[link] The State of Young America: Left Out In the Cold

English: Homeless man, Tokyo.

There is a brand new housing crisis looming on the horizon and none of the financial or foreclosure reforms being considered get anywhere close to solving it.

According to an article in the Times yesterday, homelessness is on the rise among America’s young adults and couches, cars, and shelters are filling up fast.  For Millennials, the Great Recession left a scar of insecurity across labor markets, net worth, and future prospects, positioning their starting line just steps away from defeat.

Many of those with family resources have become “boomerangs,” returning to the home of their parents while they search for better opportunities and a chance for independence.  But without assets or reliable employment, those who can’t or won’t return to the nest end up on far more dangerous ground, left out of the system and forgotten in policy debates.  From the article:

These young adults are the new face of a national homeless population, one that poverty experts and case workers say is growing. Yet the problem is mostly invisible. Most cities and states, focusing on homeless families, have not made special efforts to identify young adults, who tend to shy away from ordinary shelters out of fear of being victimized by an older, chronically homeless population.

Those cities that do count the young and homeless find distressing results. Boston saw the number of young adults who were homeless and looking for shelter grow by 3 percentage points from 2010 to 2011.  Los Angeles identified 3,600 young adults living on the street last year, but they had shelter space to accommodate less than 1 in 5 of them.

[Read more: policyshop]

Related:

• Young, Unemployed and Living on the Street (aftermathnews.wordpress.com)
• Program In West LA Tries To Get The Homeless Back On Their Feet (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
• Number of homeless students hits new record: Over 1 million (sott.net)
• Homeless Rates Steady Despite Recession, HUD Says (nytimes.com)
• Homeless photo essay: I challenge you to spot the homeless (journeyamerica.wordpress.com)
• Beleaguered sadness, increasing desperation and the invisible population of our streets (newstatesman.com)