The Current Conditions of Street Life in the United States

Essay written in June, 2002

Contrary to the impression given by the mass media, there are a large number of street children in the U.S. In New York, for example, an informal survey estimated the number of homeless children and adolescents to be around 50,000. Even in smaller US cities, there is a high risk for children to end up on the streets. In Santa Fe, New Mexico (a city of 70,000 inhabitants), for example, an NGO working with street children assists more than 1000 per year.

Because the situation of street children in the US is quite distinct from that in Latin America, the strategies employed are different as well.

Firstly, a North American child ends up on the streets at a later age than a child in Latin America- usually at around 15 or 16 years of age. Because these children have had more formal education (at least 10 years), they have more chances to find work and to better their lives.

Secondly, because these children spend less time in the streets, they are less exposed to bad habits acquired there and therefore can return to mainstream life more easily. However, because they are already adolescents, they tend to be more rebellious and less willing to accept the help of social service agencies.

The reasons why children end up on the streets in the US are different from those of children in Latin America. In big US cities and in immigrant communities , there are children who live on the streets because of poverty, but that is not the main reason. According to federal government information, around 85% of these children are victims of some sort of abuse and live on the streets to escape from their families. This problem, therefore, requires a different strategy since these children tend to be highly anti-authoritarian.

Furthermore, the situation is further complicated by the great degree of cultural diversity in the US. There are street children who are from rich white families; others whose families are Cuban, Mexican, Chinese, Black or Caribbean… some who do not speak English others whose families have been deported by the Immigration authorities. Programmes – such as those in Latin America – which focus on giving the children a sense of pride in their own culture, therefore, are less effective than those which emphasise tolerance and respect for those from other backgrounds. On a more positive note, however, this great cultural diversity allows the children to be exposed to a large number of different ways of looking at the world.

As in Latin America, North American street children are also exposed to violent treatment by the police. The difference comes in how this power is abused: in Latin America, authority is mostly informal, and police officers and vigilantes often kill and beat children in the street. In the United States, this mistreatment occurs in a more institutional setting: psychological abuse in jail and arbitrary sentences from the courts. In the US, it is more common for street children to kill other street children than for the police to do so. Death is also a common result of the skin trade: men sometimes kill the street youth whom they had paid for sex. Because joining gangs provides a way for urban children to defend themselves, many are also killed due to gang warfare. The potential for violence is great due to the fact that in the US it is easy to obtain firearms. There is always, therefore, a feeling of imminent danger on the streets.

Although US government social welfare programmes guarantee that very young children have a home, an institution or a foster family to live with, due to poor administration, many children feel the system to be oppressive and try to escape from these programmes as soon as they are able to. By the age of 15 or 16, they are already adept a hiding from the police and from their social workers. It is for these reasons that there are so many adolescents on the streets.

On the other hand, US street children use different drugs from their Latin American counterparts. Few sniff glue or other similar products. The most common drug used is marihuana although they also take a lot of LSD, ecstasy, heroin and amphetamines. It is easier to get them off the streets if they are able to resist using heroin, amphetamines or cocaine.

In spite of the differences between North American street children and those in other countries, there are 2 points of resemblance which are important to take note of: Many children end up on the streets because they feel unrecognised and only on the streets do they feel any sense of identity as individuals. Street children generally resist authority and respond better to programmes in which they feel they are not judged nor discriminated against – programmes which place less emphasis on rules and more on giving them the affection they desperately need. While there are many good NGOs for street children in the US, most children manage due to their own efforts rather than participation in such programmes. For this reason, those programmes which focus on the child as an individual and respect his/her own initiative while at the same time helping the child to overcome his/her negative experiences on the street stand a better chance of success.