Chasity “CC” Cooks points to a quote they painted as part of a mural inside of Auberle’s 412 Youth Zone in downtown Pittsburgh on May 1, 2023. (Photo by Amelia Winger/PublicSource)
Young people facing housing insecurity are disproportionately Black and more likely to be LGBTQ+. Creation of connections, community may be key.
by Amelia Winger, PublicSource
Over the past eight years, housing insecurity has taken many forms for Juno St. Robbins.
It’s been nights in the bunkbeds of Allegheny County’s shelters. Nights in a house that made him feel unsafe. Nights sleeping on an inflatable mattress in the attic of a three-bedroom home, with 12 roommates scattered throughout the rooms below.
Shelter Stakes
As homelessness surged, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh scrambled, and those without shelter tried to adapt.
These nights shaped his understanding of what constitutes homelessness.
“To me, homelessness was literally somebody sitting on the street, not people who didn’t have a place,” said St. Robbins, 26. “I didn’t know what I know now.”
His experience is only a sliver of what homelessness and housing insecurity look like for young people across Allegheny County.
After a decline throughout much of the past decade, data shows the number of people ages 14 through 25 using Allegheny County’s homelessness services increased by 27% from 2020 through 2022, which could reflect these services lifting their COVID-19 restrictions. The services include emergency shelters, bridge housing and street outreach programs.
“We know that the pandemic caused a reduction in the number of people served in shelters due to some reduced capacity,” wrote Mark Bertolet, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Human Services, in an email to PublicSource. He added that people across all age groups have been staying longer at shelters, which may have contributed to the initial drop in the number of people using services as there was less turnover of beds.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development selected the county to become a Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program community in 2020, which Bertolet said has “likely been helpful” in keeping service utilization numbers from reaching pre-pandemic levels.
But many young people across the county are experiencing invisible forms of housing insecurity not captured within these services, like couch-surfing, living in hotels and staying in dangerously overcrowded homes.
“It’s when they’re absolutely destitute that they show up to a shelter with all of their bags and belongings, and that’s when folks have really hit the bottom,” said Yodit Betru, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work.
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