Editor's Note:  The economic downturn has caused a troubling spike in homeless youth: young people spending their nights in shelters, abandoned cars, sometimes finding shelter on a friend's couch, too often literally sleeping on the streets, in parks, under freeway overpasses, and in riverbed encampments across the country. No one knows how many young people live this way because no one really bothers to count them but federal experts estimate that at least 1.6 million juveniles leave or are put out of their homes each year. Other research has found a 40% spike in the number of homeless youth over the past year. Who are these often-invisible young people? What are their lives like, and what do theythink would help them get stable and off the street? This video is a series in a collaboration between YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia/New America Media and the California Research Bureau.

Homeless Youth from New America Media on Vimeo.