Join Fenix Youth Project Inc. during the 2024 Maryland General Assembly on February 19, as we advocate with fellow Marylanders in our state’s capital. This statewide grassroots lobbying depends on your leadership.
We are partnering with Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, Jews United for Justice, the Baltimore Algebra Project, the Maryland Second Look Coalition, ACLU Maryland. Racial Justice NOW!, Brotherly Love, Advanced Maryland, and more to push for equitable children’s rights policies this session. Together, we can lift up the humanity of all children and call for an end to racist mass incarceration in Maryland.
Recent released HUD data reveals a 16% increase in Families with children in homeless shelters, or were in a visibly unsheltered situation in the previous year. Unaccompanied youth – a 15% increase over the previous year. Available data indicate that youth experiencing homelessness face disproportionate levels of contact with juvenile justice systems. Recent estimates suggest that 46% of youth who have experienced homelessness have been held in juvenile detention centers at some point, relative to 15% of youth in the general population. A society is not successful if detention centers and prisons continue to be our largest form of public housing.