Our society is uncomfortable with homelessness and the idea that thousands of people live on the street as a result of societal causes. We enjoy the skewed version of the truth that tells us that people are homeless because of addictions, lack of drive and inability to “work hard like the rest of us”. Statistics like the ones presented in Tina Kelley’s “Almost Home” tell us that “As many as 2,000,000 people in the United States face episodes of homelessness” and that “Forty percent of homeless people are under the age of 18.” Society has failed youth and offers no credible soluitions on how to ameliorate or repair the homeless youth dilemma.

One of the main reasons youth homelessnes statistics are high is because a large number of youth age out of the system every year. Once a youth turns 18, they are left to fend for themselves and can no longer rely on government programs like Child Protective Services to assist them. Tina Kelley states, “Forty percent of youth who age out of foster care at eighteen become homeless before their mid-twenties”. This alarming statistic highlights a major flaw in our system. What solutions do we offer for people who age out of foster care with nowhere to go and only a dime to their name? Do we push them out onto the street and allow them to join the adult statistics of homelessness? Are there solutions that prepare “aging out youth” for life after foster care? What happens if homeless youth continue to go unnoticed?