diplomas. Finding 5

A National Survey Approach

Quantifying the number of youth struggling with homelessness presents a challenge due to the transitory and hidden nature of youth experiences. For example, after Natalie was kicked out of her home at 14, she found shelter in varied locations such as on other people’s couches, in a trap house, or in a shed. Because she didn’t stay on the street or in a shelter, she might not have been included in a community effort to capture the extent of youth homelessness.

To gain a fuller picture, Voices of Youth Count primarily draws on a nationally representative phone survey for national estimates in this brief, but we also include some insights from other research components—like in-depth interviews and brief youth surveys that took place duringmainly urban counties.

Said differently, this means that as a share of the population size, youth homelessness is just as much of a challenge in rural communities as it is in more urban communities. Of course, the number of youth experiencing homelessness in urban and suburban areas is much larger than the number in rural areas because a larger share of the US population lives in urban and suburban areas. As a country, we need tailored strategies to reach all of these young people.

One interesting distinction is that youth in rural communities seem to rely more on couch surfing, probably due to a lack of shelter and housing services in their communities. The national survey suggests modestly higher rates of couch surfing in the least densely populated counties when