San Francisco must redouble efforts to end youth homelessness

A recent editorial by the San Francisco Chronicle raised awareness about how young people in California continue to be negatively affected by the aftereffects of the pandemic.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, more than 10% of Californians ages 16-24 are not in school or participating in the labor market, and almost 75% are 20-24 years old.

If this wasn’t concerning enough, these challenges are further compounded by the fact that young people who do not complete high school or a GED are 346% more likely to experience homelessness as young adults than their peers.

As the chief executive officer of Larkin Street Youth Services, San Francisco’s largest service provider for transitional-aged youths experiencing homelessness, I’ve watched these conditions germinate with growing alarm and relentlessly advocated for increased investments in young people at every opportunity afforded to me in an attempt to stem the tide of youth homelessness.

Over the past decade, San Francisco has made tremendous strides on this issue. Since we first started collecting youth-specific homelessness data in 2013, we have seen an almost 40% reduction in the number of young people without home s.

But we cannot rest on our laurels; we need to redouble our efforts. The most recent Point-in-Time count reinforces this; youth homelessness increased between 2022 and 2024 for the first time since our community began tracking this data.

Some San Franciscans think the homeless-response system is failing. But we housed more youth in the past year than ever before, demonstrating that the pandemic’s negative effects have outpaced the scale of our community’s investment in young people.

Ending youth homelessness is the only upstream way to solve chronic homelessness. There is a clear connection between experiencing homelessness as a young person and an increased risk of future housing instability as an older adult.

Research has found that 50% of chronically homeless individuals first experienced homelessness as youth s. Addressing adult homelessness without addressing youth homelessness is like buying a bigger mop instead of turning off the faucet.

In acknowledgment of the challenges we face, Larkin Street has already taken bold steps to address the crisis.

Earlier this year, we completely reinvented our approach to outreach by forging a partnership with Mission High School. Our goal was to reach high-school students who were experiencing or at risk of housing instability and ensure that they didn’t fall further through the cracks.

In just one semester at one school, we supported eight young people by referring them to our shelter and assessing them for housing. One is currently living in one of our transitional-living programs for transitional-aged youths.

We can only achieve measurable and lasting progress through concurrent investments that simultaneously scale innovative programs (such as the one at Mission High) and evidence-based youth-centric housing programs (such as transitional, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing) — that create a robust system of support working to bolster housing stability for vulnerable young people.

As we enter into Pride month, we cannot overlook the fact that youth homelessness is also an equity issue: BIPOC and LGBTQ+ young people are disproportionately overrepresented on our streets.

San Francisco outwardly projects an image of acceptance, love, tolerance, and safety for the LGBTQ+ community. Yet those messages conflict with the stark reality that 38% of the young people on our streets are LGBTQ+, and more than half are youths of color. We cannot allow queer youths fleeing community and familial hostility, rejection, and violence to languish on our streets. Similarly, we have to fix the systems that create these stark disparities.

Ultimately, our success relies on the largesse of the everyday San Franciscans who support Larkin Street and nonprofit organizations serving youths; the sustained support of our public sector partners; and brave political leadership willing to advocate for the next generation.

San Francisco’s rapidly aging population will have no one to care for them if our youths end up on the streets. Every one of us has a stake in this conversation and has a role to play in this fight, whether it is with your voice, generosity, or vote. Without your support, our efforts will be moot. By investing in ending youth homelessness, we are investing in the future of San Francisco.

Sherilyn Adams is the executive director of Larkin Street Youth Services