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|  | Feature  The Invisible Kids
It’s up to homeless youth to turn their own lives around
By Alexandra L. Woodruff To the average Salt Lake resident, the month of December means shopping sprees, Temple Square lights, the Nutcracker and being home with family. But for kids whose home is the sidewalks they wander and the abandoned buildings they sleep in, the last month of the year has much different associations.
“Just basically walk around all day, go to different shelters, that kind of thing, trying to get money from different people, just asking if they have change and then we usually crash on a friend’s couch or something. It’s cold ... trying to get money, trying to find a job when you don’t have a stable residence,” said Amy, a 20-year-old who has been homeless for the last three years.
A rift in her family paved the way for street life, so now she’s working on creating a new family. She married in September and thinks she might be pregnant. For Amy, a child could help motivate her and her husband, who is also homeless, into a more stable living situation. She would eventually like to graduate from high school.
In many ways, Amy is a typical homeless youth. Most homeless kids, for one reason or another, have severed ties with their families. A survey conducted by the Homeless Youth Resource Drop-In Center and the Wasatch Homeless Health Care Open Door Clinic found the young adults consistently say they grew up with various types of abuse including physical, sexual, drug and alcohol and neglect. The survey showed 58 percent of females and 23 percent of males were rape victims.
“Their biggest challenge is dealing with the trauma that they have suffered throughout life. It’s the one thing that all of these kids have in common: some form of trauma in their past and often times, it still happens now, it’s current,” said Nicole Campolucci, Program Manager of the Homeless Youth Resource Center.
Volunteers of America has operated the State Street drop-in center since 1999. The youth can eat, wash laundry, take a shower and access job, substance abuse, mental health and medical resources. The staff conducts daily classes on life, job skills and HIV prevention. Because Utah doesn’t have an emancipation law (see sidebar story next page), the staff can only provide services to those under 18 for eight hours without parental consent.
“I provide case management services to kids who are trying to exit homelessness. I would say the number one thing we do is establish trusting relationships with these kids because the only way they will access further service is if they trust us and are willing to work with us,” said Campolucci, who estimates there are around 400 homeless youth in the Salt Lake Valley alone.
Within that statistic, gay youth are slowly emerging in the population. Joan Sheetz, a general pediatrician who runs the Salt Lake County’s Open Door Clinic, observed in the last six months a surge of gay males in the population. Gay advocates believe many gay youth are on the streets because they were kicked out when they came out to their parents. Outreach to these youths has been difficult at best.
“This is our most invisible population. Homeless gay youth are by far the most neglected, invisible, desperate group of youth because nobody wants them, nobody knows who they are, they’re completely invisible. You don’t see these kids and nobody knows that they’re there and nobody knows how to serve them,” said Melissa Larsen, a certified social worker and the Homeless Youth Policy Coordinator at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center of Utah.
In general, homeless youth are at high risk for prostitution and drug abuse, but in Utah and on a national level, young disenfranchised homosexuals fall prey more easily than their heterosexual counterparts.
“Our gay homeless youth tend to engage in drug use and prostitution more, they tend to experience rape and sexual violence more. They’re just the invisible kids. They contract AIDS more than the heterosexual homeless population. They’re at a higher risk of suicide,” said Larsen.
A bisexual 18-year-old who says he’s been homeless for the last six years also says he sells drugs and furniture to get by.
“I’m used to the lifestyle because it doesn’t have as much rules or no rules at all where I have to follow,” said the boy who uses the street name “Paine.”
Another 20-year-old street kid named “T” says he’s comfortable with his sexual orientation.
“I’m gay, I’m happy with how I live and my lifestyle as long as you’re happy with who you are,” said T. But the Arizona native, who now makes money taking care of his sister’s children, left behind a traumatic past of prostitution. T, who dabbles with meth and marijuana, made $200 dollars a night as a prostitute.
“I got raped twice. That’s why I’ll never do it again. There’s consequences for what you do,” said T.
Larsen says when gay teens find themselves out on the street, they became desperate and vulnerable to anyone who might give them a warm place to stay.
“They fall prey to people who say you can live in my apartment, but here’s what you have to do for me and that usually entails some kind of prostitution,” said Larsen.
Paine says he has a boyfriend who makes money and pays for hotels for them to sleep in. He says his boyfriend does not want him to work. He says he does not prostitute, but knows many who sell sex for money.
“I was around my friends that did prostitution and I don’t approve of it, but that’s not my life, so I’m not going to be judgmental about it and be cruel about it and just say you can’t be my friend anymore just because you’re a prostitute. If they want to ruin their lives then that’s their loss,” he said.
Campolucci says she sees more males than females engaging in prostitution, but believes the discrepancy is a matter of perception.
“My theory is that the girls don’t identify what they’re doing as prostitution in any way shape or form. They convince themselves and other people that they really are in this relationship because they want to be in the relationship, not because they’re getting some kind of gain from it. But we actually have males who are out on the street prostituting and males who are involved in relationships, which are effectively prostitution relationships. They talk pretty openly and they call it that, but the girls don’t name it,” said Campolucci.
Drug addiction and mental illness are other major components of most homeless youth’s existence.
“Even though we’re not mental health providers, there’s a mental health overlay to just about everything that we do. Mental health and substance abuse, it’s sort of the coating over everything that we do,” said Dr. Sheetz.
Combating a meth addiction is a major battle for Lacey, a 22-year-old soft-spoken brunette who has called the streets home off and on for the last four years. She has been sober for the last two months.
“It’s really hard, but I know that I have to do it or else I’ll stay this way for a long time,” said Lacey. “I’ve been having a really hard time not going back to where I was, but I want to be happy and at least have some sort of stability in my life.”
When youth decide to get help with addiction, Volunteers of America runs drug treatment programs that visitors to the Drop-In Center can access. The Open Door Clinic also gives them mental health resources. Psychology graduate students and a psychologist run a therapy group at the clinic for the kids to work out emotional and psychological stumbling blocks. If the kids stay for the full hour and participate, they each receive two dollars.
“Some people found the two dollar incentive a little distasteful, but any of these kids could stand on a corner and make a lot more than two dollars in an hour by spare changing. Money is an incentive, but it’s not the only reason that they come,” said Sheetz.
Besides addiction and mental health, Sheetz says respiratory infections and asthma are a major problem in winter. She says she’s seen more Hepatitis C than HIV infections. But beyond helping their medical needs, Sheetz assists the kids finding what they want out of life.
“I don’t try to have my own expectations for someone. I try to make them figure out what your goals are and how they might get there in baby steps. I don’t say ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ I say, ‘what would you like to be different tomorrow morning when you get up?’” she explained.
It’s not always easy for those who work with the youth. Campolucci says it’s hard for her not to burn out. When she does, she remembers a boy she worked with for almost three years. The young adult grew up in and out of homelessness and entered the center with a serious substance abuse problem. He worked as a prostitute and had legal problems. After several tries, the staff was able to establish a trusting relationship with him and connect him with resources that helped him into stable living.
“He has been clean, he cleared up all his legal problems, he’s not prostituting. He’s employed, he has his own apartment,” said Campolucci. “Whenever we have a hard day here, we put our heads together and think about him and remind ourselves that if he could do it, and he was really in bad shape, any of these kids could do it.”
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