Kids with no safe place to rest at night are becoming chronically homeless adults

California has the highest number of homeless youth, and more than 60% of these young people are unsheltered. Yet only 3.4% of the beds in the state’s shelter and transitional housing systems are dedicated to youth.

Our safety net designed to protect kids and youth is failing, leading them to a life of homelessness. 

I know what it feels like to be a young person searching for safety and a place to sleep. I had to navigate the streets of Los Angeles County with no stable place to call home. 

I entered California’s child welfare system at birth and spent my childhood in foster care. At age 16, I found myself in a youth homelessness shelter in Hollywood. My story took me from sleeping on the streets, bouncing from place to place, to even riding the Metro from Santa Monica to Whittier to find a safe place to rest. 

It was by the grace of God and a school counselor that I moved from sleeping on the streets to eventually attending college. That helping hand is why I’ve been advocating for the last 20 years to prevent, address and end youth homelessness, because today thousands of children and youth are experiencing that same lack of a safety net. 

Far too many kids are sleeping in cars, on roofs, in empty buildings, couch-surfing with strangers, or cycling through shelters built for adults. Our social services systems are failing to protect our young people and failing to set them up for success after they age out of the foster care system.

We must build a system that provides healing to overcome homelessness. Otherwise, through our inaction, we are building an infinite pipeline into chronic homelessness for young people, especially those who are already in systems of care or who are homeless.

Data shows 50% of the chronically homeless population had their first experience with homelessness when they were young. Recent reports indicate 49% of adults who experience homelessness in San Francisco city and county first experienced it under age  25. In Los Angeles County, 45% of homeless adults first experienced it before age 25.

This nightly nightmare and failed future for our kids needs a bold solution building and funding youth housing, to show our kids we care by giving them a safe and stable place to sleep each night. 

This is why the California Coalition for Youth, the Alliance for Children’s Rights, Children Now and other children’s advocacy organizations endorse Senate Bill 492 to increase the availability of youth housing and break up that pipeline from youth homelessness to chronic, adult homelessness.

SB 492, if approved, would increase housing stability and enhance the impact of California’s investments in places for youth by creating a dedicated funding source, the Youth Housing Bond Fund. The bond would pay for transitional housing, where youth would have supportive services to help them build skills necessary to transition to independence and self-sufficiency.

It would make a dramatic difference in the lives of many of California’s children.

Every community cares about its kids. We support soccer teams and school trips. But are we supporting our most vulnerable young people?