Each year, an estimated 4,200,000 unaccompanied youth ages 13 to 25 experience homelessness in the United States. The threats facing young people in housing crisis are many, and their potential impacts, harrowing. Youth are at high risk for physical and sexual victimization, mental and physical illness, and involvement with the criminal legal system and face serious threats to their education, their future economic stability, and their lives. Despite these dangerous consequences, the response to this issue in the United States continues to lack urgency, meaningful investment, and empirical support. This article critically examines the current approach to services for youth in situations of homelessness in the United States. Directly informed by the lived experiences of young people, it calls for a shift in understanding of the nature and scope of the problem and, consequently, the practice and policy strategies being implemented to address it. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness, along with corresponding procedures that further limit access to services, is examined in a call to change course in response to youth homelessness. 

在美国，每年估计有 4,200,000 名 13 至 25 岁的无人陪伴青少年无家可归。住房危机中的年轻人面临许多威胁，其潜在影响令人痛苦。青少年面临身体和性受害、精神和身体疾病以及卷入刑事法律系统的高风险，并面临对其教育、未来经济稳定和生活的严重威胁。尽管存在这些危险的后果，美国对此问题的应对仍然缺乏紧迫性、有意义的投资和实证支持。本文批判性地审视了美国当前为无家可归青年提供服务的方法。它直接反映了年轻人的生活经历，要求改变对问题的性质和范围的理解，从而改变为解决该问题而采取的做法和政策战略。具体而言，美国住房和城市发展部对无家可归的定义以及进一步限制获得服务的相应程序进行了审查，呼吁改变应对青少年无家可归问题的方针。