Voter registration and voting attitudes of unhoused young adults in Los Angeles

Robin Petering, Laura Onasch-Vera, Hsun-Ta Hsu, Julia Alessandra, Nikki Chinen and Sachin Medhekar

Children and Youth Services Review, 2021, vol. 121, issue C

Abstract: Historically, the United States has had a low voter turnout. This is evident with young adults, especially those who are experiencing homelessness. To understand how this unique subpopulation views voting, we conducted a research study that surveyed 79 unhoused young adults (18–26 years old) in Los Angeles. Our results indicated that of those eligible to vote, 56% identified as being currently registered. When asked if they were planning to vote in the November election, only 37% of those eligible to vote said yes. Young people identifying as LGBQ were significantly more likely to be registered as well as 4.5 times more likely to have a plan to vote. When participants were asked why they would not vote, reasons generally fell into four themes: apathy or confusion about the process, the perception of voting of having no change or impact, persistence of injustice, or active rejection of voting. Therefore, we suggest three policy recommendations to increase voter turnout among young adults experiencing homelessness: (1) encouraging voter registration and implementing targeted voter campaigns for young adults; (2) closing the gap in education and outreach, particularly at the local level; and (3) including unhoused individuals in local government and policy making decisions. These recommendations would encourage youth who are experiencing homelessness to vote, thus closing the gap and increasing voter turnout.

Keywords: Voter registration; Homeless youth; Civic engagement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019074092032329X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:121:y:2021:i:c:s019074092032329x

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105907

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().