the

case of The Covenant House program, free primary healthcare services are offered to homeless,

runaway, and at-risk kids as soon as they walk through their doors (Healthcare for Homeless

Kids, 2019). While some private shelters do provide healthcare services, a nationwide

government initiative is needed to help the children in need to receive the care they require.

Shelters and healthcare centers for homeless and runaway youth must be able to handle a variety

of issues that the children face while living high stress and high-risk lives.

Healthcare can be considered a human right, however, often when children run away or

do not have an adult to provide credentials such as a social security number or birth certificates,

they cannot gain access to healthcare benefits. Because these children cannot prove who they are,

most hospitals cannot treat them, leaving thousands of children not only homeless but sick and
suffering as well. With many exclusions to accessing healthcare with the current system, children

cannot access proper treatment for their addictions and illnesses.

Drug disorders in youth who stray from their homes is much greater than the use of drugs

in children who have a family and a secure household. Because of this, these children often

suffer from addiction. Without proper rehabilitation centers, these children are in a routine of

pain and suffering. Centers created for homeless and runaway youth must be prepared to deal

with overdose, addiction, and many other symptoms of drug use under their roofs. These centers

are around today but are not in the abundance that is needed. There are a few nonprofit

organizations that have been established to help ease the pain on the children, however, the

limited access causes many children to go untreated and uncared for. Congress passed 34 USC

Subtitle I, CHAPTER 111, SUBCHAPTER III: RUNAWAY AND HOMELESS YOUTH in

2017 to give guidelines on grants to public and private entities who intend to aid the runaway

crisis. This act creates restrictions on the grants including location and population restrictions.

These limitations dictate which programs can get funding from the government and which

cannot.

Limitations such as these cause children in need to lack the proper assistance they

require. In Alameda County, California, 48% of homeless persons have a lifetime drug disorder

and 69.1% say they have a lifetime substance abuse disorder (Robertson, 1997). With children

the figures are very similar. On a national scale, 60.5% of runaway children say they have

experienced a lifetime substance disorder (Johnson, 2011). The massive numbers of substance

users on the streets suggest that nothing is being done to help solve the problem.

Survival sex is very common in the runaway world. Children often exploit themselves for

food, shelter, or even drugs. The high numbers of sexual partners have caused HIV/AIDS and
STDs to be very common. Fifteen (6.9%) of 216 youth tested positive for chlamydia (CT) and

two (.9%) of 216 tested positive for gonorrhea (GC), for a total prevalence rate of GC or CT of

7.8% at baseline (Colette, 2006). Without proper treatment, these diseases will spread within the

runaway youth’s population. Centers for runaway and homeless youth must be prepared to

handle these situations where time is of the essence.

Children who have run away and put themselves in high-risk situations including

homelessness have determined by themselves that they do not have much if anything to lose.

They believe that the dangerous path ahead of them is still a better and safer option than staying

at home. Because of this, if deemed necessary, the programs that the child seeks refuge in should

be able to put the child under a government protected status. This would allow the child to make

informed decisions on life-changing topics such as the type of education they receive and

medical treatments. Currently, when a child runs away and seeks refuge or medical services,

parental consent is needed for the child to obtain the limited services that are available. With this

protection allowing the child to make a few decisions with an extensive explanation on what the

circumstances are, the child would be able to function more as an adult, giving them the power to

receive treatment and housing.

Without the power to make decisions and obtain the services they need when they need

them, many children would be turned away, inhibiting the progress of the programs. If the legal

status of the minors is changed, more children could be helped and put back into society as

functioning and contributing members.

Our government has never done enough for the homeless runaway population in the

United States. Many states lack the necessary funding for proper shelter and aid programs

needed to attend to the children in need (Durso, 2012). In order to have any sort of government
funded and controlled aid such as tailored education or safe housing, the issue itself must first be

identified and defined.

Identifying and defining a population is one of the greatest obstacles facing the homeless

runaway crisis to date. There is no universal definition of what it means to be a homeless child

because of the grey area in politics that they live in. Children cannot live on their own, legally or

physically. Because of this, giving children access to healthcare and safe living has traditionally

been given only with parental consent (Colby, 2011). Addressing these children's needs while

still respecting their legal guardian’s jurisdiction over them must be considered when creating a

definition of what it means to be a homeless runaway child.

A definition of what it means to be a homeless runaway must include the current state of

housing, the current state of their health, the relation that the child has with their parents, and

their intentions of returning to home. If a child has no place to live, they should be granted

asylum in the shelter that they had arrived. During the submission process, the child must be

required to give their legal name so they could be put under a government protected status.

Youth that have medical needs must be treated promptly, allowing for quick remission. If the

child has no intention of returning to his or her parents, they should be placed in different

programs than ones that work to return them home. Those programs would be tailored to help the

children achieve the highest success rate in either situation.

Providing the children with a place to live with the proper facilities and programs in place

are only the first steps to helping the homeless runaway youth become functioning members of

society. A proper education system would also need to be developed, which would have to be

created around the premise that these children probably never received proper education before

they ran away. Different teaching that the students would be able to pick would help give the
children a sense of control over their future, something they may have never felt before. The

schooling could be either traditional, including standard STEM classes with interesting electives

to be added to their schedule, or technical trade schooling to give the students the advantage of

experience when looking for a job.

With these measures in place, access to the necessary tools and aid for the children in

crisis will be much easier. Although these programs would come at a financial cost, it is

important to not only treat this as a humanitarian resolution but also as an investment into the

United States’ youth and lower-class population. Keeping children safe is always the guardian’s

responsibility, but in dire straits, government aid could be the missing link to changing so many

lives for the better of them and everyone around the country. By acting and creating

identification services, educational services, and healthcare systems for the runaway and

homeless youth, children once thought to be lost causes could turn around and help change the

world.

Works Cited

Child Care & Development – National Center for Homeless Education.

https://nche.ed.gov/child-care-development/. Accessed 14 Feb. 2019.

Colby, Ira. “Runaway and Thrownaway Youth: Time for Policy Changes and Public

Responsibility.” Journal of Applied Research on Children, vol. 2, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–


Colette L. Auerswald, et al. “Street-Based STD Testing and Treatment of Homeless Youth Are

Feasible, Acceptable and Effective.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 38, 2006, pp.

208–12.

Greene, Jody M. “Prevalence and Correlates of Survival Sex Among Runaway and Homeless

Youth.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 89, no. 9, Sept. 1999, pp. 1406–09.

Healthcare for Homeless Kids | Covenant House. https://www.covenanthouse.org/homeless-

teen-issues/healthcare. Accessed 6 Feb. 2019.

Johnson, Kurt D., et al. “Substance Abuse Disorders Among Homeless and Runaway

Adolescents.” Journal of Drug Issues, vol. 35, no. 4, 2005, pp. 799–816,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3083077/.

Laura E Durso, and Gary J. Gates. Serving Our Youth: Findings from a National Survey of

Services Providers Working with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth Who Are

Homeless or At Risk of Becoming. July 2012, pp. 1–15.

Marjorie J. Robertson, Ph.D., et al. “Drug Use Disorders and Treatment among Homeless

Adults in Alameda County, California.” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 87, no.

2, Feb. 1997, pp. 221–28.

Podschun, Gary D. “Teen Peer Outreach-Street Work Project: HIV Prevention Education for

Runaway and Homeless Youth.” Public Health Reports, vol. 103, no. 6, Apr. 1993, pp.

150–55.
Yates, Gary L. “A Risk Profile Comparison of Runaway and Non-Runaway Youth.” American

Journal of Public Health, vol. 78, no. 37, July 1988, pp. 820–21.

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