A quick glance at Cindy (name and other identifying information have been changed) and one would guess she was in her late 20s, maybe her early 30s. Looking closely, there was no sparkle in her eyes and her demeanor was sad with little affect; she just looked tired and worn out, her hair stringy as it fell to her shoulders from underneath a dirty and worn wool cap. But Cindy was not in her mid-to-late 20s or early 30s; she was 16 years old. She had been thrown out of her home by her mother two years earlier. It was a cold January night when she was first told to leave. She went to a friend’s house and stayed for a couple of days before her friend’s parents told her she needed to “go home and make things right,” which Cindy tried to do. After a few weeks, Cindy’s mother told her to leave home and never come back again. Cindy spent the next few nights sleeping in the backyard of her friend’s house; her friend’s parents did not even know she was there. Cindy then left her hometown and headed for a large city, where she first moved from public building to public building, using the bathrooms for her “personal bath” and “just to have a place to hang.” Cindy tried to get into a homeless shelter but was turned away because she had no caretaker with her. She contacted a program for homeless youth, but they could not do anything for her because she was under age 18 and did not have “parental consent” to be there. Food was difficult to come by; she tried to eat at various church programs but again was turned away because she was an unaccompanied minor. She had no one to turn to until she met “D-man,” who took her in, fed her, and gave her clothes. Soon, she was “tricking” for him, and now, at 16 years of age, Cindy was HIV-positive.
The traditional American dream of owning a home, obtaining a college education, and working at a good, paying job is only that, a dream, for scores of homeless youth in America today. There is a growing street population of young people who have been thrown out of their homes by
their caretakers or their families, and who face life-threatening situations each day. For these youth, the furthest thing in their lives is reaching the so-called “American Dream;” and their most immediate need is survival, simply living out the day in front of them. They have few options that lead
to a decent and safe living environment. Their age, lack of work experience, and absence of a high school diploma make it most difficult to find a job. As a result, they turn to other means for survival; runaways and throwaways are most vulnerable to falling prey to the sex trade, selling drugs, or being lured into human trafficking, and some steal or panhandle. Street youth end up spending their nights in bus stations or finding a room in an abandoned building or an empty stairwell to sleep. Sometimes they are taken in by a stranger, as Cindy was. Attempting to identify a specific number of homeless youth is difficult at best, but what is even more perplexing is our continued inability to effectively protect our children. We are left with a basic question framed by the fundamental tenets of justice: what is a community’s responsibility to its youth who, for whatever reason, end up living on the streets or in unsafe, abusive environments?
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