Last month in this space, I wrote about the overall issue of homelessness in our community and how we are seeking to deepen the conversation through our upcoming event, United We Sleep, on Sept. 20. More information about that event can be found on our website,

unitedwaynashua.org, under the “events” tab.

This month, I’d like to share a different perspective, with a little bit deeper dive into the subject of youth homelessness. How big is the problem? Why does it matter? What can you do to make a

difference?

Each year, across America, communities undertake to count their homeless populations. This is typically done in a one-day event called the “Point in Time” count. This year, it took place on Jan. 23. The idea of the PIT count is to give you a snapshot of homelessness, with the thought that it gives a community a means for knowing where to focus its efforts and to know if it is getting better, or worse, through time. Of course, like any other snapshot, the picture will look differently, if even just one day later.

This year, the PIT count for Greater Nashua revealed there were 266 individuals identified as homeless on that day. Those 266 individuals represented 174 households. Some were in traditional shelters, like that run by the Nashua Soup Kitchen & Shelter or the Southern New Hampshire Rescue Mission; some were in transitional housing, like that run by Family Promise, the Front Door Agency, or Marguerite’s Place; and some were literally on the streets or in their cars. Thankfully, the vast majority were sheltered in some way, especially because the low temperature that day was just 11 degrees.

What about young people? How do they fit it? On the day of the PIT, of the 266 homeless individuals counted, 96 were young people under the age of 25, and 84 of those were under the age of 18. So, roughly one-third of the homeless population from the PIT count were young people.

The reason is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) writes the rules on who counts as homeless and who does not for the purposes of the PIT. Unfortunately, the HUD definition doesn’t consider a much larger problem, and that’s the families that might be doubling up with other folks, or the kids who might be “couch surfing.” These people are “housing insecure,” meaning they don’t know from one day to the next where their next night’s sleep might take place. For young people, this is a very big problem. Under a different definition of housing, the one which is used by school districts as defined by the Federal McKinney-Vento legislation, those young people under the age of 25 would also count as homeless if they were doubling up or couch surfing. Last year in the Nashua School District, the number reached as high as 400 homeless youth being counted.

There are many ways to help homeless youth. For starters, supporting one of our youth serving organizations can make a big difference. This could include Girls Inc., Boys & Girls Club, or the Nashua Police Athletic League (PAL). All of these receive support through the United Way Community Impact fund, through which they receive grants to run their programs. Another great program to support would be the Transitional Living Program run by the Nashua Children’s Home. This program provides housing to youth 18-24 years of age who have “aged out” of the system, meaning foster care or placement, or for some other reason find themselves homeless after reaching 18 years old. One good way to learn more about the programs which address youth homelessness issues would be to participate in our sleepout in September.

An important issue which we will be discussing at our sleepout is human trafficking. If you think about it, people who are human traffickers will typically find their victims in times of extreme vulnerability, and very few people are more vulnerable than a homeless young person. While it might be easy to brush this off and say “that doesn’t happen in my community,” I can tell you from stories that have been conveyed to me that human trafficking exists in Greater Nashua, including sex trafficking of children.

In the new year, we will be holding two separate fundraisers dedicated to this initiative. One will be a dedicated “youth sleepout” for area high schoolers to learn more about homelessness, and the other will be a skydiving fundraiser where participants will raise money for the fund and then jump out of a plane with a parachute on to demonstrate their commitment to changing our world for the better. More information about both will be available at United We Sleep in September.