A basic need of children is stable housing. When housing is unstable, children experience frequent moves and in the most severe cases, homelessness. Children experiencing homelessness face several challenges, including exposure to toxic stress and challenges in school. In 2017, the Utah Legislature recognized that homeless may occur among families experiencing intergenerational poverty. As a result, the issue of child homeless was added to the intergenerational poverty report.

This indicator is calculated as a rate of all children experiencing intergenerational poverty who received emergency shelter services in the reporting year. The indicator was baselined using 2016 data. Until this date, the intergenerational poverty report included the number of enrollments in emergency shelter services. In that case, a child experiencing intergenerational poverty may have had multiple enrollments in an emergency shelter during the reporting year.