The difficult past of homeless young people.

• A modest social background and low educational attainment
• Complex geographical and cultural itineraries
• Family problems
• Different past experiences among the older and the younger respondents
• The INED survey among homeless young people

It is not unusual for young people, in particular as they become emancipated, to find themselves in globally precarious situations, albeit temporarily. Such difficult circumstances, such as joblessness or poverty, are sometimes repeated from generation to generation, especially if the person has experienced difficult times in the past, such as a family breakdown, the premature death of parents, has run into trouble with the law, or dropped out of school with few or no qualifications [1]. In order to better understand how some of these young people became homeless, INED conducted a survey in Paris and the immediate suburbs.