Youth Homelessness - Research Paper Sample

Introduction

Numerous terms get used to describe young homeless people. Some of the common terminologies include street youth, street kids, homeless youth, and runaways, among other names. Youth homelessness refers to teenagers aged between 13 and 24-year who live independently from parents or caregivers. These teenagers lack the necessary social support needed by young people to transition from childhood to adulthood. Homeless youth often get characterized by a lack of income, a stable or consistent residence, and lack of adequate access to the available support networks required to create a safe and nurturing transition to responsible adulthood (Keuroghlian et al., 2014). Social workers can help the homeless especially homeless youths, by understanding their population's characteristics, reasons for getting homeless, myths, how the public perceives them, and finally applying social work knowledge or services to mitigate or curb homelessness.

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Homeless Population’s Characteristics

According to Watson and Cuervo (2017), recent times have witnessed an upsurge in homeless youth across the United States. It gets estimated that there are over 554,000 homeless people in the U.S., and in any given night, there are at least 40% of homeless youth (Watson & Cuervo, 2017). Homeless youth have gotten identified to temporally live in hostels, staying with friends, letting low-priced rooms in lodging houses and motels, or living in the streets. Notably, many incidences exist where teenagers live with their relatives or parents but face an imminent danger of losing their house (Watson & Cuervo, 2017). The majority of the time, homeless youth experience different housing instabilities; it gets identified as the primary cause of their homelessness.

Notably, homelessness among the youth differs from that suffered by adults regarding its causes and consequences and how interventions can get employed. According to Kidd and Davidson (2009), homeless teenagers, unlike their adult counterparts, leave home defined by social and economic relationships. Previous homeless youth are mostly dependent on adult caregivers, either parents or relatives. A large number of homeless teenagers have also gotten identified as having experienced child protection services. Therefore, through losing a home, the youth loses stable housing and a place that they previously got emotional and psychological support (Kidd & Davidson, 2009). Homelessness interrupts and potentially raptures their social relations with parents, families, and communities. Therefore, it necessitates for the homeless youth's intervention strategy to differ from that employed on their counterpart homeless adults.

Street children populations consist of diverse populations; they get characterized by more homeless male than female youth. According to Fernandes-Alcantara (2016), 63% of homeless teens in shelters are male and 37% female. Young homeless women face a more significant threat of crime, violence, and sexual assault. Young homeless women, therefore, result in seeking options in the streets despite knowing they will get exposed to more significant risks. Youth identifying as LGBTQ compose 25% to 40% of homeless youth (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2016). Age also plays a significant role when considering the needs of homeless youth. For instance, the development of a 14-year old differs from an 18 or 22-year-old homeless youth. Besides the age difference, teenagers get rendered homeless resulting from other different reasons.

Significant Causes of Homelessness

Homelessness causes among the youth have often gotten classified under three categories: family problems, economic difficulties, and residential instability (Kidd, 2009). Notably, many homeless teenagers leave their homes following many years of physical and sexual abuse, addictions such as drug and alcohol addictions suffered by family members, and parental neglect, among other factors (Kidd, 2009). Thus, disruptive family issues are among the primary causes of young people leaving home. Homeless youth get quoted highlighting that their parents forced them to leave their homes, while others have identified that their parents knew they were about to leave, but they didn't care. Many homeless teenagers have been abused physically, emotionally, with some forced into sexual activities by family members (Kidd, 2009).

The majority of homeless teenagers have gotten involved with the child welfare services system. The different systems include foster care, group homes, and children aid societies. Getting involved with child welfare does not cause homelessness; it reflects how most homeless teenagers emanate from troubled homes and families (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2016). Discrimination also ranks among the top acknowledged reasons for homelessness among many youths: individuals that experience cultural discrimination exhibit limited admittance to work, educational success, and essential services. A combination of these concerns can lead to abject poverty and easily result in homelessness for teenagers (Fernandes-Alcantara, 2016).

