The issues

• According to the National Runaway Switchboard, there are between 1.3 and 2.8 million runaway and homeless youth in America.
• Recently released statistics show that in 2005 the National Runaway Switchboard handled over 100,000 calls. 900 of those calls originated in the Denver metro-area and nearly 450 from the Pikes Peak region.
• According to the 2006 Metro-Denver Homeless Initiative Point in Time Survey, it is now estimated there are 959 homeless young people in the Denver area between the ages of 14 and 24 without access to housing.
• The number of homeless adolescents and young adults is over 10% of the total homeless population in the Denver metro area.
• In 2004, Urban Peak coordinated a public health survey in eight cities nationwide. Over 700 homeless young people, a majority of whom were between the ages of 14 and 21, were surveyed by participating agencies in each city. A total of 281 participants were from Colorado. Of those respondents:
• 40% of the youth reported some form of substance abuse before the age of 13.
• More than 60% reported a family member with a substance abuse problem and nearly 42% reported having used with a family member.
• 40% of the youth surveyed had used cocaine, 40% had used ecstasy and nearly 27% had used methamphetamine.
• More than a third of the youth reported a suicide attempt.
• Finding affordable housing is also a challenge for young people. According to a 2005 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, for a 40-hour workweek, an individual must earn $17.10 an hour to afford an $889 fair-market value unit. Working a minimum wage job, as most youth do, the young person would have to work 133 hours per week, 52 weeks per year.
• Urban Peak's benefits for youth: the opportunity to access a full array of supportive services; to gain the necessary education and job skills to sustain independence; and to permanently exit life on the streets.
• Urban Peak's benefits for the community: fewer homeless youth; less need for tax dollars to incarcerate youth and provide treatment for mental health and substance abuse; and more citizens gainfully employed.