Abstract: National Prevalence and Incidence Estimates of Youth Homelessness (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

Schedule:

Friday, January 12, 2018: 10:51 AM

Marquis BR Salon 12 (ML 2) (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)

* noted as presenting author

Matthew Morton, PhD, Research Fellow, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Amy Dworsky, PhD, Research Fellow, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

David David Schlueter, Associate Researcher, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Susanna Curry, PhD, Post Doctoral Fellow, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Jennifer Matjasko, PhD, Lead Behavioral Scientist, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

Background: Youth homelessness is a national challenge with services frequently unable to meet the level of need and studies consistently showing high levels of vulnerability among this population. Yet much of the population has remained hidden and understudied. This leaves significant gaps in evidence needed to inform policy and practice. Voices of Youth Count (VoYC) is a national, multicomponent policy research initiative designed to deliver actionable evidence on youth homelessness.

Method: This paper will report findings primarily from one component—the first national survey on youth homelessness among adolescents and young people (ages 13-25). The survey is based on a nationally representative sample of 13,113 adults living in households with youth, ages 13-25, in the last 12 months or who are themselves young adults, ages 18-25. The survey was phone-based, with random digital dial sampling including both landline and mobile phones. Additional interviews were conducted for further insights on youth characteristics, homelessness experiences, and access to services with a subsample of respondents reporting any youth homelessness or housing instability in the last 12 months.

Results: Results include prevalence and incidence of youth homelessness and housing instability, which reveal a largely hidden population that is substantially underestimated by typical homelessness counting approaches that rely on point-in-time counts or administrative data alone. Taking homelessness alone, 1.4% (95% CI 1.1% to 1.7%) of households with 13-17-year-olds, and 6.3% of those with 18-25-year-olds (95% CI 5.7% to 6.9%), reported that any of those youth had experienced at least one night of homelessness. Taking a broader lens, the prevalence of households reporting homelessness or housing instability (including running away and couch-surfing) of any youth in their households at least once over the last 12 months is much higher– 6.0% (95% CI 5.4% to 6.6%) of households with any 13-17-year-olds, and 22.1% (95% CI 21.2% to 22.3%) of households with any 18-25-year-olds.

Conclusions and Implications: These population-based prevalence estimates reveal that youth homelessness is largely hidden and under captured by typical homelessness count methods. Phone-based survey methods can be an efficient and more sensitive way to track progress towards ending youth homelessness.