Youth Homelesness in Philadelphia

Abstract

Philadelphia is facing a rise in youth homelessness, with contributing factors including family conflict, abuse, and economic hardship. Though homelessness within Philadelphia, and all of the US, had dramatically improved after the 2008 recession, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has turned the previous progress into another rise in homelessness, with a significant increase in unemployment and financial struggles for individuals. Youth homelessness also raises a public health concern for the young people as they are not safe, especially during the pandemic. Ultimately, the unaccompanied youth face such influential factors making it nearly impossible for them to overcome homelessness on their own. Knowing the prevalence of homelessness within the US, and more specifically within Philadelphia, it is important to understand the danger of rising homelessness, especially in youth. This study aims to find the leading factors contributing to the rise in youth homelessness in Philadelphia and ultimately how it is impacting the younger generations. By contacting school district boards, we will be able to gather data on the population of youth homelessness, use R to analyze the data we gather and use Tableau as a tool for data visualization, creating graphs and models to display our data. For our analyses, we will use ANOVA tests, to measure for the p-value, and descriptive models and frequency tables in order to break down and display the data. We intend for our results to find true data on youth homelessness within the area and point to leading factors that could have led to the living situation.