When Staying Home Isn’t An Option: Teens on the streets during the pandemic

Youth homelessness isn’t new to America. What is new is that now these youth are at risk of dying from a global pandemic where “staying home” and “social isolation” are the guiding norms of avoiding the virus. In Washington, D.C., hundreds of homeless have tested positive for the coronavirus. There are 4.2 million youth and young adults estimated youth in the United States with about 41,000 unaccompanied youth each night between the ages of 13-25. In New York, where the coronavirus has killed an estimated 20,806  people as of Monday (5/18), 1 in 10 New York Public School children are homeless.  How does a teenager or young adult survive homeless? Where can they go for help?

This week, Karana Rising’s Surviving Now series brings Ashley Lowe, an advocate and survivor of homelessness and child sex trafficking, together with Jamila Lawson, founder and executive director of the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project in Washington, D.C. to share on the ground insights into what is really happening to homeless youth and families in the nation’s capital and around the country.

Being homeless places young people, especially young women and girls, in extreme danger. Many homeless women attempt to conceal their homelessness to avoid becoming the target of sexual predators who take advantage of their lack of housing.  For Ashley Lowe, being unable to go home at the age of 13 is what led her straight into the arms of now convicted child sex trafficker, Shelby Lewis.

Across the country, many young people simply have no where to go. In some cases, it’s a choice between abuse in the house or a deadly virus and sexual predators on the streets.

Learn more at http://www.karanarising.org. Music by Christen Lien at www.christenlien.com