A comparison of addiction and transience among street youth: Los Angeles, California, Austin, Texas, and St Louis, Missouri

Introduction: Generally, homeless “street” youth research has reported findings from single-city studies, with the implicit assumption that these adequately describe the population. Meanwhile, findings suggest that youth in runaway crisis shelters significantly differ across federal regions and transience is critical in the lives of street youth--arguing for systematic attention to these issues. This presentation provides evidence concerning the role of addiction and transience on service-using street youth through comparisons among three disparate urban areas.

Methods: Street youth from Los Angeles (n=50), Austin (n=50) and St. Louis (n=46) were recruited from drop-in shelters, outreach, and street locations using comparable recruitment strategies. Youth were interviewed for addiction (alcohol/substance abuse/dependence) and transience (number of inter-city moves), and cities were compared using chi-squares and ANOVAs.

Results: Each city demonstrated patterns that were significantly different from the other two. Austin was highest in alcohol (54%), drug abuse/dependence (60%) and transience (mean=12.3 moves); St Louis was lowest in all three (14%/19%/.9); while Los Angeles was in between (34%/36%/5.2). Further, each city showed differing patterns for youths' cities of origin, with Austin youth being spread broadly across Texas and nationally, St Louis being primarily from within the city and state, and Los Angeles relatively evenly distributed.

Discussion: Findings strongly affirm the distinct patterns among the three cities and suggest that each serves a differing population. Given that national funding policy assumes population homogeneity (e.g., funding the same service continuum), differences found here suggest the need to examine city populations separately to determine appropriate services.