Youth Homelessness Is A Social Issue Of Youth

Youth homelessness today is a widespread social issue of growing concern. In order to seek to tackle the problem of homelessness, and in particular, youth homelessness, it is vital to have an understanding of the causes of homelessness. This essay seeks to explain the causes of homelessness among the young. Structural and individual explanations will be discussed, followed by an explanation of the new interpretation or ‘orthodoxy’ of the causes of homelessness . “Risk factors and ‘triggers’ for youth homelessness will be outlined and will then be explored with particular attention to this “new orthodoxy”. Although there is a bureaucratic distinction made between young people under and over the age of eighteen in Ireland, The United Nations

The terms ‘absolute homelessness’ or ‘rooflessness’, which frequently feature in literature on homelessness are narrow definitions of homelessness which describe homelessness as a lack access of shelter (Mayock and Carr, 2008). However, Anderson and Christian argue that “it is essential to examine homelessness as a function of gaining access to adequate, affordable housing, and any necessary social support needed to ensure the success of the tenancy” (2003). When referring to young people who are homeless, often the term ‘out of home’ is used in preference of homeless (Department of Health and Children, 2001). The term ‘out of home’ is used as often many homeless young people do have a place of residence available, whether this be their house or an alternative form of accommodation. However, for a variety of different reasons, the young person feels that they can no longer live in this residence or are forced to leave this residence and become homeless as a result (Department of Health and Children, 2001). The Forum on Youth Homelessness adopted the following definition of

How a social issue is addressed by policy makers is very much dependent on how many people are affected by the issue and whether the problem is seems to be increasing or decreasing or remaining stable. Unfortunately it is very difficult to obtain an accurate statistic of youth homelessness as homelessness among the young can often be ‘hidden’ and statistics can be deceptive (Mayock & Vekic, 2006). ‘Hidden homelessness’ refers to those homeless people who do not make contact with homeless services and thus can be unaccounted for in available statistics (Mayock & Vekic, 2006). Many young people may be living in unfit or overcrowded accommodation, may be under the threat of eviction or may be staying in friends’ or relatives accommodation making it very difficult for researchers to obtain an accurate account of size of the youth homelessness problem. However, statistics on young homeless people who have become known to services do suggest that there has been a decline in youth homelessness since the 1990s (Mayock et al.,2014). It is reported that in 2006, 336 children presented to the Crisis Intervention (Out of Hours) Service (Mayock et al., 2014). However, there has been a huge decline in the number of children presenting to the OHS in recent years with 157 children presenting in 2012 and 173 in 2013 (Mayock et al.,