In 2021, 2.7% of U.S. high school students had no stable place to sleep in the previous 30 days. It is the first estimate from nationally representative data, from CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) of 17,232 students in grades 9–12. And the students it describes were at far higher risk than their classmates on almost every measure of health and safety the survey asks about.
Teens experiencing unstable housing are at higher risk. CDC.
Where they slept
Students were asked: During the past 30 days, where did you usually sleep?
| Unstable housing — 2.7% | |
|---|---|
| At a friend's, relative's or someone else's home, because they had to leave home or their family couldn't afford housing | 1.7% |
| In a shelter or emergency housing | 0.3% |
| No usual place to sleep | 0.3% |
| In a motel or hotel | 0.2% |
| In a car, park, campground or other public place | 0.2% |
About 97% were stably housed: 96.1% at a parent's or guardian's home and 1.3% "somewhere else." The estimate fits others: nationally, 2.2% of all students — about 1.1 million in prekindergarten through 12th grade — lacked a fixed, regular, adequate nighttime home in the 2020–2021 school year.
Who is most affected
| Group | Unstably housed |
|---|---|
| Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander students | 10.0% — 5.9× the rate among White students, after adjustment |
| American Indian or Alaska Native students | 7.9% — 4.7× |
| Black students | 5.1% — 2.6× |
| Asian students | 0.8% — the lowest |
| Lesbian or gay / bisexual / questioning students | 4.7% / 4.2% / 4.0% — overall about twice the rate among heterosexual students (2.0%) |
| 12th graders vs 9th graders | 3.4% vs 2.0% — 1.7× after adjustment |
Girls and boys were similarly affected (2.4% and 2.7%). Unlike some other studies, this one found no higher risk among Hispanic students than White students.
What it costs
| In unstably vs stably housed students | Unstable | Stable |
|---|---|---|
| Ever injected an illegal drug | 22.5% | 0.9% |
| Ever used illicit drugs | 41.7% | 12.7% |
| Ever misused prescription opioids | 36.4% | 11.7% |
| Currently sexually active | 48.2% | 20.0% |
| Physical dating violence, past year | 31.9% | 7.7% |
| Sexual dating violence, past year | 28.5% | 9.3% |
| Sexual violence by anyone, past year | 27.6% | 10.6% |
| Persistent sadness or hopelessness, past year | 56.8% | 42.6% |
| Seriously considered suicide, past year | 44.9% | 21.8% |
| Attempted suicide, past year | 38.2% | 9.4% |
After adjusting for demographics, unstably housed students were 19 times as likely to have injected drugs, 3.7 times as likely to have experienced physical dating violence and 3.3 times as likely to have attempted suicide. They were also less likely to have been tested for HIV or other STDs.
Family instability, foster care, abuse and neglect often lie beneath youth homelessness, and these students may have thin support, more adverse childhood experiences and family rejection. Housing instability can also block steady access to health and mental health care.
What schools can do
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act funds services that help unstably housed students enroll, attend and succeed, including school liaisons who connect families to support and referrals — family counseling, adolescent health care, mental health, and LGBQ+ programs such as student-led Gender and Sexuality Alliances.
- Boston Public Schools set up a Homeless Education Resource Network to refer families to housing services.
- New York City public schools train 1,600 liaisons a year for students in temporary housing.
- In Florida, the funds reach local programs such as Hillsborough County's Help Students in Transition and Broward County's Homeless Education Assistance Resource Team.
- Chicago Public Schools' 2022 policy requires a behavioral health team in every K–12 school, naming housing instability as a root cause of mental health risk.
The authors also urge support focused on the AI/AN, Black, NH/OPI and LGBQ+ students who carry the heaviest burden.
Limits. The survey is a snapshot, so it cannot show cause; it reaches only students in school on survey day, and unstably housed teens are more likely to be absent; and some who answered "somewhere else" may have been unstably housed — so the true figures are probably higher.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the United States.
Sources
Based on McKinnon II, Krause KH, Robin L, et al., "Experiences of Unstable Housing Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021," MMWR Supplements volume 72, number 1, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The imported copy was cut short; the missing text is from the report's full text in PubMed Central (PMC10156156).
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
1
0
0
0
Comments
