Categories: New York City
01.13.2014
Experts brainstorm, share ideas during full-day event
Advocates, government officials, formerly homeless youth and others gather to map out ways to lower the number of NYC homeless youth on December 10, 2013.
Some 70 stakeholders working to end youth homelessness congregated on December 10 to map what resources NYC has and what it lacks to address the needs of homeless young people. The day-long work session, hosted by Robin Hood and led by the Youth Committee of the NYC Coalition on the Continuum of Care (CoC), brought together representatives from nine different city, state and federal government agencies; youth outreach, drop-in, housing and service provider organizations; homeless youth advocates and foundations; and most importantly, a number of young adults who had experienced homelessness themselves.
The forum was brilliantly facilitated by Abt Associates, courtesy of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its continued provision of technical assistance experts to New York City.
While there is no comprehensive count of the number of homeless youth today, previous counts and a recent pilot count point to thousands of runaway and homeless youth in New York City, most of whom have no access to crisis, transitional or permanent housing. Further, in a survey of homeless youth conducted in January 2013, the findings showed that NYC youth aren’t temporarily homeless but staying homeless for a disturbing average duration of 927 days. The findings also showed, as with most other recent research, that the majority of homeless youth had been in foster care and/or the criminal justice system and nearly half lacked a high school degree.
The December forum sought to take a deep look at these systems to determine where, how and to what extent youth are falling between the cracks as a basis for policy recommendations for the housing, shelter, foster care, health, education and corrections systems to prevent and end youth homelessness in New York City.
The CoC Youth Committee is co-led by the Ali Forney Center and the Network. For more information or if you’d like to join this campaign, please contact Nicole Branca.