The article below, from Lake News Online, focuses on youth homelessness in Missouri, but contains national statistics worth sharing.
To read the full article go to http://www.lakenewsonline.com/news/20170329/how-we-got-here-why-our-youth-wind-up-homeless
How We Got Here: Why our youth wind up ‘homeless’
- “Juveniles are just 24 percent of the total U.S. population, they make up around 34 percent of all people living in poverty.”
- “In 2013, the poverty rate for single-mother families was 39.6 percent, nearly five times the rate of married-couple families.”
- “Between 2008 and 2010 [The Great Recession], the number of multiple families living together increased by at least 12 percent.”
- “Between 20 to 50 percent of homeless women cite intimate partner violence as the primary cause of their homelessness.” (Bassuk et al., 1996; Browne & Bassuk, 1997; Guarino & Bassuk, 2010; Hayes et al., 2013)
- “According to Child Trends Data Bank’s Homeless Children and Youth Report in 2015, surveys of city officials in the U.S. cited mental illness, substance abuse and lack of affordable housing as the most frequently cited reasons for unaccompanied youth.”
