A year ago, when the walls of my office were still bare and I was asking directions to get to hearings, representatives of National Safe Place first paid me a visit. The problems we discussed were not at all new to me — I chose to be on the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee to work on these very issues — but our meeting helped transform a position into purpose.

We in the freshman class arrived in Washington determined to restore faith in America’s future, and readying a new generation of Americans is key. When Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gaveled in the 110th Congress surrounded on the dais by children, she sent a signal that America’s youth were a top priority. We sought reforms of higher education, a doubling of the child tax credit, safer inspections of toys and food, measures to clean the air we breathe and an expansion of SCHIP.

Now, with the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act about to expire, we must also turn our attention to the country’s disconnected youth — a problem that is not acceptable in the future we wanted to help build.

The facts are astounding and devastating.  As many as 3 million minors experience disconnection. Some of them are born homeless, but most run away to escape mental, emotional or physical abuse. More than a third of them — roughly a million children — are victims of sexual abuse in the home. A third of them attempt suicide.  For these young people hope is a distant concept, and the future is little more than a dead end.

Numbers don’t lie, but they offer little perspective into the reality these young people face day to day. I worked with my colleagues on the Education and Labor Committee to hold a hearing on disconnected youth. Seventeen-year-old Rusty Booker, formerly a troubled youth, from my district in Louisville who has struggled with physical and emotional abuse, testified before the committee. Rusty’s compelling story illustrated how a boy with seemingly no future and all odds against him could find success when the proper resources were employed. Safe Place had helped give Rusty hope. He turned his life around and is preparing to enter college in the fall. They gave him a home, guidance and the support that every child needs.  

Still, for every success story like Rusty’s, there are far too many who don’t receive the help needed to right one’s path. With the proper investment, millions of disconnected youth can find the life-saving assistance that Rusty found, but if we don’t act quickly to reauthorize RHYA, their best hope could fade into obscurity.

Rusty offered the foundation of momentum I hope to build upon with legislation I will introduce to reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA). This bill, the Reconnecting Homeless Youth Act, will do more than reauthorize the old bill through 2013; it will provide significant improvements and much needed expansions. Our top priority was guaranteeing the organizations that work for disconnected youth have the full funding they need, because they already work to provide the tools kids need to reconnect — Safe Place has reached more than 100,000 children in my home state of Kentucky alone. The bill more than doubles RHYA funding to $200 million per year, to ensure that the resources are in place for community-serving organizations to reach every kid in need. Specifically, the bill will increase the RHYA Basic Center Program allotments for small states, add public entities as eligible applicants for Street Outreach Program funds, establish grantee performance standards, and create a process for developing a national runaway and homeless youth research and evaluation agenda.

The solutions are within our grasp, but it will take real leadership from Congress to ensure that help reaches all who need it. If we recommit ourselves to solving the problem, we can eradicate the crisis forever.

The progress that we have made in the past year is significant. Still more significant will be the advances down the road. As we work to restore faith in this nation’s future, we must build an America where every child has a chance to learn, succeed, and at the very least, have a place to call home.

Yarmuth is a member of the House Education and Labor Committee.