USAID distinguishes between four categories:

A “child of the streets,” in other words, children who have no home but the streets and no family support They move from place to place, living in shelters and abandoned buildings

A “child on the street,” in other words, children who visit their families regularly and might even return every night to sleep at home but spend most days and some nights on the street because of poverty, overcrowding, sexual or physical abuse at home

“Part of a street family” - children living on sidewalks or city squares with the rest of their families They may be displaced due to poverty, war or natural disaster Families live a nomadic life, carrying their possessions with them

“Institutionalized Care,” children who come from a situation of homelessness and are at risk of returning to a life on the street In many states in the US, the foster care system abruptly ceases all support once a child turns eighteen, for example 248,669 kids exited the US foster care system in 2019, and 8% of them were legally emancipated, in other words, aged out and on their own (See Foster Care Statistics 2019) Another 3% have other outcomes, including running away and death Quite a few former foster children find themselves homeless shortly after aging out of the foster care system

Children of the Street Children on the Street Street Families

Children in Institutionalized Care

What are the push/pull factors leading children to the street? How can communities be strengthened to prevent children from being abandoned to the street?

Research paper by Augendra Bhukuth and Jérôme Ballet, Children of the Street: Why are they in the Street? How do they live?

For a deep dive into the capability approach to development in children, which stresses the positive freedoms to choose a way of living that has value to that person, see this book, Children and the Capability Approach

UN Framework for the Immediate Socio-Economic Response to Covid 19: an urgent socio-economic response to the Covid 19 pandemic pointing out that development deficits and inequities made many countries so vulnerable to the pandemic. The UN Development System must help governments and populations respond in a way that builds a better future.

Rescuing Emmanuel available for rent 59 mins

Discarded – Street Children in the Philippines (Deutsche Welle) 42 mins

Right to Know Ask Sheets

Right to Know Homelessness

Resources for the Homeless (Washington, D C -based)