UNHOUSED YOUTH
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development reported a 27% increase in unhoused individuals in Albuquerque. This was the largest increase in the nation. New Mexico Public School data reported to the U.S. Department of Education during the 2017-2018 school year shows that an estimated 10,683 public school students were unhoused over the course of the year.
Albuquerque has 75 beds for unhoused youth. These beds provide shelter for 7% of youth without homes, leaving 93% under-served and without shelter. With nowhere to go and limited options, many of these young people are left with choices that damage their health, hope, and overall well-being. In addition, they become a vulnerable population for human trafficking.
Barrier 1.
While Albuquerque boasts several homeless shelters, there are only two youth shelters with fewer than 75 beds between the two. A young person who does not have a safe place to sleep has to find other options, all of which are dangerous!
Barrier 2.
An unhoused adult can go to the local Income Support office and apply for food stamps, but an unhoused youth cannot. When the youth needs food, they are in a precarious position to try and find a way to meet that need.
Barrier 3.
An unhoused youth does not have an address to put down on a job application. They are unlikely to drive, so transportation is a challenge every day. They don’t have a safe place to sleep, so keeping up with a daily schedule is difficult. How do they stay clean with no bathing facilities? They do not have an income source to purchase needed uniform items. All of these realities compound into the inability to get and keep a job.
These barriers create in the unhoused young person an extreme vulnerability that is taken advantage of by traffickers. The traffickers can offset all of the insecurities; therefore, the young person can feel like there isn’t any other option. Two national statistics around unhoused youth as an entryway into human trafficking need our attention:
1. 48% of homeless youth reported that shelter was the main thing they traded sex for.
2. 1 in 5 youths will end up being trafficked.