Also there is a high increase of physical violence, abuse, neglect and trauma in homeless youth, inside and outside the home. In terms of chronic conflict with their parents or caregivers, as a result they may leave the home. Research has shown one of the biggest conflicts they have is family conflict. Some of the challenges homeless youth currently face are as follow.
The HUD also funds many youth-specific emergency shelter, permanent supportive housing and transitional living programs. The Basic Center program provides them basic shelter and counseling services to reunify the youth with their families and the Transitional Loving program allows youth ages 16-21 to reside in housing for up to 18 months while obtaining services such as employment, education and mental health assistance. The Street Outreach program would allow workers to go into the community, approach youth and provide them with referrals and services. There are several example to this program. The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act funds local providers to address the needs of homeless youth. This will also help close the gap between supply and need for affordable housing. It is essential to guarantee stability to all current voucher holders and to help more people that might be in need. This would provide affordable housing which is key component.
Here are some suggestions for public policy as well as national legislation and programs that have the potential to impact youth homelessness. We will talk about public policy and programs for homeless youth. About 380,000 remain away from more than one week and 131,000 remain gone for over 1 month. Homeless youth have been increasing in the recent years, nearly 2 million youth are homeless in the United States every year. We will be presenting on what we now from research as well as what seems to be going on locally here in Los Angeles County based upon news reports about homeless youth. Studies in this area have been very limited. We are excited to present on this subject in commemoration of homeless awareness week. This presentation was created by myself and Norweeta Milburn, PhD. Lopez, PhD, psychology post-doc at the Nathanson Family Resilience Center, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.