Emerging Leaders 2016 AASL Project: Introduction

This guide was created for the 2016 AASL Project for Stefanie Metko's EL project. PLEASE DON'T DELETE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Introduction

  • 564,708 people were experiencing homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.
  • There were 180,760 homeless children and youth on a single night in January 2015, representing about one-third of all homeless people.
  • Among all homeless children and youth, 78 percent (or 140,965) were part of a homeless family with children. Homeless youth under 18 were far more likely to be in families than homeless youth aged 18 to 24 (96% vs. 34%).
  • There were 36,907 unaccompanied homeless youth, roughly 7 percent of the total homeless population. Most unaccompanied youth (87% or 32,240 people) were between the ages of 18 and 24. The remaining 13 percent (or 4,667 people) were under the age of 18.
  • There were 9,901 parenting youth on a single night in January 2015, nearly all (99%) were between the ages of 18 and 24. Parenting youth households were smaller than family households, with an average 2 people per household (compared with 3 people per household for all homeless families).
  • The unsheltered rate is higher for unaccompanied youth under age 18 than for unaccompanied youth between 18 and 24 years of age. More than half of unaccompanied youth under age 18 (51% or 2,380) were counted in unsheltered locations. By comparison, 46 percent of unaccompanied youth between the ages of 18 and 24 (or 14,689) were unsheltered.
  • The total number of homeless students enrolled by state for the school years 2013-14 were 1,301,239.

Sources:

National Center for Homeless Education. 2015. "Federal Data Summary School Years 2011-12 to 2013-14 Education for Homeless Children and Youth." https://www2.ed.gov/programs/homeless/data-comp-sy13-14.pdf.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Community Planning and Development. 2015. "The 2015 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress; Part I Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness." 40-46. https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2015-AHAR-Part-1.pdf.