The Prevalence of Youth Homelessness in the United States

Abstract

Youth homelessness is widely recognized as a major social problem in the United States. However, despite decades of research on homeless youth, no one really knows the number of young people who experience homelessness or how that number has changed over time. This chapter begins with an examination of the variation in prior estimates of America’s homeless youth population. Next, it explores the reasons for this variation and the challenges associated with obtaining accurate information about the prevalence of homelessness among youth. This is followed by a review of recent efforts to overcome those challenges including the first national 12-month prevalence estimate. It concludes with a discussion of why credible data on the number of youth experiencing homelessness are so important and how those data could be produced.