Homophobia also attributes to homelessness for many youths identifying as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender and queer). At least 30% of homeless youth get identified as part of the LGBTQ, highlighting that homophobia is also among the leading cause of homelessness (Bassuk et al., 2014). Most teenagers under LGBTQ groups report experiencing discrimination at homes, in their communities, and at school (Bassuk et al., 2014). In most times, discrimination leads to violence that may result in many LGBTQ youths opting for the streets. Poverty results in homelessness; many homeless teenagers also emanate from impoverished backgrounds. It primarily gets characterized by low-income families lacking adequate finances to support their teens; they leave home seeking new economic opportunities. Most teenagers that leave home and cannot find employment end up homeless and in the streets (Bassuk et al., 2014).

Perceptions, Believes and Myths Surrounding the Homeless

Many myths surrounding homelessness; it includes most people perceiving them as dangerous. Homeless people are more likely to be victims of crime than committing crimes since they lack the safety that homes offer their inhabitants. Homeless people tend to have lengthy arrest records, resulting from none violent crimes linked to their homelessness situation. It includes petty crimes such as public urination and trespassing charges for camping in private properties. Most people do not choose to be homeless as it often gets perceived; instead, they need help and guidance to navigate out of homelessness. The homeless are more often victims of trauma, and they should get defined by who they are rather than their shelter status.

Social Workers Help

Social workers play a critical role in helping the poor and striving to eradicate poverty. Social workers work under the guidance of fundamental ethical principles, such as working for social justice (Ravenhill, 2016). Poverty gets identified as a social justice problem; therefore, social workers get mandated to offer to help the poor, including homeless youth. Social workers offer assistance to individuals with concrete needs, which is one of the most critical ways social workers help the needy. Some forms of help offered to the homeless include providing them with clothing, food, and shelter (Ravenhill, 2016). Additional assistance that can get rendered to the homeless includes providing them with health care and child care services. Through different avenues, social workers can help the homeless directly or indirectly by offering particular social benefits (Ravenhill, 2016).

Social workers can also help the homeless, especially those that suffer mental health issues. Primary practices that have helped include direct housing, where the homeless and mentally ill get signed into programs that ensure they get offered access to safe, suitable housing (Dunleavy et al., 2014). From the houses, the participant receives supportive services for medical and mental health treatments. Social workers can also help the homeless through collaborative efforts. They can team up with nontraditional partners such as hospitals to target homeless and mentally ill individuals. Social workers can also create community outreach programs to identify the homeless and those that might be mentally ill and employ evidence-based practices to help them (Dunleavy et al., 2014).

Social workers can also help the homeless through advocacy. In most incidences, the homeless and poor cannot represent themselves to seek justice or other essential resources. Some of the homeless experience other adverse issues such as psychological illness, bodily disability, dissemination, and other factors that may make it problematic for them to advocate for their social needs (Westbrook, 2015). Therefore, social workers can help the homeless by providing advocacy services such as mediating with government agencies. For instance, social workers can help individuals get evicted from their houses to locate community resources that might help with their rent payment temporarily. Helping the homeless can also get delivered via social policy development, where social workers can work to deliver changes to social policies. Such goals can get accomplished via political actions or community organizations. Social workers can work with the elected official to address different needs, such as shelters and healthcare (Westbrook, 2015).

Social workers can offer civic education on poverty and associated distress, such as homelessness. For instance, deprived societies get affected by different issues, including gang violence, drug and alcohol misuse, and educational confines. Social workers can help educate societies by offering information on how they can best evade or lessen such problems. Where such issues get avoided, drug-addicted youths anticipated to get homeless will have gotten the necessary help since they are usually leaving homes characterized by drug, alcohol, and family-related problems.

Conclusion

According to Keuroghlian et al. (2014), social workers can utilize evidence-based practices in helping homeless populations. Social workers undergo extensive motivational interviewing training, which they use to help those they interact with to move along the adaptive change process. Social workers can also help the homeless by employing the wellness self-management evidence-based practice (Keuroghlian et al., 2014). The approach assists individuals with mental illness to focus on attaining personal goals. Social workers can also help the homeless by offering clinical social work services. It entails conducting a psychosocial assessment and offering either long-term or short-term psychotherapy (Keuroghlian et al., 2014). Social workers can also help by overseeing assessments and formulation of treatment plans and case management for different ill homeless individuals.