Homeless youth need more from social services

Twenty-year-old Mikayla Foreman knows her experience is meaningful.

- Robbie Sequeira, Tribune News Service

Dealing with homelessness since 18 and currently living in ashelter, Foreman has managed to continue her academic journey, studying for exams last month in hopes of attaining a nursing degree. But Foreman believes there were intervention points that could've prevented her from experiencing homelessness in the first place. “If someone in school had understood what I was going through, things could've been very different,” she said in an interview with Stateline.As more cities impose bans, fines or jail time for adults living on the streets, young people who have been homeless say they face unique problems that could have been addressed earlier. Through more than 400 interviews and survey responses, young people across the country recently told researchers how earlier guidance and intervention might have made a difference for them. The research suggests the country is missing its biggest opportunity to prevent youth homelessness— by intervening well before a young person reaches a shelter and years before they are chronically homeless.