When people think of homelessness, they tend to picture individuals sitting on street corners or sleeping under bridges. In reality, homelessness isn’t limited to people living on the streets — a whole world of homeless youth exists, hidden in plain sight.

New York City hosted its annual count of its homeless on Monday, during which volunteers spread throughout the city and tallied how many people they saw living outdoors. However, often overlooked in these searches are the young people that find shelter with friends and camouflage themselves amid the general chaos of urban life.

Because of the stigma tied to teenage runaways as rebels without a cause, recognizing youth as a valid demographic is often ignored in discussions of homelessness. It is important that young people who are sleeping on sofas are recognized as disadvantaged and living without the support they need.

Young people frequently leave their homes for legitimate reasons, including issues with identity and abusive environments, and should not be dismissed as angsty teens.

LGBTQ youths may run away from home due to conflicts with family members over sexual orientation and gender identity, considering a disproportionate amount of homeless young people — between 20 and 40 percent — identify as part of the community.

Aside from identity-related conflicts, many young people flee their homes because of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Forty-three percent of runaway youth reported being physically abused and 34 percent reported being sexually abused prior to running away, according to the Polly Klaas Foundation.

Society cannot take steps to improve the lives of displaced young people unless they’re acknowledged. But even before this acknowledgement is the fact that the limited perception of homelessness in public eye excludes those who do not fit the stereotype of an average homeless individual.

American teenagers and young adults can easily find themselves without a place to call home, considering that people aged 12 to 17 actually have a greater risk of homelessness than adults, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This culminates in the fact that an estimated 1.3 million homeless youth live in the United States, according to the National Runaway Switchboard.

On a local basis, the Syracuse City School District estimated in 2014 that more than 1,000 kids in the district are homeless, though officials even said that it was difficult to keep track of the number, according to LocalSYR.com.

And in an Onondaga County tally conducted in late January, the number of homeless people living in emergency shelters in 2016 is 453. This number is down from 539 last year, but shows little progress has been made in addressing the issue’s underlying causes. This count and others like it may overlook youth with uncertain housing prospects, such as those staying temporarily with friends.

“Official counts of the homeless completely obscure what’s called ‘shelter’ or ‘housing insecurity,’” said Gretchen Purser, an assistant professor of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. “It fails to capture the true crisis of housing.”

Shelter insecurity describes a lifestyle in which a person’s housing arrangements, whether they are staying at a motel or a friend’s house, are stressful and lack permanence. Those with insecure housing are the “hidden homeless,” according to Children’s HealthWatch.

By tallying only those in shelters and on the street, these organizations can ignore the many children and teens living unofficially with friends or relatives. These young people still face a lack of personal and financial stability. Overlooking couch-surfers contributes to the idea that their struggles are not legitimate. However, just because these young people are not exposed to the elements does not mean they do not face challenges.

They are at greater risk for mental health problems, substance abuse and sexual assault. Many are forced to deal drugs or practice “survival sex” to make a living. The extremes to which these young people go to indicates a problematic trend, even if that hardship is invisible to the public.

Viewing the homeless in a more sympathetic light and remaining conscious of impoverished youth will be a driving factor in making change, rather than demonizing a group of people.

President Barack Obama put forth a proposal Tuesday to allocate up to $33 million for homeless youth, according to the report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And while this measure is a step in the right direction, a broader perception of homelessness — on a social and political level — will help the money go where it needs to go: the kids without a permanent home, secure income or a solid support system.

Nothing is going to change if people just look the other way. Young people today need more than just the essential resources if they’re going to become the leaders, artists or thinkers of tomorrow, and this can be put into action by the general public adopting a more benevolent attitude toward the homeless.

Whether the homeless individual is 15 or 50, they’re still a person.

Tayler Knapp is an undeclared freshman in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at tmknapp@syr.edu.

Published on February 10, 2016 at 1:17 am