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Martha R. Burt is a Principal Research Associate at the Urban Institute.
The text below is an excerpt from the complete document. Read the full testimony in PDF format.
Abstract
In testimony before the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, homelessness expert Martha Burt discusses how many homeless youth there are, their characteristics, the factors that predispose youth to become homeless, and the most promising points and types of intervention.
Introduction
Chairman McDermott and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for inviting me to share my views relating to homeless youth, and especially to their involvement in public systems under the supervision of this committee. I have been involved in policy-oriented research on homeless populations and homeless service systems since 1983, when the first Emergency Food and Shelter Program legislation was passed, and have also spent considerable time trying to understand strategies that are able to reach multiproblem youth and help them move toward a productive and responsible adulthood. So it is a pleasure for me to be asked to give testimony on a matter that has not received either the research or policy attention it deserves.
I have been asked to address three issues: (1) How big is the problem—how many homeless youth are there? (2) Who are homeless youth—what are their characteristics, and what factors predispose youth to become homeless? and (3) What might be the most promising points and types of intervention?
How Big Is the Problem?
There are no reliable statistics on the number of homeless youth, in part because this is a notoriously difficult population to find and count, and in part because everyone defines the population differently. This Subcommittee has stated that its interest is in the population of youth and young adults age 16 to 24. This age range includes both minors and adults, which usually means that data must be drawn from different ongoing national surveys just as different systems of public and private support and intervention serve minors and adults. There are also issues of what one means by "homeless"—does one night away from home without permission count, or two nights, or do we want to focus on the youth who truly have no place to go back to and spend years on the streets? Estimates have to be cobbled together from different sources, or special surveys have to be conducted, each of which has its limitations. I am happy to say more about definitional and methodological issues if asked, but assuming the Subcommittee is interested in our best guesses, they are the following:
(End of excerpt. The complete testimony is available in PDF format.)
The views expressed are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.
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