Language - Part 1

The odd thing about American culture is how often we miss the point. An example can be seen in our language regarding runaway and homeless youth.

I use the term ‘runaway and homeless youth’ because that is the accepted terminology for young people who spend some or all of their time disconnected from adult supports and interacting with an alternative ‘street’ culture. Federal programs for this population are referred to in short hand as ‘RHY’ programs. The problem, however, is that with this population we are not dealing with an issue of homelessness.

I’ve made this point before (see Monday, April 16, 2007; Homeless Youth Summit - Part One); the streets aren’t under your feet, they’re under your scalp. Sure, many youth acculturated to the streets spend some or all of their time without a home. However, having a place to live (an apartment, flop, shelter, motel room, being ‘housed’ by someone) does not necessarily mean that you are ‘off the streets’. And the issues of mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and economics are unlikely to be the primary reason why you are ‘on the streets’ -- though these are the issues that characterize other homeless populations. Labeling youth as ‘homeless’ often alienates youth we may be trying to reach, as many may not self-identify as ‘homeless’ and will screen themselves out of our services, and the services themselves may be less effective with a focus on a problem that is not the real issue.

But, as I said, I’ve talked about this before. However, I can’t remind myself of it often enough, as the ‘culture’ of services for street-acculturated youth is so heavily dominated by the language of and focus on homelessness. That was something I noticed today when I was scanning news articles related to the population.

I searched 3 terms; street kids, street youth, and homeless youth. Based on the first 10 articles to come up related to each of these terms, I noticed that with street kids and street youth - terms that speak more to the culture than an issue of ‘homelessness’ - 70% of the articles were from Canada, the United Kingdom, and (of all places) Fiji - only 30% originated in the United States. But when the search term changed to homeless youth, 90% of the articles originated in the USA.

There seems to be a difference in the language that we use here in the United States. Tomorrow I’ll talk a bit more about some potential ramifications of this language.