Homeless adolescents present with an array of difficulties, being perhaps the neediest group of youths in the U.S. While policy and programmatic needs of this population are often discussed, their clinical needs can be overlooked for fear of “implied victin blaming”.

This paper examines characteristics of homeless youths, diverse practice methods that have been applied to this population, and related theories. Three models of practice are descibed, with examples, as potentially applicable to indiidual and family intervention with this population.