Youth Health and Housing Lab Incubated by PRC
Over 13,300 unaccompanied youth experience homelessness in Minnesota in a single year. But, when it comes to improving health outcomes for youth more generally, homeless youth have been largely left out of the conversation.
This is an equity issue: nearly three quarters (73%) of youth experiencing homelessness identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), compared to just 26% of all Minnesota youth; and 23% of youth experiencing homelessness identify as LGBTQ+, compared to 4% of all Minnesota youth. These youth experience marginalization and the effects of historical harms within healthcare, including practical barriers (lack of insurance, inconsistent access to health care) and psychosocial barriers (such as structural racism/marginalization and trauma associated with systems-involvement).
To investigate this, HYD-PRC researcher, Janna Gewirtz O’Brien, started the UMN’s Youth Health and Housing Lab. The idea for this lab had been incubating while Gewirtz O’Brien was gathering and analyzing attitudes and perspectives about the COVID-19 vaccine from youth experiencing homelessness. “The supplemental funding from the CDC to work with homeless youth during COVID allowed me to really see the need for a lab to further investigate all the issues for homeless youth, and especially look at the issue of equity among this population,” says Gewirtz O’Brien.
Started in 2021, the Youth Health and Housing Lab leads community-engaged, cross-sector work at the intersection of housing, healthcare, and public health to optimize health and bolster resilience among youth experiencing homelessness. The lab partners with youth-serving agencies, governmental public health, healthcare institutions, and, most importantly, youth.
We invite you to explore the (growing!) Youth Health and Housing Lab’s current projects: Empowering Parents for Wellness in Shelter, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Systems for Action, and National Runaway Safeline.