Covenant House Michigan's street outreach team's mission to find housing for homeless youth
(CBS DETROIT) - Each year, millions of young people experience homelessness across the United States and in Metro Detroit.
CBS News Detroit found a Detroit organization that goes out into the streets to find and help house homeless youth to get them to a safer place.
We went on a ride-along with the Covenant House Michigan street outreach team to see their rescue work in real time. The drive could mean the difference between life and death.
"We on our way to pick up a young lady at Taco Bell that called and said she was homeless and needed help. So we pull up now and do whatever we can to help her get placed at a shelter, whether it's at Covenant House or another location," said Stephanie Taylor, a member of Covenant House Michigan's street outreach team.
Before arriving to pick up a teen girl, Taylor called homeless called shelters that may be able to house her. Although she struck out at first, but she kept trying.
They finally located the distressed teen and got her safely into the outreach van. They brought her back to their organization for intake.
"It's very important that we do that because our goal is to eliminate any barriers of a young person getting into a safe place. And, although we had other places that we had to go assist, we had to take care of her because she was the most urgency at the time," said Taylor. "Being homeless, being on the street, and being by herself, we want to make sure no human traffickers are around to see that and to reach out to her and try to get her into our shelter."
According to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, each year, an estimated 4.2 million youth and young adults experience homelessness in the United States, 700,000 of whom are unaccompanied minors.
Homeless youth are more likely to experience mental illness, substance abuse, criminal activity, and victimization. They also have much higher rates of early death than their stably housed peers. Suicide is the leading cause of death for unaccompanied youth without shelter.
Covenant House houses homeless youth ages 18 to 24 and works with other organizations to find them permanent places to live. They have accommodations like showers, as well as clean clothes and food for those who don't wish to stay there but still need help.