Reporter’s Notebook: Homeless Youth Risks, Pope Speaks Out [JJIE.org]

Samantha Sangenito 11/4/1412:00 PM

Being a homeless youth on U.S. city streets can be exceedingly dangerous.

A new study says more than 60 percent of young people ages 14 to 21 surveyed in 11 cities reported they had been assaulted.

The federally funded study, led by sociology professor Les Whitbeck at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, found 40.8 percent of respondents had been robbed, 40.5 percent had been threatened, 32.3 percent had been beaten up and 14.5 percent had been sexually assaulted or raped.

And for each additional month spent homeless, the likelihood of being assaulted increased by 3 percent, the study said.

Homelessness disproportionately affected lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth as well as racial minorities.

[For more of this story, written by Gary Gately, go to http://jjie.org/reporters-note...e-speaks-out/107856/]

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I was homeless at 15 - 16. It was in a rural area so I felt lucky not to be in a city but it was still hard. You couch serf that's what I called it when you can and sleep out side when there are no other options. I was lucky because you are staying at class mates homes and you could easily have been hurt. What I always thought was strange is why no one asked me, "why cannot you stay at home?" I likely would have come up with some story so it wouldn't had mattered. But I always wondered. I know it isn't even close to true for everyone but I was much safer homeless then at home which was an incredibly dangerous place to be!

11/4/145:34 PM

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