Youth homelessness is a growing problem across the country. On any given night, there are between one and two million kids who can't stay at home because their families are violent, abusive, or simply don’t want them. Survival sex, abuse, addiction, crime, and trafficking are some of the harsh realities that young people may experience when they don’t have stable housing. There aren’t enough shelter beds for the increasing number of homeless youth to sleep in, and school takes a back seat when the focus is survival. Without intervention, many young people on the street are destined to become homeless adults: A grim statistic tells us that those who don’t find a way out by the time they are twenty four are likely to still be homeless at forty eight.
STREET LEVEL (©2019), a documentary film by Emily Goldberg and Michaal Smith, sheds light on the homeless youth crisis in the United States by focusing on the lives of several young people in one American city. From the winter landscape of Minneapolis, we hear from them about their struggles and about a glimmer of hope provided by a local bike shop that offers internships to homeless youth. Interweaving video shot by the youth themselves, the film chronicles both the hard realities these young people face and the sense of purpose and belonging they gain from working on bikes with the support of caring adults.
By engaging viewers in the plight of homeless youth in one Midwestern city and highlighting one social entrepreneur's innovative response to it, Street Level is designed to engender meaningful dialogue that inspires other communities to work toward better solutions to the endemic problem of youth homelessness.
