Cera Dunlap, 25, has spent much of her life caught in the throes of uncertainty, as a homeless youth and living without a guardian in Baltimore City. "At 11, the state placed me in foster care, and I ran away at 12," said Dunlap, who spent six years after that without a fixed residence. "Being homeless [as a young person] is extremely hard," she said. "At that age people don't take you seriously." Dunlap now resides at Restoration Gardens, apartments for homeless youth locate

Results from the 2011 parallel count of homeless and unstably housed youth in Baltimore City identified 640 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 13 and 25 living out on their own, unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. In 2009, the parallel count number was 426 homeless young people. The count was conducted byNan Astone, PhD, associate professor with the Center for Adolescent Health(CAH) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Ross Pologe of the

As one might expect in a miserable economy, Baltimore’s overall homeless population swelled nearly 20 percent during the past two years. The number of homeless young people (ages 13 to 24) jumped by 50 percent. The dramatic data, based on homeless counts conducted this winter, were revealed in two studies released in September by Morgan State University and Johns Hopkins University. The biennial homeless censuses, which are required under federal law and are conducted on a si