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Bad Economy Creates More Young Runaways
Filed under: In The News
The bad economy is influencing kids to run away from home. Photo: Monica Almeida, The New York Times / Redux
More kids, many of them not even in their teens, are running away from home because of the depressed economy.
According to The New York Times, government officials, experts and homeless advocates have noticed the surge over the last two years. They blame the economy. Adults' frustrations with layoffs, foreclosures and the increasing difficulty of putting food on tables and roofs over heads have led to tensions -- and even hostility -- on the home front, The Times reported. Kids respond by escaping.
Sometimes parents just abandon them.
"Several times a month we're seeing kids left by parents who say they can't afford them anymore," Mary Ferrell, director of the Maslow Project, a resource center for homeless children and families in Medford, Ore., told The Times.
Clinton Anchors, 18, is a runaway in Medford who left his home when he was 12. He told The Times that he and five other teenagers live together and teach new runaways how to avoid police and predators while finding food and surviving the cold.
"We always first try to send them home," he saud. "But a lot of times they won't go because things are really bad there. We basically become their new family."
The Times reported that at least 1.6 million kids run away from their homes -- or are kicked out -- every year. Most of them return home within a week. Government officials don't keep current counts. However, the number of runaways contacting federally-financed outreach programs rose from 550,000 to 761,000 between 2002 and 2008.
With many runaways too young to work, they resort to begging, selling drugs and prostitution, according to the National Runaway Switchboard. The federally financed 24-hour national hot line was created in 1974. Kids who need help can call 800-RUNAWAY.
Betty Snyder, 14, told The Times that financial problems made life at home with her mother unbearable.
"One month there is money, and the next month there is none," she said. "One day, she is taking it out on me, and the next day she is ignoring me. It's more stable out here."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
10-27-2009 @ 3:09PM
Elizabeth said...Unfortunately, this isn't anything new. I remember during the last recession (like between '91-and '93) that there were a lot of kids who ran away because in their own way they were trying to help out their parents by having one less mouth to feed. If memory serves it got to be almost an epidemic, and almost everyone knew at least one kid who had run away. The difference is that back then the issue was addressed on a lot of TV and news programs aimed at both kids and parents. I've said it before and I'll say it again, bring back the ABC After School Special! It's really sad that this happens.
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11-18-2009 @ 6:49PM
Tasha said...This is really sad... I was actually a runaway at one time. Another reason why I created AntiBadGuy.com - You just never know when someone will attack. As I always say, better to have immediate protection and not need it, than to need immediate protection and not have it!
Tasha
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