Who We Serve

The homeless youth we serve are sleep deprived and lack basic necessities such as regular meals, a stable school life, clean and properly sized clothing, and reliable access to primary health care. Consequentially, they deal with an enormous amount of stress every day which shows up in their bodies as overlapping, chronic conditions, and adversely affects their ability to focus on schoolwork.

According to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC), "Homeless children are at great risk of physical and mental health problems such as depression, malnutrition, immunization delay, asthma and complicated upper respiratory tract infections, and gastrointestinal problems." This is not only costly to society, but reflects a singular lack of access to primary care by our students and their families as well as diminished personal wellness in general. In addition:

• Half of school-age homeless children experience anxiety, depression, or withdrawal compared to 18% of non-homeless children.

• Homeless children go hungry twice as often as non-homeless children.

• Homeless children have twice the rate of learning disabilities and three times the rate of emotional and behavioral problems of non-homeless children.

• Homeless children are sick at twice the rate of other children, suffer twice as many ear infections, have four times the rate of asthma, and have five times more diarrhea and stomach problems.