Missed Opportunities in Youth Pathways Through Homelessness

This Chapin Hall Research-to-Practice brief examines the diverse range of causes for youth homelessness, based on interviews with 215 youth, ages 13 to 25, in urban and rural communities. Four common experiences among the interviewed youth included: earlier disruptions of family and home (40 percent of interviewed youth had been in foster care); significant personal losses such as the loss of a parent or primary caregiver; conditions involving systems, peers, and families; and frequent moves or fluidity in sleeping arrangements.