Joan Bickweat, a longtime advocate for youth, says that poverty in Monroe County has risen to a level she never thought she'd see. One example: youth shelters used to forward forgotten belongings on to former clients, she says. But that's not often necessary these days.

"They don't have anything," Bickweat says. "Just the clothes on their back."

Elaine Spaull, City Council member and executive director of the Center for Youth, says the fastest-growing homeless demographic is youth ages 16 to 20.

"That's been true for about five years here in Monroe County," she says.

Monroe County places about 500 children in the youth shelter system every year, says Bickweat, of the Rochester-Monroe County Youth Bureau. There were an additional 290 youth placed in adult shelters in 2007 and another 153 placed in hotels, as well as 334 placed in emergency housing. Some had children accompanying them. The youth are between the ages of 16 to 21, evenly split between males and females, and are either runaways or homeless.

The reasons they become homeless are varied: they age out of foster care, they are rejected by their families, the families are experiencing financial hardship and send older children to fend for themselves, or the child is leaving an intolerable home environment.

"They didn't do anything wrong to become homeless. That's hard to understand," Bickweat says. "It's not their fault that their parents got addicted or died."

The homeless youth demographic is difficult to reach, Spaull says, which is a major reason why that population remains at a critical mass.

"They're not connected very well to services and programs," she says. "It's the one population that continues to be terribly problematic, continues to grow, and is outpacing even adult homelessness."

Homeless youth are at increased risk for substance abuse, unwanted pregnancy and unsafe sexual practices, victimization, mental health problems, and other issues, Bickweat says.

They may also get involved in criminal activity like petit larceny, she says, as a result of their homelessness.