#mahomeless

 This is a Letter of Support- A Testimony Submitted on Last Tuesday's Bill Hearing on House Bill 135: An Act to Provide Housing and Supportive Services for Unaccompanied Youth Experiencing Homelessness.

  July 16, 2013

Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities

State House, Room 413C & 146

Dear Chairman Barrett, Chairwoman Khan and Honorable Members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities:

  I am the Youth Outreach Coordinator at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC).  BARCC has a service area of twenty-nine cities and towns and over three million people; we provide approximately 30% of all sexual violence survivor services for those 12 years and older in the state. In fiscal year 2013 we provided 153 survivors, age 12 to 24, with counseling and/or housing and economic stability assistance. On behalf of BARCC, I am writing in support of H.135 An Act Providing Housing and Support Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth, a.k.a. Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Act.

  Homelessness is an issue affecting too many young people in the United States. The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that during a year there are approximately 550,000 unaccompanied young people up to age 24 who experience a homelessness episode of longer than one week. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education estimates that nearly 6,000 high school students are experiencing homelessness and out on their own. Thousands more unaccompanied young people experiencing homelessness are not reflected in these numbers because they have already dropped out of school or are older and have finished school. There is a critical need for increased shelter, housing options and other support services for young people living without their parents or legal guardians.

  Sexual violence is prevalent among youth and it affects this population disproportionately. According to the 2011 Massachusetts Youth Health Survey and the 2011 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey, between 13-14% of high school females and 5% of high school males report experiencing sexual assault at some point in their young lives. Sexual violence is often cited as the reason unaccompanied young people are not residing in a safe and stable permanent housing situation; 61% of homeless girls and 19% of homeless boys report sexual abuse as the reason for leaving home (Estes & Weiner, 2001). Once homeless, with a lack of supportive housing and other stabilization services, a young person’s vulnerability for experiencing sexual violence exponentially increases; this is particularly true for homeless LGBTQ youth who may be at heightened risk for sexual exploitation and violence. 

Homelessness, or being on the precipice of becoming homeless, is a very real concern for numerous young people in the Commonwealth.  At BARCC we often encounter sexual assault survivors who, as a result of sexual violence, do not have a safe place to live.  I’d like to share with you the story of one such survivor.  Barbara is a 23 year old single, lesbian survivor who was recently sexually assaulted by her roommate of 2 months in their shared apartment. She lost her job and her home of 3 years after the incident. Barbara has no other safe housing alternatives besides the domestic violence shelter where she is currently staying. She is concerned about her housing stability and getting all the support she needs to become economically stable again.

  Barbara’s story represents the struggles of many of the clients we serve at BARCC.  The housing obstacles unaccompanied young people may face can be insidious and ultimately hamper their ability to stabilize and restore their lives. An enhancement of housing and residential stability options, together with other stability support services, for young people in the Commonwealth will translate into improved educational, physical and mental health outcomes for this vulnerable population. 

  I would like to thank the Members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities for your consideration of this crucial legislation.

  Sincerely,

    Steph Trilling, MSW

College students often hear the word “participate” leaving the mouths of older, more experienced, and seemingly wiser adults with the kind of simultaneous passion and frustration that we ourselves experience on a day to day basis. Apply for a job. Find an apartment. Figure out the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. When you’re 21, your plate can look pretty full when you’re so used to looking at it through the tiny little microscope of our age-appropriate existence. 

I remember listening to high school teachers, and then again college professors, as they hammered away about the importance of participating in the democratic process and feeling convinced. The idea that “if you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” seemed to make a whole lot of sense to me.

As an Advocacy Intern at Mass Coalition for the Homeless, I’ve learned even in the short amount of time that I’ve been working here that participation in the democratic process is not just a way for us as citizens to exercise our rights, and it’s not just a way for us to all make our individual and collective voices heard: participation in the democratic process is a tedious, frustrating, and passionate avenue for wide-spread activism and policy change. 

Unfortunately, apathy is the major villain of my generation. A high level of disinterest in the present state of our public policy and militant laziness have crippled our democracy because such an enormous and important voice in our demographic is staying silent. But I refuse to be one of the unheard masses. I’m 21 year-old senior in college who rides her bike to work because she can’t afford gas. I’m choosing to participate, and I’m choosing to be a part of the change. 

Voting is not the only way to participate. That’s why I’m so excited to go to the hearing on July 16th at the State House to speak out in support of House Bill 135

, “An Act providing house and support services to unaccompanied homeless youth” in Massachusetts. And I’m not the only young person who’s going to be participating, either. Providers and advocacy groups from the cross the Commonwealth are rallying their young people, whether they are unaccompanied youth who have experienced homelessness, or just young adults who want to support their peers, to come to Boston on the day of the hearing and stand in solidarity with us! 

In the case of House Bill 135, youth participation is even more important than normal because it addresses a youth issue in Massachusetts. House Bill 135, or the Unaccompanied Youth Homelessness Bill, is an act that will provide supportive services and housing options to young people through the age of 24 who are not in the physical custody of a parent or caring adult, and who lack a fixed, regular, adequate nighttime residence. These are young people who are experiencing homelessness all alone. 

A young adult’s reason for experiencing homelessness, such as being rejected by their family for identifying as part of the LGBTQ community, or running away from an abusive household, may be very different from an older person’s reason for experiencing homelessness, such as job-loss, mental health, or veteran-related issues. Drop-in shelters, whose regular guests may be fifty or sixty-year old veterans or people with mental health issues, are not necessarily a safe place for a high-school junior to sleep. There are few, if any, shelters for young people. Without a safe place to sleep, a young person’s options for survival are limited. They may chose to trade sexual favors for food or a safe place to sleep. They may, as some have testified, chose to move in with a partner of subpar moral character and find themselves in an unhealthy relationship or living situation. 

All of these added pressures make it much more likely that a high-school student experience homelessness will drop or fail out of school. With no home and no high school diploma, their options become fewer and fewer. Those who experience homelessness as an adolescent or young adult are much more likely to experience homelessness again as an adult. All of these factors make it absolutely imperative that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts institute a plan to provide better services and housing that meet the very specific needs of youth and young adults who are experiencing homelessness.  

So while youth involvement in the democratic process is always important, and should always ben encouraged, youth involvement takes on a whole new level of power in the case of House Bill 135: youth supporting youth. Young people are taking public policy into their own hands and demanding the supportive services they need for themselves, and for their peers. 

Youth can’t do it on their own, though! These are young people who have lacked a caring adult in their life for too long. They need the support of their peers, and they need the support of the adults who refuse to let them go unseen by our social services and our school systems any longer. They need you to personally stand up and say, “It is unacceptable for our young people to experience homelessness. It is unacceptable for our government to overlook the obvious need for adequate housing and supportive services they need to enter into the adult world with every opportunity for a better future.” 

Supporting the Unaccompanied Youth Homelessness Bill supports thousands of young people who need you, whose names we don’t know, who slip through the cracks, who drop out of or even graduate high school, who are 24 and under and yet are veterans, or who have been targeted or disowned because they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or queer. 

We need you at the hearing on July 16th. We need you because there are not enough housing supportive service options for youth experiencing homelessness. We need you because no young person should ever need to resort to illicit activities just to feed themselves of have a safe place to sleep. We need you because we still don’t know just how many young people experience homelessness, and we need to start addressing their needs today!

"Data on youth homelessness is notoriously lacking." The very first sentence adresses the key issue!