The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Youths without a Home

Jan 8, 2018

Between 2016 and 2017, 1 in 10 young people in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 25 spent some time without a home, according to one study from the University of Chicago. That is nearly 3.5 million young people! And it’s not just in the cities: young people are just as likely to fall into homelessness in rural areas.

Young adults in this country are moving out of their parents’ houses at older and older ages, mainly because housing is simply unaffordable at the wages that most young people can get. But when families or youth are in crisis, staying at home is sometimes not an option. Young people wind up homeless when they flee abusive situations. Or they are kicked out for coming out to their parents as gay, or for getting pregnant.

The “solutions” that this society provides are no solutions at all. Many young people report sleeping in their cars rather than staying in a shelter even when they can get in, because it isn’t safe.

And homelessness and the threat of homelessness make us vulnerable. How many young women stay in abusive relationships because the alternative is the streets?

While young workers are facing all this, the stock market is at an all-time high. That is 21st century capitalism in a nutshell.