sChildren and Youth | Shimberg Center
Shimberg Center for Housing Studies

Homeless Youth

In the 2017-2018 school year, 95,873 children and youth in Florida were identified as experiencing homelessness. These students were temporarily doubled up others or staying in hotels and motels, shelters, transitional housing, and unsheltered locations. Florida’s shortage of affordable housing is the root cause of student’s housing instability--a problem exacerbated by catastrophic hurricanes in recent years.

These findings come from Students Experiencing Homelessness in Florida: Updates and Solutions, which provides data on child and youth homelessness and a set of policy recommendations to address it. See also fact sheets on student homelessness for 23 Florida counties.

The report is a follow-up to Homelessness and Education in Florida: Impacts on Children and Youth, released by the Shimberg Center and Miami Homes for All in 2017. Both reports find that housing instability and homelessness are increasing among young people in Florida, and that students without stable housing lag behind their housed peers in school.

The study was made possible by JPMorgan Chase & Co.