The Effects of Homelessness on the Overall Self-Esteem of Homeless Youth

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Homelessness is often characterized as adults living on the streets taking shelter beneath the interwoven overpasses of the city or standing alongside busy intersections begging for money. Yet, children, those under 18 years of age, are generally not associated with the homeless status as they are invisible, not seen by the general public with their homeless counterparts taking up residence in make-shift housing. Nonetheless, there is a large percent of youth who meet the guidelines for being deemed homeless. The website, findyouthinfo.gov, says the U.S Department of Education defines a homeless youth as one whom: Lacks a fixed, regular, and nighttime residence or an individual who has a primary residence that is a) a supervised or publically operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations; b) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill; or c) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, regular sleeping accommodation for human beings (Runaway and Homeless Youth section. para. 2). Nationally, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimated there are 1,682,900 homeless youth with an average age of 17 (National Coalition of Homeless [NCH], 2007). Accordingly, The Houston Coalition for the Homeless (2013), identified 6,359 adults as being homeless within the Houston Community on January 29, 2013. The daunting task of counting the homeless is a federal mandate (Point in Time [PIT]) that occurs during the last 10 days of January. The goal is to identify the number of veterans, families that include children, as well a... ... middle of paper ... ...o End Homelessness: Chronic Homelessness. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/chronic_homelessness National Coalition for the Homeless. Homeless Youth. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/youth.pdf National Network For Youth | NN4Y | Giving Homeless Youth a Voice. The Consequences of Youth Homelessness. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.nn4youth.org/system/files/IssueBrief_Youth_Homelessness.pdf Texas Education Agency - Welcome. Texas Education Agency - Homeless Issues FAQ. Retrieved March 27, 2014, from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147503685 Troisi, C., & Grier, G. (2013, 19). Houston Coalition for the Homeless. Homeless in Houston: It’s Cold Out There. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://www.homelesshouston.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2013-PIT-Lunch-Learn.pdf

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