Definition of Homeless Children and Youth

According to the Stewart B. McKinney Act, 42 U.S.C. § 11301, et seq. (1994), a person is considered homeless who "lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence and has a primary night time residency that is: (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations... (B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or (C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. [42 U.S.C. § 11302(a)] The term "'homeless individual' does not include any individual imprisoned or otherwise detained pursuant to an Act of Congress or a state law. [42 U.S.C. § 11302(c)]

The education subtitle of the McKinney-Vento Act includes a more comprehensive definition of homelessness. This statute states that the term 'homeless child and youth' (A) means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence... and (B) includes: (i) children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting foster care placement; (ii) children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a private or public place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; (iii) children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings, and, (iv) migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii). McKinney-Vento Act sec. 725(2); 42 U.S.C. 11435(2).

This may include:

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 Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;
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 Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds, emergency or transitional shelters due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
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 Having been abandoned in hospitals or awaiting foster care placement
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 A primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings
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 Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and,
•
 Migratory children (as defined in section 1309 of NCLB, see definition below)