In the winter, Alan Mack, 27, will begin his undergraduate studies at Berklee College of Music, taking the next step toward fulfilling his dream of working in music production. But, just five years ago, Mack’s life was in limbo, derailed in an attack that left him partially paralyzed.
Mack was 22 when he was shot in the back after getting caught in a crossfire at an intersection in a Boston neighborhood. He had been living out of his car at the time, so, just entering adulthood, Mack found himself coming to terms with his disability without permanent shelter and while bouncing between the homes of friends and relatives amid the pandemic
“It took an emotional toll on me because I’ve always been a social person, and I’ve always been a person that’s ecstatic, energetic, charismatic,” he said. Not being able to be around people on top of going through an emotionally taxing situation and being unhoused left him severely depressed.
The causes of youth homelessness vary, with some people losing shelter or unable to secure it because of discrimination, family conflict, a lack of affordable housing, or, in Mack’s case, an unexpected, life-altering event. Still, youth homelessness itself is widespread.
In 2023, approximately 34,700 youth in the U.S. unaccompanied by a parent or guardian faced homelessness, according to the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, which measured homelessness on a single night in January 2023. Ninety percent of them were aged 18 to 24.
In Massachusetts, the issue is also prevalent. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found that during the 2022 to 2023 school year, nearly 1,800 unaccompanied students in the state experienced homelessness. In Boston, more than 10,000 young people face homelessness yearly.
The numbers are on the rise. Elisabeth Jackson, president and CEO of Bridge Over Troubled Waters, which serves unhoused youth, said the organization has seen an increase in the proportion of youth who are experiencing homelessness at the time they seek its services. In 2024, that number was 91%, compared to 80% three years ago.
“That’s a huge difference … and these numbers may seem high, but this is mainly because most people don’t know the extent of youth homelessness,” Jackson said.
As the start of November marks the beginning of National Youth Homelessness Awareness Month, advocates draw attention to what is a complex and widespread issue exacerbated by a lack of shelter space, government support and awareness.
After going back and forth between temporary accommodations, Mack looked into The Home for Little Wanderers, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit serving at-risk children and youth, upon his aunt’s recommendation. There, he received housing support and subsequently moved into an apartment, help with navigating the medical system, which Mack said is “like a maze,” and emotional support. The Home for Little Wanderers also paid for music programs that ultimately boosted his application to Berklee.
Navigating the system alone was challenging, Mack said, especially with a disability. Even so, when he reflects on his experience, he thinks about what he gained.
“It gave me some strength,” he said. “It helped me understand how life works.”
An overwhelming problem
Part of the goal of The Home for Little Wanderers is to play a role that government agencies are unable to fulfill, said Joshua Grant, assistant vice president of the organization’s transition aid services division, the department that assisted Mack.
The federal government takes a “cookie cutter” approach, he said, by providing rent subsidies and apartment assistance to young people experiencing homelessness. But this is the bare minimum and often ineffective in meeting the varying needs of young people who, say, may have spent their whole lives in foster care with staff helping them every day.
“The idea that … an 18-year-old who grew up in residential programs or was in foster care for an extended period of time is somehow going to be magically ready to attack adulthood the moment they turn 18 is ridiculous,” Grant said. Instead, The Home for Little Wanderers aims to provide a “continuum so that regardless of what a young person’s needs may be, we’ll have a program that will work for them.”
One such offering is a shelter with private rooms where young people can stay longer than is typical, allowing them time to work toward their career goals or identify permanent housing options.
Still, The Home for Little Wanderers and programs like it are ill-equipped to take on the full extent of the crisis. The organization’s shelter, for example, has just 16 beds, compared to the more than 1,000 young people who every night are without a place to sleep.
Advocates say tackling youth homelessness can prevent chronic and adult homelessness by giving young people an opportunity to leave the system behind for good because many of the youth who age out of the social services system are thrust into what could be a perpetual cycle.
“The system that is supposed to care and protect and provide for them is essentially shifting them off into homelessness,” said Marcella Raines, chief advocacy and community engagement officer for More Than Words, a social enterprise bookstore that offers workforce readiness training to youth in the system. “It’s really challenging for young adults to work if they do not know where they’re going to be laying their head at every night,” she added.
At More Than Words, young adults aged 16 to 24 who are unhoused, in foster care, or in the court system, run the online bookstore and the brick-and-mortar locations in Boston and Waltham, where they learn customer service, presentation and computer skills. They get hands-on training while shipping and sorting books and simultaneously receive wraparound support as they navigate the system.
“To say ‘youth homelessness’ is an oxymoron. No young person should be homeless,” Raines said. Dedicating an entire month to raising awareness about the extent of youth homelessness “is a win.”
Like Grant, Raines said the government should provide more resources for young people currently in the child social services system and those exiting it, similar to the programs available to veterans. Instead, nonprofits like More Than Words are tasked with compensating for the government’s shortcomings, she said.
For example, though the organization primarily provides job readiness services, it established a program to meet the housing needs of the youth who are left with no options in the face of an overwhelming lack of affordable housing units and skyrocketing housing costs.
“I think that our government, our state and federal government, needs to see this as a priority,” she said.
Without the proper resources, young people make “desperate decisions,” said Raines, such as turning to sex work to survive or abusing drugs to cope, which can lead to incarceration, putting them back in the system once again.
Mack, the incoming Berklee student, said after the unprovoked attack, he misused the pain medications he was prescribed and abused alcohol to deal with his stress. Without The Home for Little Wanderers, he wouldn’t have explored therapy and wouldn’t have sidestepped what could’ve been an unending spiral.
Ending the cycle
Connor Schoen and Tony Shu were classmates at Harvard University when they decided to do something to break this cycle unhoused youth can find themselves in. The pair had been volunteering at a shelter when they noticed that young people were faced with a lose-lose situation in which they didn’t have the financial security necessary to maintain housing security, and they lacked the housing security needed to maintain a job.
“We saw a gap in the system,” Schoen said.
So, they founded Breaktime, a nonprofit that equips young people with the tools they need to hold onto financial and housing security. Breaktime’s primary offering is divided into three prongs: “Launchpad,” three weeks of job readiness, financial literacy and life skills training; “Liftoff,” a three-month paid job or educational placement; and “Stable Orbit,” three years of continued wraparound support, including a $100 monthly stipend.
After participating in the Breaktime program, most alumni work or are in school full-time, see increased wages and have stable housing, according to Breaktime’s website.
Schoen said he is inspired by the “bravery and authenticity” of the youth he works with. As a pansexual man, he is especially concerned with the experiences of LGBTQ+ people and people of color who experience higher rates of youth homelessness compared to their counterparts.
Their disproportionate representation “just raises the urgency and importance that we really address this issue,” Schoen said, “because it’s affecting communities that are already being affected so heavily by other challenges in society.”
