The large numbers and huge impact of Minnesota youth experiencing homelessness deserves much greater attention. Thanks to Youthprise, we were able to interview 32 of the thousands of these youngsters in an attempt to humanize their experiences, and hopefully, encourage effective action. We shared this information with the 2021 Minnesota Legislature, which responded by allocating $20 million to help deal with this. It’s now vital that local, county and state agencies use these recommendations to have the greatest possible impact. This will require more emphasis on permanent, truly affordable housing.
The first author’s (Khalique) life experience helps illustrate these issues. Born in Chicago, Khalique’s family moved to the Twin Cities when he was very young because they heard it was better for Blacks here.
They found that it wasn’t.
The family’s meager resources were soon exhausted by hotel bills and by landlords who demanded rental application fees even when they apparently already had a renter identified. Resources exhausted, the family was forced to sleep in their car until they were able to find a shelter, but it was only for his mother and siblings; his father wasn’t allowed to stay with them because all of the shelters were for single parents; that is, mothers and their children only. Even though a shelter provided them with protection from the environment, the experience was dehumanizing.
In 2019, Minnesota Department of Education found that, based on district and charter reports, more than 8,000 children and youth were homeless, using a single day’s measure (the number over a year probably is two to three times higher.) Black and Native American youth are at a disproportionately high risk of homelessness.
Poor education helps produce homelessness. More than half of the survey’s respondents (10 out of 16) who had a high school degree or equivalent obtained it through the GED process. Moving around the Twin Cities, Khalique found that the quality of schools varied markedly, even within the same district. Schools with a predominantly white student population were always better than the others, even if schools serving large percentages of students with low-income students had more money per pupil. For example, his final school offered virtually no college-level-credit courses. His experience, and that of his family, reflect the structural racism that’s regional and national.
To inform our policy change advocacy, we started collecting in-person video interviews of homeless high school students in 2019. Because the COVID-19 pandemic soon made this impossible, we collected narratives with online and paper surveys between June and December 2020. All responses were voluntary and anonymous.
Results
Most respondents were male. Approximately one-third were Black. About half were a combination of multiple or other races, including American Indian and Asian. Four (13%) were white. Half of respondents first experienced homelessness before the age of 18. Most (3/4) of the respondents had experienced homelessness for a year or more.
We identified three major causes of homelessness: Social and family issues, financial instability, and poor health. For example, some respondents described the causes of their homelessness as sexual abuse (“My adoptive dad was sexually inappropriate with me and very religiously abusive and got full custody of me in the divorce, so I left.”), physical violence or because they had “run with the wrong crowd.” “…[no] financial stability”, “because they had been convicted of a felony” or “…[no] resources for single Black men.”
We identified seven consequences of homelessness: hungry and cold (“Not having enough clothes or food or anywhere to sleep”), lack of safety (“Understanding your [sic] in this position alone. All year long. No one to offer help.”), little agency or ownership (“Not having a safe place that’s yours”), no social support (“Nobody cares”), lack of emotional stability (“Because I could be in one house doing schoolwork and then be homeless tomorrow, I could be going through a lot of different emotions”), lack of comfort (“Homelessness is to not have a stable place of peace”), and lack of certainty (“There is no structure on your daily living”).
The respondents identified several actions that policymakers could take to reduce the number of children and youth experiencing homelessness: “Provide permanent housing options, not just temporary shelter” (many youth found shelters to be dangerous); “bring them to a center, not jail”; “teach how to find help”; “[give] a second chance”; “teach housing knowledge”; “open youth programs to help with jobs and schooling”; “more permanent affordable housing for teens who are pregnant or teen parents.”
The 2021 Minnesota Legislature welcomed this information. Unfortunately, the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless recently rejected our proposal to share results at its annual conference. While it’s not either/or, our findings encourage more resources to be devoted to permanent affordable housing, rather than temporary shelter. Another need is communities using the energy, insight and passion and creativity of youth. An example is creation of the collaborative community effort that brought to life Midway Peace Park (St. Paul), which Khalique and other Gordon Parks High school students participated in. Supporting youth leadership will allow for effective support of their pain points.
To have the greatest possible long-term impact, state funds must be spent wisely and well.
[image_caption]Khalique Rogers, Meghan JaKa and Thomas E. Kottke[/image_caption]Khalique Rogers, who formerly experienced homelessness in Minnesota, is a graduate of St. Paul College, a student at the University of Minnesota and director of Good Riddance, LLC, Minneapolis. Meghan JaKa, Ph.D., and Thomas E. Kottke M.D., MSPH, are affiliated with HealthPartners Institute, Minneapolis.
WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?
If you’re interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, see our Submission Guidelines.)
Thx to these authors for working together on this terrific project. Thx MinnPost for publishing this. Thanks Mn Legislature for listening. Hope Mn Coalition for the Homeless will allow presentation of this information.
“Schools with a predominantly white student population were always better than the others, even if schools serving large percentages of students with low-income students had more money per pupil. For example, his final school offered virtually no college-level-credit courses. His experience, and that of his family, reflect the structural racism that’s regional and national. ”
If your high school offers no college level credit courses, could it be that there is/was no demand for such courses? Are the authors willing to post statistics that show students from such schools enrolling elsewhere for such classes ?
100 percent agree with this comment. The courses offered reflect the demand.
Minnesota students from low income families have commented that when faculty encourage them to take college level courses, they are much more likely to take them.
The most effective schools serving significant numbers and percentages of low income students offer a number of dual credit courses. The vast majority of students in these schools take one or more of these courses – when they are offered in the school , taken on-line or on a college campus.
Some people, yes I was one of them, wanted to try homelessness. I was homeless for 18 months. From age 17 to almost 19 I did this to experience this life.
It was not fun and helped me understand the government and the media do not care about homeless people and uses people of all walks and abilities to their own end.
The cities ans counties use homelessness for a blank check from the state, while the state use the homeless as a chip for fed funds.
The media makes sure to bring up the homeless to either enrage or to push their agenda set forth by the editors.
You want to help the homeless.
Let them be and make sure you do not give them any money.
Thank you Khalique, Tom, and Meghan for the very informative article on Youth Homelessness
and for helping Youthprise elevate the importance of having young people weigh in on
generating new knowledge that impact their lives. I learned a lot from reading your article. Thank you especially Khalique for sharing your lived experience and pushing for holistic sustainable change!
Thanks for this insightful article, it sounds like a great project to really get at what youth experiencing homelessness are dealing with.
We can look at history (redlining, racial covenants, overt FHA discrimination) or current practices (rates of suspension across race, speed of involving police in school matters, gerrymandering of district boundaries) to find deep systemic racism in housing and education. I think it’s sad that some of the commenters here are more interested in handwaving and distraction than confronting some of these systemic challenges.
You don’t have to look into the past. In St. Paul we had activists and some incompetent counsel members decide that they preferred a vacant lot to hundreds of units of new housing. If you want to address homelessness and housing costs, you need to add more housing. These economic illiterates now somehow think rent control is the answer, instead of an exacerbation of the problem.
Yes, agreed additional housing for lowest income people is urgently needed. Wilder Research shows that thousands of Minnesotans who are working are not able to find housing they can afford.
Thank you for sharing this incredible story!
Thank you to the authors, who wrote of true to life experience of life on our streets – for youths struggling to survive and thrust into a system designed for adults.
Please know ~ the VAST majority of kids ard not homeless by choice! THEY did not just decide one day to “try it out”.
No, many things contribute
Not least of which – historical, ingrained systemic racism leading to generational poverty!
I know there are others far better than I at popping out the statistics one commenter asked for. I think his query completely missed the mark.
What THAT child experienced at THAT moment in his life – was indicative of ALL he had experienced attending many different schools.
Perhaps the “lack of need/desire” for college level courses is because no one ever told them of the possibilities! That college COULD be in their future. Quite likely, these kids have long been told the opposite message.
Low expectations breed low results
We need to hear more from these youths.
Especially at the Mn Coalition on Homeless ~ Fall Conference!
It’s unfathomable to me that a place for Khalique, et al cannot be found!
As it now appears that 50% of those on the streets tonight might just fit this cohort.
Should we not do all we can to help them? To learn FROM them about what they need to survive and thrive!
Child homelessness is a sadly spot on indicator for adult homlessness.
For you bottom line types ~ we save money by investing in the future of these youths!
Please, Mn Coalition – follow the lead of the State Legisalture and INVEST in these kids today!
Thank you Khalique, Tom and Meghan!
Thank you Mn Post!
You continue to be the most often shared paper in the game
Less than 2 years after this column appeared, Khalique Rogers helped lead a coalition that convinced the Mn legislature in 2023 to do some of the things he recommends in this column. Specifically
* The Legislature expanded opportunities for young people to learn construction skills as they build homes for low income families and families experiencing homelessness.
* The Legislature provided more than $100 million for construction of new permanent housing for low income families and families experiencing homelessness.
This was a timely article – but Rogers and others were not content just to write articles. They helped convince legislators that these ideas are worth supporting. Thanks to MinnPost for helping give great visibility to these ideas.