Best do-gooder

Shahera Hyatt knows what it's like to be a kid and not know where she's going to sleep. At multiple points during her adolescence, she and her family found themselves without stable housing in Sacramento. As a teen, Hyatt bunked with friends and juggled school around work, not the other way around. She had no other choice. Those experiences have informed the 29-year-old's work as director of the state's Homeless Youth Project, where she champions a population that doesn't always rate a lot of political attention, even among other advocacy groups. Over the past five years, Hyatt has become a leading voice on the topic, crisscrossing the country to address national conferences and policy makers, and entertaining bids to work for the president. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone with more policy expertise on youth homelessness, but it's when she peppers in her own backstory or hands the mic to former homeless youth that the audience snaps to attention. “Young people experiencing homelessness and other ‘marginalized' communities often have the strongest voices around,” she recently told The Advocate, “we just have to get out of the way and make space for them to speak.” www.cahomelessyouth.library.ca.gov. RFH