HOMELESS: One homeless youth is one too many.
By Kate Doak, Staff Writer
When you reflect back on your adolescent years you remember friends, parties and the relatively small amount of homework we all complain about. For over 200,000 youths aged 12-24, however, these will not be the moments remembered. For these individuals, the only memories of adolescence will be of abandonment, hunger, cold and desperation, and with an astonishing lack of funding and help for these youths, the conditions will only get worse. Something needs to change at the government the social level.
If everyone knew how little was being done for homeless youth, I think it would be a completely different situation. Nearly two thirds of the counties in California do not support homeless youth programs and there are only 53 programs in the 20 counties that offer them. Statewide, these programs provide fewer than 2,000 beds targeted towards those aged 12 to 17 years. Most homeless youth, contrary to popular belief, are not part of the foster system and therefore do not receive any governmental assistance. In fact, most of them end up on the street not because of missing family, but because they are rejected by their families due to sexual orientation, disappointing performance or abuse. This neglect and loneliness leads to a spike in the risk of mental and physical health problems, sexual exploitation, substance abuse and death. Even the small amount of assistance given, for most homeless teens, is unavailable due to the lack of transportation to Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay Area where most of these programs are located.
All of this information was offered by two Congress members during a presentation of some new legislation targeted at this issue. Three bills were proposed: the first bill would create a state licensing category for emergency youth shelters in order to maintain a nearly seven million dollar budget. The second bill would require the California Emergency Management Agency to develop solutions for youth homelessness, making it a top priority. The final bill proposes a two billion dollar investment in public-private relationships for building proper shelters. While everyone can agree that funding these programs will be a struggle, these measures need to be taken. With the youth unemployment rate expected to stay above ten percent for years to come, there needs to be some sort of solution.