Israel: Homelessness Spikes for Girls

The percentage of homeless teenage girls in Israel jumped from 15 to 25 percent last year, driven by the social stresses of immigration and family discord, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The problem includes not just homeless youth, but also teens who “loiter” on the streets, many of whom are from immigrant families whose parents work multiple jobs and are rarely home.

Left in charge of their younger siblings by absent parents, the teens take their brothers and sisters with them onto the streets in search of food and other necessities.

Some girls, in need of shelter, may opt to go home with an adult male, trading sex for a roof over their heads.

One critic said that 99 percent of young homeless females in Israel eventually find their way into the sex industry.

Source:

“Number of homeless female teenagers soar”
Jerusalem Post, April 15, 2008

3 thoughts on “Israel: Homelessness Spikes for Girls

  1. i am really hesitant to read other stories provided by this organization, after reading your summary and then the article itself.
    your summary states that 99% of israeli homeless girls go into prostitution. the article seems to state this as a general homeless statistic, irrespective of place. also, the article highlights that many of these young people are simply wandering the streets late at night (which is common in a temperate small country such as this) whereas your summary emphasizes prostitution and poverty. something is lost in translation here.

  2. Rora, thank you for your note. We do state prominently in the second paragraph that “loitering” and not poverty is often a significant factor.

    Thank you for your other comments as well; because the item above is just a summary, feedback from readers such as yourself helps add depth to the discourse around the issue.

  3. congratulations, this articles stats don’t make any sense at all.
    yah, so basically your stating in this article that 24% of all israeli teenage girls are prostitutes. you said the total went from 15% to 25% and that 99% are prostitutes, was this article written by spanish antisemites??
    hey here let me write another article for you: today it is estimated that 87% of israelis snort coke and shoot heroin, this is up from 50% just 5 days ago. also 94% of teenage boys have eaten their mothers!
    there.
    quit sniffing glue