NYC’s ‘couch-surfing’ runaways are vulnerable to exploitation

They move through New York and other big cities like shadows. Often at loose ends, they blend in on crowded city sidewalks and perhaps catch a few winks on a friend’s sofa or a park bench. They take risks for food and money, incurring violence, fraud, and deception.

In dispassionate government reports, these adolescents are referred to as “unaccompanied homeless youth,” but are known colloquially to many as “runaways”—youngsters who have left unstable, unaccepting or abusive families. In New York City, with its sky-high costs, they search for clean clothes, meals, a shower, and a warm bed.

What types of social services would help these highly vulnerable people lead safer and more productive lives? Meredith Dank, a clinical associate professor at the Marron Institute of Urban Management shed light on that question with a recent study, “Understanding the Needs of Unstably Housed Youth In New York City,” conducted in partnership with social scientists from several universities.   

The researchers surveyed nearly 400 adolescents between December 2021 and July 2023, conducting focus-group interviews with a subset of the sample. The great majority of study participants were then between 18 and 21, and nearly all US-born and raised in the New York City. They had been without a stable address for a year or more.

The runaways and homeless told the researchers that they most needed both short- and long-term types of housing with supportive services, caseworkers, legal aid, mental health counseling, crisis intervention services, and—last but hardly least—cash. Some said they occasionally stayed with their relatives, while others practiced “couch surfing,” or borrowing space on a friend’s sofa for the night. They braved the elements in all kinds of weather to avoid the city’s congregate shelters for the homeless as much as possible.

“Youth may engage in unsafe behaviors to have their needs met, such as having sex in exchange for food and a place to stay or running drugs to earn money, making them vulnerable to further exploitation,” the report states.

And in New York and many other US cities, “the dearth of affordable housing and a lack of living-wage youth employment opportunities make it especially difficult for youth to find and remain in stable, safe housing.”

Dank has conducted research in more than a dozen countries and participated in a number of federal-level stakeholder meetings on human trafficking. She directs the Marron Institute’s Human Exploitation and Resilience program.

 NYU News spoke with her about what the study reveals about the challenges facing unhoused youth in the city, and what could help them.

What factors usually prompt an adolescent to run away from home?

There are several. Our study found that almost 38% ran away due to emotional abuse in the home, 29% left because they didn’t get along with their parents or guardians, and 27% experienced physical abuse. Twenty-five percent ran away because their parents or guardians did not accept them for who they are, and 23% said they were kicked out for that reason. 

Whether they’ve been kicked out or have run away, how are their prospects dimmed by their displacement?

Displacement can severely disrupt the chances that they will obtain secure housing, living-wage employment, and other opportunities. They must focus on survival—where to find food, shelter, and some earnings. Given the challenges that runaway and homeless youth have in accessing social services, and the difficulty that providers have in retaining them as clients, many of them sleep unsheltered, stay with unsafe individuals, and incur other risks.

How did you become interested in studying this population?

I’ve always been interested in issues impacting young people, as well as the resilience of young people who have faced adversity. When I was a doctoral student at CUNY, I was lucky enough to work on a groundbreaking study that documented the stories of more than 300 young people who experienced commercial sexual exploitation in New York City. It opened my eyes to a whole new societal issue that few people were paying attention to. 

How extensive now is the problem you document?

Runaway and homeless youth are considered a hidden population, so it’s hard to answer this exactly. Several cities, including New York, conduct a point-in-time count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless adults, families, and youth. One snapshot of such homeless and tenuously housed youth in the city showed that there was a total of 5,734, with ages ranging from 14 to 24.

However, these are often under-counts. They don’t capture the true extent and size of the population of runaways and homeless youth. In past research here in NYC, my colleagues and I found that almost three-quarters are born-and- raised New Yorkers. Thus, they often have extensive networks of friends and family members, and can bounce around to different homes to avoid street homelessness.

How did you find the people to participate in the study, given their uncertain circumstances and the heightened concerns about COVID at the time?

A lot of the service providers and drop-in centers were in fact operating at limited capacity when we began the survey—they were just handing out food and hygiene kits at the door. But once they re-opened fully, they let us in to sit down with their clients, albeit with a lot of health precautions. We still managed to get close to 400 surveys completed and conducted eight focus groups. 

What surprised you the most about what the study participants said?

The biggest surprise to me was that almost half the youth—46%—disclosed that they had experienced at least one form of human trafficking, and of those who experienced trafficking, 32% had experienced three or more forms of it.

At the same time, 18% said they traded sexual acts for the necessities of survival before age 18. Youth rarely disclose trafficking experiences, so to have such a high percentage of young people indicate on the survey that they’ve encountered a range of exploitation demonstrates something important: not only should we being doing a better job of screening troubled young people for trafficking experiences, but our real focus should be on preventing them from being vulnerable to its various forms in the first place. 

What else did you find can be done to help young people who are living in plain sight?

Youth experiencing unstable housing require a suite of developmentally appropriate services to help them obtain housing and address any barriers that might prevent them from staying in long-term safe housing. One of the primary objectives of the study was to learn from the youth which services they would like to access and which ones would best meet their needs.

While two-thirds of the youth said they were interested in receiving long-term support with their housing and shelter needs, a higher percentage, 76%, were interested in obtaining financial assistance; 71%, employment assistance; and 69%, assistance with practical issues in their day-to-day lives.

In addition to wanting economic aid, the majority—66%—of youth also expressed interest in educational assistance, and 68% were interested in life skills support. Those two services, they felt, would further help them prepare for a life with more stability.

Do you have any other research in mind when it comes to unstably housed youth?

My colleagues and I recently submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to create an app to aid in communication with their care providers. The app would allow the providers to send reminders about appointments and events, and would allow the youth to save important documents; no longer would they have to carry the paperwork with them everywhere they went or keep track of their housing history.

We are also looking to co-create a pilot program involving runaways, providers, and government stakeholders, with the goal of building stability through the provision of long-term housing, physical and mental health support, and employment.