Serving Overrepresented Groups of Homeless Youth

Youth-serving professionals and researchers who work with runaway and homeless youth agree that knowing something about the culture and reality of young people is helpful to getting youth off the streets, into programs that can help them and into stable housing.

But runaway and homeless youth are a notoriously difficult population to track, and research to date has painted an incomplete picture of who they are.

Data from FYSB’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information System, or RHYMIS, which tracks young people who seek help from basic centers and transitional living programs, as well as studies on homelessness among specific groups of youth, provide some information about which young people are most likely to need help. African American, Native American, pregnant and parenting, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are among the young people most frequently overrepresented in shelters and transitional living programs aimed at adolescents, says LaKesha Pope, a youth policy and program analyst at Washington-based National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Because of the growing body of research that says these groups are overrepresented, community- and faith-based programs that work with runaway and homeless youth are increasingly expected—by funders, communities, and local government leaders, among others—to demonstrate their ability to meet the needs of these groups in a culturally competent manner.

Local Variations

But there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for every youth-serving organization. The make-up of the runaway and homeless youth population—and their willingness to seek services—varies greatly from region to region and city to city. For instance, while African American youth make up about one-third of clients of all FYSB-funded basic centers and transitional living programs (they count for a little more than a tenth of the U.S. adolescent population), Pope says, “In places like Detroit, the transitional living program entries are almost closer to 98 percent.”

“Is it cultural? Are black kids more comfortable accessing services? It’s not necessarily that Detroit doesn’t have any white homeless youth. It may be that they feel less comfortable accessing the shelters.”

The opposite is true in places like Seattle, she says, where most youth in shelters are white.

Referrals From Other Youth-Serving Systems Boosting Numbers

Bill Camp, program manager of Alternatives for Independent Youth, at Hillside Children’s Center in Rochester, N.Y., says budget cuts in his state may be to blame for an influx into his program of yet another subset of young people—youth who would be better served in foster care or mental health programs. Runaway and homeless youth programs do not serve youth in the care of the state; however, experience shows that youth run away from, or are released from, other systems, that for a variety of reasons, have not adequately equipped the youth to live independently.

“It just seems that since the fall, I’ve been working with more high-risk kids who belong to other systems, who I think years ago, they would have been placed somewhere else,” Camp says.

These young people may need intensive psychiatric treatment or long-term services that Camp’s program is not equipped for. “They traditionally don’t do as well with us because they come from such a structured environment, and they have such severe issues,” he says. “We’re lucky, because [Monroe County] is rich in services, so we’re able to pull together and be a safety net for these kids. But it’s hard work.”

Over- or under-representation of certain groups of young people may also stem from systemic biases that long predate the current economic situation. Jim Walker, executive director of Youth Services of Tulsa, in Oklahoma, says African American youth he comes into contact with often have had some experience with the juvenile justice system more often than white youth. “I believe it’s tied to poverty as much as to race,” he says.

Tailored Services

A few programs for runaway and homeless youth specialize in working with specific groups of young people. The thinking goes that programs mindfully designed for, say, Native American, LGBTQ, or pregnant and parenting youth will more successfully cater to their needs.

At Ain Dah Yung, Our Home Center, an urban Native American program in St. Paul, Minn., 70 percent of clients are Native American. Because many Native American youth have been cut off from their languages and traditions, the center not only provides basics such as food and shelter, but also cultural sustenance, says Residential Director Anthony Drews.

“We bring opportunities just to be aware of those languages and traditions,” Drews says. Activities such as sweat groups, netting, and drum groups are offered to all young people, native or not. “It’s a brief overview. We don’t have the funding to do more than that.”

The Ruth Ellis Center, in Highland Park, Mich., sees mainly LGBTQ youth. Because many staff members are gay or have worked with LGBTQ youth for a long time, they have understanding, acceptance, insight, and practical knowledge that staff of other organizations may not have, says Cleney´ Matlock, manager of the center’s drop-in center.

Reaching Out

The youth who walk through the doors of most youth programs (even those focused on specific groups) come from various races, ethnicities, national backgrounds, and sexualities. By creating a welcoming environment and collaborating with people and groups who are in the know, youth-serving organizations can become “specialists” in any youth population.

Walker says that in the 17 years since his organization started a support group for LGBTQ youth, Youth Services of Tulsa has gained a reputation as a safe place for youth regardless of sexuality.

“We treat them with respect,” he says. Beyond that, the group is explicit about its policy of tolerance, asking job candidates about their attitudes toward LGBTQ youth and ensuring that clients do not harass one another.

“We tell new board members that we work in this area, so if this is a hot button issue for you, this might not be the organization for you,” Walker says.

Staff members with roots in the communities an organization serves can also be an asset. Several years ago, when Youth Services of Tulsa sought to revitalize a program that uses adult mentors to reduce adolescents’ involvement in gangs in North Tulsa, Walker asked a staff member who had long lived and volunteered in that neighborhood to step in. “He’s just highly regarded as a lifelong advocate for these kids,” Walker says. The staff member was quickly able to get people in the neighborhood to buy into the program and to recruit them as mentors.

Outreach can backfire, particularly when youth are being asked to travel a long way for services. Camp has seen this happen in the case of both white and Hispanic rural or suburban youth who refuse to come into Rochester for help.

“They say, ‘I’d rather stay on the couch in the suburbs than come into the city,’” Camp says. Youth who make the trip, he says, often have difficulty navigating the bus system and learning how to stay safe in an urban neighborhood.

Downplaying Differences

Although understanding cultural and other differences is important at all stages of working with runaway and homeless youth—from outreach to aftercare—youth workers emphasize that the essentials of care remain the same, regardless of race, ethnicity or sexuality. Programs that work with homeless youth need to help young people build trust, reduce high-risk behavior, begin a process of healing and become self-sufficient.

“At the end of the day, our kids are like any other kids,” Drews says. All at-risk youth, he says, need help scheduling their time, accessing education and setting high expectations.

Regardless of ethnic background, Drews says, “We support youth here and let them know they’re special human beings.”

Matlock says that, similarly, youth need to learn that youth workers don’t have to be “like” them to empathize with and assist them. “I don’t have to be gay to help you make a resume,” she says.