Urban Youth Homelessness: The Role that Past Trauma has upon Housing Instability

A homeless teen or unaccompanied youth that has no permanent place of shelter will be in need of having basic needs met. Thier needs will include food, shelter, connecting with educational services, clothing, skills for job seeking and supervision and care. As homelessness persist in their lives, the youth will face unintended consequences that contribute to thier homelessness like vicitimization. Data available about homeless youth discusses poor home dynamics that lead the child to feeling unwanted and seeking other places to live, being kicked out due to low income or poverty within the household, volatile home dynamics that force the youth to leave home or being considered a “throwaway” and youth aging out of the foster care system and faced with living on the streets unprepared for independent living. Psychosocial factors, like physical and sexual assault that contribute to past traumatic experiences further cause subjective wellness impacts for the youth to face and increase the likelihood of their vulnerability to environmental and contextual factors that are harmful and encourage housing instability. Recommendations for interventions to encourage and support homeless youth to self sufficiency suggest that there may be options to positive change. The literature concerning these factors is reviewed and recommendations for additional research is included.