Lily originally joined Sesame Street for a 2011 PBS special about hunger in the US. In the special, Lily’s family lacked consistent access to food.

Now, Lily’s family has lost their home and must stay with friends. The storyline was developed in an effort to address the growing number of young people experiencing homelessness.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2017 report on homelessness found one-fifth of people experiencing homelessness were children — that’s 114,829 kids under the age of 18 who are homeless. In 2017, the number of unaccompanied homeless youth in the US, which includes anyone under the age of 25, was estimated to be more than 40,000.