Youth and young adults who are experiencing homelessness are doing so in a variety of ways and for myriad of reasons. The University of Chicago's Chapin Hall produced a report entitled "Missed Opportunities: Youth Homelessness in America" which states that 1 in 30 youth aged 13-17 experience homelessness in a year and a quarter of this is couch surfing and 1 in 10 young adults aged 18-25 endure homelessness in the same time frame with half of this being couch surfing. Youth who do not have a high school diploma or GED, identify as LGBTQ, are pregnant or parenting, live in poverty, or are youth of color are all at higher risk of experiencing homelessness.
These national statistics and survey results ring true in New Hampshire. Youth experiencing homelessness are not always the individual in a sleeping bag under the bridge or standing on a corner asking the passersby for change. They are youth and young adults who live in the invisible corners of all NH communities. Most of them have experienced trauma, abuse, violence, generational poverty, a lifetime of housing instability with their families, and/or exposure to untreated substance misuse issues and mental health concerns.
They are often the individual that is sleeping on the couch or the floor of a friend's uncle or a friend of a friend of a friend because this living situation seems more promising than the one they came from. Youth experiencing homelessness slide the slippery slope to trafficking often at the hands of someone they "know". It often starts slowly and gradually and before the young person even computes what is happening.
Waypoint's Runaway and Homeless Youth programs attempt to intercede in this slippery slope. We provide a winter coat, connection to shelter, food, and a safe space among many other basic needs in an attempt to prevent a youth from trading sex or taking a job that is not safe in order to obtain these things. We attempt to help youth to imagine what they would like their life to look like 2 weeks, 2 months, and 2 years from now and walk beside them through the ups and downs of trying to achieve this.
Unfortunately, what Waypoint can do is not enough. Youth and young adults who are experiencing homelessness in NH will not completely avoid vulnerability to trafficking until there is an emergency shelter specifically focused on the unique needs of this population in NH, until there is an adequate supply of affordable housing in our state, until wages are livable and housing costs reasonable, until there is a pathway out of poverty and the American Dream is again an attainable goal.
Developing and implementing a statewide strategy to prevent and end youth and young adult homelessness would drastically decrease trafficking in NH.
By Erin Kelly, Task Force Member and the Director of Runaway and Homeless Youth Services at Waypoint