In
“I’ve Been Homeless for Six Years”, by Alessandra Potenza, young adults speak
about their time living out on the streets. These homeless teens barely make it, unable to find food or shelter. Despite these hardships, they’ve managed to stay more or less healthy, and live. However,
there is still homeless youth across the country dealing with these issues, and
many more to come. Should the government contribute more to preventing the
homeless youth epidemic of the U.S? Although the homeless adolescence has
managed, government funding would help them flourish into a stable adult.
Accordingly,
many homeless youth are out on the streets for different reasons, “their
parents lost their jobs and can’t pay the rent. Some have run away from
poverty, abuse, violence, or alcohol and drug problems, or aged out of the foster
care system. Others have come out as gay and been rejected by their families.”
Clearly, these individuals have dealt with emotional complications that can be
hard to get through. After these teenagers have been tossed out into the
streets, they must deal with the difficulty of finding shelter, “A shelter for
homeless youth in Seattle assigns available beds by lottery. There are only
4,000 shelter beds for unaccompanied homeless youth across the U.S.” This
demonstrates the high demand there is for shelter, but not enough supply for
the enormous number of homeless kids.
Some
people, however, overcome these odds. For example, “Joey Perrins-Lane
experienced firsthand what it means to be homeless in a smaller city. He was 15
when he found himself on the streets in Eugene, Oregon. His mother kicked him
out after discovering he used drugs. With no place to go, he slept on the
streets—his first night was in an alley next to an all-night donut shop—and in
parks, with a pocket knife to keep him safe. In the morning, he hid his few
belongings in the bushes and went to school, where he kept silent about his
situation for fear of being kicked out. In August of 2012, in search of a new
start, he hitchhiked to Columbus, Ohio, and dropped out of school. Addicted to
cocaine and Oxycontin, he slept in abandoned buildings, begging for money
during the day. But in Columbus—a city five times as big as Eugene—he also
found public transportation, soup kitchens where he could get hot meals instead
of dumpster diving, and, eventually, a youth program that helped him get off
drugs.” As you can see, Joey Perrins-Lane went through an emotionally
challenging transition, but he managed to get through it and fix himself up.
Although he had a background of drugs, and got kicked out of the house with
barely anything, and no one to talk to about his situation, he eventually got
help. Another example, is of a young woman named Apple, “In California, where
she was homeless for seven years, she found support in the homeless community
itself and felt less isolated.” Apple had been homeless for a long time, but
found emotional relief within the homeless community who understood her and was
going through what she was going. She’d learned to manage, although she had
limitations, as well as Joey Perrins-Lane.
These
young adults have learned to live life although they’ve not had the same
opportunities an average American child is offered. These teenagers have
managed to learn, and develop emotionally, socially and economically without
money. Imagine what they could do with government funding? These limited teenagers
could flourish into succeeding adults, if given the chance to with government
funding.
Overall,
government funding would be a great start to prevent homeless youth in the U.S.
However, although these stories of homeless adolescence are inspiring, they
aren’t representative homeless youth. Most others maybe far more limited, and
we shouldn’t judge the entire youth homelessness based off of these stories.
This is reason to push for more government funding, so these kids will never
even end up on the streets, but maybe in a shelter.
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