More than 200 homeless youth are missing from local Point in Time count
CASPER — “I mean abuse, neglect, all that stuff is extremely real in our state. It’s just not as visible in our state. And I just think people need that to be willing to understand that it is there and that it’s not always going to be visible.”
David Hulshizer, Casper Youth Crisis Center executive director, used those words to describe an issue often hidden from plain view.
Casper’s Point in Time count data that was presented to the Casper City Council shows 167 homeless individuals in Natrona County, with minimal homeless youth.
Who was missing? More than 200 homeless youth enrolled in Natrona County School District.
Background
The Point in Time Count or PIT is an effort to count the homeless populations across the nation. Every year on Jan. 25, volunteers and organizations count the number of homeless individuals.
In Casper and the surrounding communities, volunteers with the Community Action Partnership
count the number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals in Natrona County. Because of the cold weather and inconsistent counts by local homeless shelters, these numbers are often underrepresented.
On June 24, Kelly Wessels, executive director of the Community Action Partnership, presented data and proposed solutions to the Casper City Council.
With an 11% increase each year since 2022, the problem is growing.
Wessels proposed several solutions, including launching a consistent, low barrier navigation day center, buying a mobile hygiene unit, expanding housing first programs across Wyoming, and integrating behavioral health services with other resources.
During that presentation, some council members expressed hesitancy to use city funds to address the problem.
“You’re going to deal with it one way or another, so you can either decide to accept that it needs to be solved, because you’re not going to be able to put them [unhoused people] on a bus and ship them out,” Wessels told council members. “They’re from here. The majority, they went to high school with people, they have family here.”
Graduation rates for homeless youth in Natrona County plummeted from 70% to 39.2% over the course of four years, from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2022-2023 school year.
Missing data
Wessels proposed using data about the specific needs of local homeless populations to drive decision making. However, current data from the PIT count and Community Action Partnership doesn’t include any numbers on homeless youth.
Wessels said Natrona County School District officials declined to provide that data to the Community Action Partnership.
According to data from School House Connection, a national nonprofit focusing on youth homelessness, in partnership with the University of Michigan Poverty Solutions, there were 244 homeless youth from Pre-K to 12th grade in Natrona County during the 2022-2023 school year.
Chris Dresang, director of student support services for NCSD, said that number has decreased to the low 200s, a number which is still roughly 125% greater than the total PIT estimate.
While NCSD provides some services, other needs can’t be met through the district alone.
Localized aid
Being homeless is often perceived as sleeping without shelter from the elements. In bigger cities, such as Denver or Portland, homeless people live on the streets with their possessions more visibly than in Casper and Natrona County.
For youth in Casper, that’s not an accurate depiction.
“That’s not a true picture of the homeless kid,” Hulshizer said. “The homeless kid is one that really has no home or a place that they feel safe, a place that they feel supported, a place that they can actually have shelter without concerns.”
This can make it harder to see and count, since homeless youth aren’t as visible as people who are homeless on the streets. For runaways and homeless youth in Natrona County, there are only two places licensed to take in juveniles: Natrona County Regional Juvenile Detention Center and the Youth Crisis Center.
“Casper could use a lot more opportunities for kids with substance abuse issues and mental health issues, because that’s when we talk about the homeless stuff with kiddos,” Hulshizer said. “I think that will be probably one of the biggest narratives that you’ll hear.”
“I think the trend is that the kids are getting younger and younger,” said Pam Mann, operations director of the Youth Crisis Center. “You know, becoming homeless sooner.”
She said the center has seen homeless 16-17-year-old kids, “but you know we have 11-12 year olds now who are also homeless.”
The Youth Crisis Center takes in any youth who needs a place to stay and has a crisis area where youth can stay from an hour to up to 45 days. Youth are there for a variety of reasons, including being between foster care placements or because of a court order. This area of the Youth Crisis Center accepts between one and 12 youth.
The center also has a group home, which can house youth from three months to up to a year. While some of these youth are homeless, others may be coming from other facilities, are unable to be placed in foster care, or don’t have anywhere else to go.
All youth at the center are supervised with access to mental health resources.
Homestyle, nutritious meals are provided, which helps with food insecurity, another challenge many of these youth face.
Youth are also placed in school. Hulshizer said the system is set up so that many resources are unavailable until youth get in trouble, making proactively intervening a challenge.
“Our juvenile justice system is set up to where the kids have to be the ones that get in trouble to utilize the services in the state, which is tough because you don’t want kids to mess up, but sometimes they have to mess up in order for the full wave of the services that they can be offered comes — that’s just the part of the system,” Hulshizer said. “Like, that’s when the judge steps in and says you need to go to treatment, you need to do this. You need to do that. But until then, until the kid gets in trouble, there’s no direct support that way to help guide a kid. And I think we need to begin to look at that.”
Funding challenges
Wyoming nonprofits exist in a unique space, performing services that are incorporated into the government in other states.
Hulshizer said Wyoming lacks the infrastructure to provide state health and human services, so many of these are outsourced to nonprofits. Having nonprofits instead of government entities handle services can streamline the process and help funds to more directly impact those in need. These nonprofits provide essential services, but are often considered for state and federal budget cuts, despite having limited funding sources while providing essential services.
The Youth Crisis Center is funded through the Basic Center Program funding, a federal grant from the Family and Youth Services Bureau. This funding is not currently at risk of being cut.
Despite this, more funding would allow it to expand its services.
NCSD services for homeless students are funded under the McKinney Vento Grant and Title I.
According to School House Connection, Wyoming received $322,505 from the Mckinney-Vento Grant during the 2025 fiscal year. Continued funding for this federal grant is uncertain amidst President Donald Trump’s proposed budget.
A real issue
Homelessness and violence are often cyclical, and youth who have had family members in jail often end up in the justice system themselves.
“And it’s kind of cyclical and there’s some truth to that, that when you deal with mental health, substance abuse and things like that, it can be a behavior that is experienced and learned over time with families,” Hulshizer said. “And then you have parents that don’t necessarily care and or that struggle because they just don’t have the understanding of the capacity to be that parent that they need to be their child’s mentor, then the child suffers.”
To help break that cycle, the Youth Crisis Center will soon begin to offer programs for parents such as parent consultations and parent mentoring. Offering parenting classes, counseling, and supporting parents can help them be more involved in their child’s life, which long-term can help prevent youth from ending up in the justice system or becoming homeless.
This story was published on July 31, 2025.