Child homelessness poses enormous health, safety, and developmental risks to children, which need the implementation of child protection mechanisms. When children lose stable residence, they lose access to essentials such as clothes and are prone to poverty, malnutrition, and harm. It is important to realize and respond to the needs of homeless children in order to ensure their welfare. In this paper, I focus on the intricate matter of child homelessness from a child protection point of view. I explore the unique challenges of homeless children, the reasons behind their homelessness, and the ways they can be supported better.
Why child homelessness?
Child homelessness is the main issue discussed in this paper, as it poses serious child protection concerns. Homeless children encounter several issues that are associated with social, economic, and systemic elements. Security is the first to be affected, which in turn leads to the disruption of housing and subsequent frequent moves, inhibiting access to services. Unstable housing implies that it is hard to achieve basic needs such as food, clothing, and healthcare. Therefore, well-being is undoubtedly compromised.
Consequently, young homeless children are incredibly vulnerable to the extreme traumas that they face in their families and on the streets, such as violence, abuse, and exploitation. This stress can significantly interfere with physical, emotional, and mental development, resulting in the need for exceptional support. Ultimately, children from a homeless background face the insufficiency of resources, the discontinuity of services, and the high prevalence of MA, which are key concerns of D protection.
Unique Burdens and Risk Factors Associated with Child Homelessness
Childhood homelessness poses severe risks to well-being, education, and emotional as well as physical development that need to be approached in a timely manner by the child protective system. Homeless children have different kinds of problems that eventually limit their safety, stability, and ability to get access to basic human necessities. At the heart of it, low-quality and constant housing leads to insecurity and the inability to belong, as well as a decline in children’s capability for healthcare and education systems to serve them (Royse & Griffiths, 2019). The more often these programs exist and the more transitional living they promote, the higher the risk of trauma and the less developed the support systems. First of all, the safety of a home would make it very hard for these children to meet basic hygiene and social requirements.
Another significant reason homelessness leads to tremendous difficulties is poverty, family breakdowns, and the experience of staying on the streets. These effects are usually severe and can lead to long-term psychological and emotional damage to the child (Gultekin et al., 2020). Using individual approaches to help homeless children recover from psychological stress and memories of the traumatic experience is very necessary. This happens when they are transient and precarious; thus, they are unreachable by conventional help centers.
A systematic plan has to be developed for the protection of the homeless children’s rights and dignity. Aids shall deal with both side effects, such as nutrition, accommodation, and health care, and with the root causes, which include family poverty, housing deficiency, and coordination of multisystem. Social work that concentrates on teenagers’ resilience and the deployment of peer-to-peer mode can create an environment in which homeless youth can feel like a part of the community. The situation needs to be explored through research, data collection, and policy analysis in order to determine the basis for the changes. Through a combined engagement of both community and sector efforts, homelessness among children can be prevented, and an environment of home and nurturing can be created for the children.
Resources
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT)
The Center for Drug Abuse Treatment’s stated goal is to ensure that all communities have access to recovery support services and community-based treatment for drug use disorders. High-quality, effective, and life-saving treatment and recovery support services are promoted by CSAT, which provides national leadership to expand access and remove barriers (SAMHSA, 2024). It works to reduce the disparity between treatment capacity and patient demand, helps community-based treatment programs and services incorporate best practices and evidence-based approaches, and strengthens and enhances systems and organizations that handle drug abuse. CSAT can be reached by telephone at 240-276-1660 or through email at csat@samhsa.hhs.gov.
The National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE)
NCHE provides resources and guidance to the EHCY Program, which aims to educate homeless youth. For more information on how the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) may help, NCHE can be contacted at homeless@serve.org or (800) 308-2145.
Volunteers of America, Utah
The Volunteers of America of Utah helps the most vulnerable people in our society find ways to become more independent via community-based programs. Their primary services are targeted at homeless individuals, where, throughout the year, they help those without homes by supplying them with necessities, helping them get back into school, connecting them with job opportunities, and finding them housing (Volunteers of America, 2024). Second, they help people fight addiction by providing them with a safe space, acceptance, and care. Lastly, they help people with mental illness, and their mission is to improve the quality of life for people and families affected by mental illness and to lessen the severity of its effects. The organization is located at 1875 S Redwood Road, Salt Lake City, UT 84104, and can be contacted at (801) 363-9414.
National Clearinghouse on Homeless Youth and Families
The Family and Youth Services Bureau’s National Clearinghouse on Homeless Youth and Families (NCHYF) provides free information to the public. The goal is to disseminate information on research and best practices that can enhance the long-term welfare of adolescents and families to those working in the field of family and youth services, including current and future grantees of the FYSB (Family and Youth Services Bureau, 2024). The organization can be reached via social media and its website.
Conclusion
Child homelessness requires a multi-pronged approach that should be integrated into the child protection systems. Knowing the individual’s vulnerabilities, such as poverty, substance abuse, trauma, and temporary foster care, is a must. On this basis, professionals can help homeless children feel safe and secure and help build their resilience. Complex risk factors, recognition, and empathy for certain experiences create an opportunity to target and collaborate on child protection efforts. The goal is to minimize the impact of homelessness using holistic strategies that deal with the causes. Through guided and well-grounded action, we can achieve success in providing solutions to this fundamental problem and the realization of homeless children’s rights.
References
Family and Youth Services Bureau. (2024). National Clearinghouse on Homeless Youth and Families. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/programs/runaway-homeless-youth/programs/ncfy
Gultekin, L. E., Brush, B. L., Ginier, E., Cordom, A., & Dowdell, E. B. (2020). Health risks and outcomes of homelessness in school-age children and youth: A scoping review of the literature. The Journal of School Nursing, 36(1), 10–18.
Royse, D., & Griffiths, A. (2019). Child welfare and child protection: an introduction.
SAMHSA. (2024). Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. https://www.samhsa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/offices-centers/csat
Volunteers of America, Utah. (2024). Volunteer today. https://www.voaut.org/
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