Homeless Youth

• Over 700 youth each night in MN under age 17 who are unaccompanied & without shelter
• 7,000 to 10,000 in MN each year
• Less than 70 shelter beds in MN
• 2,000+ turned away from shelters annually
• Rose 146% between 1994 and 1997
• 13 to 14 years old average age youth first become homeless
• Most will be offered sex for money or survival sex (10% have sexual relations to obtain shelter, clothing, food or other things to survive) within 36 hours of becoming homeless
• 7% engaging in the sex industry (dancing, stripping, saunas, phone sex, and adult dating)
• 14% indicate they have resorted to criminal activity to meet basic needs
• 469 transitional housing beds needed for homeless youth in Hennepin County Alone
• Homeless girls are 10 times more likely to get pregnant
• 17% said they have at least one child
• Nearly 3 times more likely to have been sexually/physically abused
• 24% reported leaving their last housing because of abuse
• 62% are youth of color
• 70% of homeless youth, who are parents, have their children with them in temporary housing
• 36% have been in detention centers
• 38% have been in foster care
• 19% lived in treatment facilities
• 73% attending secondary education
• 29% receive income from steady employment
• 24% have at least one sexually transmitted disease
• 14% indicate that they did not use safe sex practices
• In Minneapolis/St. Paul 51% from Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, 13% surrounding counties, 7% greater MN, 29% out of state

Statistics from Homeless Youth Crisis: An Understatement in Minnesota, Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis, 1999

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