YouthUp Mobile Unit Goes on the Road to Help Metro Detroit’s Homeless Youth

Stocked with snacks, a shower, and a PlayStation, a decked-out RV is set to take to the road to help young people in need this summer.

The custom-built RV, called the YouthUp mobile unit, is the latest effort from the Detroit Phoenix Center to combat housing insecurity among young people ages 12 to 24. The organization is partnering with community-based organizations and schools to bring resources such as food, the internet, hygiene kits, and laptops to teens and young adults across Metro Detroit.

"It's an opportunity for us to meet young people just right where they are in the community," Courtney Smith, CEO and founder of the nonprofit Detroit Phoenix Center, told the Detroit Free Press.

Homelessness among youth remains a growing problem in the Detroit area. A total of 464 children younger than 18 were unhoused, approximately 27% of the people facing homelessness in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park counted on one night in January 2024. The count also identified 115 young adults, ages 18 to 24. 

Most of these individuals were in emergency shelter or housing programs. This age group makes up only a portion of the overall unhoused population, but housing experts say that youth homelessness is difficult to fully determine. Since definitions of youth vary, numbers reported are likely to be underestimated.

For this reason, the Detroit Phoenix Center's newest initiative, revealed on Wednesday, April 30, at Detroit PAL, aims to bring resources directly to those in need.

"Our mobile youth center is not just for young people experiencing housing insecurity.... We're using it as an opportunity to address young people that are experiencing housing insecurity — that self identify — but then those who may not even identify as experiencing housing insecurity because that's why this undercount exists, because of the stigma," Smith said. "We're trying to combat that, and our hope is that through this outreach, we're able to get a better scope and a better lens on how many young people are actually in need."