ABSTRACT
Homeless youth are among this nation’s most vulnerable populations. The McKinney-Vento Act (reauthorized in 2008) defines homeless youth as those who lack a fixed, regular, or adequate nighttime residence; these youth seek shelter in public places (e.g., parks, highway underpasses, abandoned buildings), share housing with others, live in emergency or transitional shelters, or have nighttime residences in places not designed for human sleeping accommodations. It has been estimated that 2.8 million youth (Hammer, Finkelhor, & Sedlak, 2002) are homeless in the United States and many use substances extensively (Baer, Peterson, & Wells, 2004).
