Each year, there are over four million youth and young adults who experience homelessness, of which nearly one million are unaccompanied minors. This means that they are officially not part of a family or accompanied by a parent or guardian.

On any given night, over forty thousand unaccompanied youth ages thirteen to twenty-five are homeless. Many factors increase a young person’s odds of experiencing homelessness. Demographic risk factors for becoming homelessinclude whether they are Hispanic or Black, are parenting a child, but are unmarried; or classified as LGBTQIA+. In particular gay youth aremore than twice the risk of being homeless than their cisgender or heterosexual peers. Youth homelessness is more common in low-income areas. The resources available for young homeless people vary by city and state. New York and California, for example, tends to have more shelters and resources for young people in this situation than places such as Louisiana. The resources towards youth homelessness are dependent upon how many government public services and non-profit organizations are in that particular area.