An Ugly Truth

Nobody seems to know this awful fact: one out of every three homeless in America is under the age of 18. Yikes.

This year alone, there are 1.6 million young American adults who are homeless. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the majority of homeless and runaway youth are between the ages of 15 and 17. However, 13% of these kids are age 12 or younger. A third of all runaways will attempt suicide and homeless youth are up to ten times more likely to have or contract HIV than non-homeless adolescents.

We launched a "Teens for Jeans" Campaign to collect donated denim for these homeless kids-but also to drive awareness of youth homelessness more generally. So bring your jeans to a local Aeropostale store and know that
you're clothing a homeless kid.

Better yet, email this blog to 3 friends and know that you're shedding light on a dark secret about youth homelessness in America.

 

 

 

Follow Nancy Lublin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nancylublin

Comments

[katierad]

01:03 PM on 02/19/2009

It's crazy to me how these types of facts aren't widely known. Maybe thats the problem.... I can't wait to see what great things Teens for Jeans does this year!!

[miker310]

05:56 PM on 02/12/2009

Staggering facts in this post. My friend volunteers at Trinity House in New York, the stories he tells me about the teens there is inspiring. Teans for Jeans sounds great and it's about time for me to go through my closet! I'll head into Aeropatale this week!!!

[WriterGirl75]

05:52 PM on 02/12/2009

One in three! That's so sad ... I also hear that a large number are gay teens that ran away or were kicked out because of their sexuality. We are failing our youth!

I'm going into my closet tonight and collecting all of my I'll-never-fit-in-these again jeans, tossing them in a bag and taking them over to Aeropostale first thing tomorrow... It's the least any of us can do ...