More than 3,300 young people in metro Atlanta are homeless, survey finds
Number is much higher than previous counts, researchers say
Suicidal. That’s how Dornecia Bostic says she felt after sitting outside her mom’s house for three days watching her family lead their daily lives. It was the third time the 21-year-old had been kicked out of Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter located off Johnson Road in northwest Atlanta, for not following the rules. And she had nowhere to go.
“I’m watching my siblings go to school,” Bostic says. “I’m watching my mom go to work, come home. And it was just like, I was invisible. So on the third night I had to call the suicide line.”
Shortly afterward, people whom she thought were friends offered her a place to stay, Bostic says. For the next few weeks, she bounced around with them from hotel to hotel. But when Bostic tried to leave, her friends jumped her, taking her cell phone and $20 — all she had to her name. That same day, Bostic called Covenant House and was given the green light to return to the shelter. She is currently enrolled in the shelter’s Rights of Passage, a long-term independent-living program.
Bostic’s story is individual. But the stories of violence, financial woes, and struggle with her mental health are issues that many homeless youth have experienced, according to the Atlanta Homeless Youth and Needs Assessment report that was released on May 3.
Researchers counted approximately 3,374 homeless youth in metro Atlanta — almost triple the number of people counted in previous surveys. The report found three-quarters were African-American and a little more than half were male. A little more than half of the males were between the ages of 20 to 25 years old. Less than 5 percent of the youth were minors. And nearly one-third identified as LGBT.
Eric Wright, the Georgia State University sociology professor who headed the study, said the number was higher than previous counts in past years because the data-collection effort was more focused. Wright said the initiative is the 18th youth count that has been executed in the nation “within the last three years.”
“The City of Atlanta and other organizations across the metro area have expressed a lot of concern about youth homelessness,” Wright said in a statement. “We believe that by collecting these data, we’re going to be in a much better situation to talk about the array of needs that the youth will need.”
Last summer, GSU launched its Domestic Field School, a program within the sociology department designed to give students hands-on experience in the field. The school’s first project was to conduct a count of the homeless youth population within the city limits and “large segments of Fulton, Cobb, Clayton, Dekalb and Gwinnett counties.”
GSU and Emory University students and community volunteers spent days, and sometimes nights, over several months scouring the city and suburbs for youths between the ages of 14 to 25 who were living on the streets, in an extended-stay hotel or motel, in a shelter, or crashing on a couch. (The Covenant House was included in the count.) Participants were asked to fill out a 15-minute survey in exchange for $10 gift cards.
Numbers were broken down into categories of victimization, demographics, mental health, drug abuse, sexuality, sexual behavior, social support, and dreams and aspirations. Wright says asking the young people about their desires for their future was added after some participants expressed annoyance at only being asked about the “bad things” in their lives.
“This is where the tears started flowing,” he says.
The AYCNA found the top three reasons youth end up homeless were a lack of job security, financial security, and family violence. Another youth at Covenant House who asked to remain anonymous said fights with their step-dad landed them on the streets at 18 years old with three bags of belongings and nowhere to go.
HIV statistics shocked one audience member during the press conference. The study found nearly 90 percent of surveyed youth said they had taken an HIV test and 2.7 percent reported being HIV positive. “Though relatively few homeless youth in the survey reported being HIV positive,” the study said, “the overall HIV prevalence rate in homeless youth was five times the overall Atlanta metro prevalence rate in 2014.” A little more than 2 percent of survey respondents didn’t know their status.
Researchers also found that the majority of youth they encountered tended to gather in small groups or what they called “fictive kin,” or street families. They also found “clusters” of youth defined by “the nature of their movement, geographic location, and/or homeless history of young people.” (Think the “train kids” who wander Little Five Points.) Wright said these networks proved to be necessary for the survival and mental health of those dealing with the trauma of being homeless.
How participants moved in and out of their social groups proved to be problematic to pin down hard numbers, Wright said. But the mobility that went hand-in-hand with the network of friends challenged the typical idea that homelessness equals isolation. Wright also noted the resilience he found among the young adults.
Since young people don’t live by the restrictions of county lines, Wright said, he recommended policymakers address youth homelessness as a regional issue. And since resources are scarce, he also recommended services connect and weave together as a network rather than operating on an individual basis.
More reports are set to be released throughout the summer. Next week, Wright is submitting a grant proposal for another study. He said he expects to hear whether the funding is awarded by fall. If there is a next time, Wright says, the first priority will be asking the youth how to better tailor questions to nail down more accurate data.
The results from this count revealed upwards of 60 percent of homeless youth had goals for their future. For Dornecia Bostic, her dream is to attend a four-year institution, live on campus, and have a full college experience.
“I just want to go to a full four year college and just live,” she says. “And enjoy the experience and enjoy working on campus. I feel like something positive is about to come my way. And I’m just happy. I feel more positive. I’m claiming it.”
NOTE: This post has been altered to correct an error about the race, age, and gender of survey respondents.