Houseless Youth and Available Resources

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Picture from Koin Article



There are many youth in Portland who are houseless, even if it can be hard to tell just how many. While I 

was able to find statistics for houselessness in Portland for 2022 (about 6,633 people), the annual count 

is not entirely accurate. I also have not been able to find a count of how many youth are houseless more 

recently than 2020, where it was estimated there were about 1,314 unaccompanied houseless youth. It 

is very likely that there are even more, but the pandemic has not made it easy to do an accurate count.


Many of these houseless youth have other things going on that make it more difficult. Such things as 

mental health issues and/or discrimination from ttheir families for (largely) being LGBTQ+ can 

cause/perpetuate houselessness for people. As such, houseless youth want to be near places that 

provide resources for such issues. And there are many organizations that do so. Helping houseless 

youth build up skills for work, renting, etcetera and providing resources for the issues they face is 

incredibly important.

 

Picture from New Avenues for Youth Website

 

One such organization that helps houseless youth, and youth just in general, is New Avenues for Youth. 

They provide resources for mental health, LGBTQ+ and pregnancy. They also provide housing, job 

training, help for youth experiencing sex trafficking, and many other resources and programs. There are 

a few ways people can be involved, though there are likely still some restrictions due to Covid. Even if 

we don’t know the true extent of houselessness in Portland, we still need to provide help to those who 

need it.

 

Other sources used: https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/portland-homeless-youth-band-together-to-survive-sweeps/ 

 

Written by Britta Wenman 

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