Girl And Homeless -rj01174495- Access

We cannot arrest our way out of youth homelessness. We cannot build enough fences. What Layla needed—what every girl on the street needs—was not pity, but a bridge.

"Why a book?" I finally asked her.

In a world that often looks past the homeless, we look through young women. We assume a system will catch them. We assume a shelter has a bed. We assume wrong. Girl And Homeless -RJ01174495-

Her name is Layla. She is seventeen. She has a grade point average of 3.9. And last Tuesday, she slept behind a dumpster because the women’s shelter was full and the night was too cold for the park bench. We cannot arrest our way out of youth homelessness