Street Kids Are Begging for Change

Nearly 1,000 young adults and teenagers call the streets of Salt Lake City "home." But this is not the only American city with unsettling numbers of youngsters living on the streets and insufficient services to meet their needs, which begs the question: What can we do about it?

Salt Lake City, Utah, like many other cities across the country, has seen the number of homeless youth living on the streets rise dramatically over the past year; providers estimate the increase to be as high as 68 percent. And, like many other American cities, Salt Lake City is ill-equipped to handle the unique needs of this unique homeless population. Consider the following, from the Salt Lake Tribune:

• 82 percent of the city's homeless youth say they were sexually, physically, or emotionally abused before becoming homeless.
• Half of Utah's homeless youth were in foster care until their 18th birthday.
• Service providers in Salt Lake City are seeing a spike in teenage pregnancies among homeless teens who are living on the streets.
• Other than a small transitional home for seven teenage girls ages 16 to 19, Utah does not have a shelter that can accommodate homeless youth.
• About a third of Utah's homeless youth said they were couch surfing, 21 percent were camping, and 24 percent said they were sleeping in abandoned buildings.

Clearly, the city's homeless youth are desperately in need of services. They are facing dangerous, traumatic situations with few resources available to help. At the same time, this perpetual lack of services makes these homeless youth tough to locate. How can we help a population that we cannot find?

Certain cities, like Durham, North Carolina, have used their 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness process to identify gaps in services that were missing certain under-served populations (like homeless youth). This sounds like the ideal approach for identifying potentially hazardous holes in the safety net. But we can't just wait for government to do something.

Here are three actions highlighted by the Huffington Post that anyone can take to help combat youth homelessness:

• Text the word FREEFEST to 20222 and you will donate5 to The Re*Generation (It'll be added to your monthly bill).
• Go through a list of volunteer opportunities through Virgin Unite. Attendees at the FreeFest pledged over 30,000 hours of community service to help combat youth homelessness.
• If you know a young person who's lost their home or is thinking of running away, you can get involved and help. Call 1-800-RUN-AWAY, the National Runaway Switchboard, who can help discuss issues with depressed teenagers. Visit the Family and Youth Services Bureau for help finding shelter for a homeless youth.

One thing is sure, this is a population that is - literally and figuratively - begging for change. One young homeless teen told the Salt Lake Tribune, ""I'm sick and tired of having to beg for change to eat," she said. "I don't want this life anymore."

Image from the Salt Lake Tribune.