In spring 2020, when COVID first began to grip the U.S., public health officials urged people to distance themselves from others and shelter in place. That was no problem for people with a stable home. But for young people experiencing homelessness, it was almost impossible.
Throughout the pandemic, symptoms of anxiety and depression increased among adults in the U.S., according to Census data. Last year, about 3 in 10 adults reported feeling worried, nervous or hopeless. Those rates are even higher for young people: About 50% of young people aged 18 to 24 surveyed last year reported symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Many young people lost important connections with friends and trusted adults during the pandemic. And community spaces that anchored homeless youth closed in an instant.
Isolating from others helped stop the spread of COVID, but isolation also drives addiction. During the pandemic, substance abuse, overdose deaths and suicide rates increased across the nation. At the same time illicit fentanyl, the deadly and cheap opioid, was making its way onto the street drug scene in Portland. Overdose deaths, largely driven by opioids like fentanyl, doubled in Oregon from 2011 to 2021.
Read more on OPB.org.
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