Homelessness, Part 3: Trouble comes early for some

THE SERIES

This series looks at the lives and issues surrounding three populations of the homeless.

Sunday: Homelessness on the rise
Monday: Families
Today: Youths
Wednesday: The chronic homeless

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Liz Slocume talks of her life in the summer of 2007, a time of homelessness, prostitution, hunger, alcohol and drugs.

As she speaks, her tale becomes as discombobulated as her life. It ripples backward to childhood, then forward again in a cascade of difficulties: foster care and adoption. Fights with her stepfather. Trouble at school. Getting dumped on the side of the road by her mother. Living in her car. Selling her body to support herself.

Slocume is working to get her life back on track, but many elements of her story - the messed-up home life, the drinking, the struggle to survive on the streets - weave their way through the lives of dozens of other "throwaways," runaways and "system kids" who make up the population of homeless youths in the Pikes Peak region.

The numbers are tough to track, but state officials estimate that on any given night, 1,200 to 1,500 Coloradans ages 12 to 24 have no safe place to stay.

"They are really good at staying hidden, so our homeless youth are really hard to count," said Andy Johnson, homeless-youth coordinator for the Colorado Department of Human Services.

Still, there are signs that their numbers are growing. Those who work with homeless teens say more are seeking assistance for job counseling, help getting birth certificates and a place to stay.

Urban Peak Colorado Springs, the primary agency that assists homeless youths in the region, has rarely had a waiting list in the four years since it opened its live-in dorms in The Place. The waiting list jumped from 12 on Nov. 7 to 35 on Dec. 15, said John McIlwee, executive director.

The latest waiting list had 25 males and 10 females, and December marked the first time the agency has had a waiting list for females.

These are the homeless youth the community knows about. There are more out there not seeking help, not being counted, falling through the cracks. The question is how many.

Different paths

Homeless youths aren't "street kids" who cut class or find other ways to push the boundaries brought on by adolescence. The primary difference? Those kids can go home at night.

Homeless teens, by definition, have no place to call home. Each has a unique story about how he or she ended up on the streets, but experts say there are three main categories of homeless youths:

• The runaways - those under 18 who leave home without permission, often because of abuse or a difficult home life. By law, if they are found they're sent home, put into foster care or, if there's a crime involved, herded into the juvenile-justice system.

• The throwaways - those kicked out of their home because they're troublesome, gay, can't get along with a stepparent and the like. Experts say they're seeing a disturbing increase in this category.

• The system youth - those who have been in and out of foster care, the juvenile-justice system or the welfare system and keep falling through the cracks.

The economy, too, may be coming into play as more young people who have been getting by with the help of friends and low-paying jobs end up on the streets as the recession deepens.

"I think it's going to get worse," McIlwee said.

Without help, homeless youths face a rough life that could keep them on the streets indefinitely.

"The consequences of homelessness bring despair to youth in the form of mental-health problems, substance use, victimization and criminal activity, unsafe sexual practices, and barriers to education and employment," according to a report by the National Network for Youth.

If these youth are not helped, they will likely become an addition to the population of chronic homeless adults."

But you don't have to go to a report. Just listen to the stories of homeless youths who are trying to reclaim their lives through Urban Peak.

Theirs are tales of family dysfunction, rebellion, abuse, rejection, prostitution and senses numbed by drugs and alcohol. Whether the stories can be fully documented is irrelevant to McIlwee.

"It's how they see their life," he said. "It's their story."

Telling it like it is

Slocume, 20, doesn't want to mess up anymore - or for anyone to mess her up.

In foster care at age 4, she was adopted by her foster mom, who remarried when Slocume was 10. Slocume never got along with her stepfather, and she said he eventually became abusive.

"I used to hide (from him) in the closet and then I started drinking in the closet," she said.

"I constantly had to numb myself."

There was a string of trouble in school, rehab facilities, struggles with eating disorders.

Her mother dumped her out on the street - not once, but twice.

"She said she couldn't choose me over her family," Slocume said.

The first time she was thrown out, Slocume was a senior in high school. A school security guard took her in and she graduated.

She got a decent job and an apartment and thought she'd make it on her own.

But she got into an abusive relationship that cost her the job when her boyfriend kept showing up at work, making threats. And she took in her heroin-addicted sister, thinking she could help her get clean.

Her sister took off with her money and belongings, and Slocume sold her car to get out of an apartment lease. She returned home briefly, but her mom again dumped her on the side of the road.

Slocume couch-hopped and worked at a fast-food joint, and then her hours were cut. A co-worker told her she could make money at parties. She didn't get it until someone paid $2,000 for "first-time" sex with her. She acquired a pimp and a street-walking partner, both fast-food co-workers.

"At first I was making a lot of money because I was young, I was new," Slocume said.

"And then it was less and less. I really didn't like it. It was just easy money. And when the money went down I didn't want to do it."

She was living in a car parked by Monument Lake and hadn't eaten in three days when her prostitute partner handed her an Urban Peak brochure. She threw it in the lake, insisting that she wasn't homeless.

Her friend tried again.

"She always told me how smart I was, that I was better than this and she really wanted to help me," Slocume said. "She handed me her phone and I called."

She arrived at Urban Peak the day after her 20th birthday. She drank all night and all morning - until 8 a.m.

She was still drunk when she arrived at Urban Peak around 3 p.m. Within 24 hours she learned that an acquaintance had been killed in a car crash and her sister had died of a heroin overdose.

"That week it felt like I lost everything - alcohol, friends, the only family I had."

Dramatic turnaround

The first time E.J. Chaparro checked into The Place, he was just looking for somewhere to stay. He didn't want to give up drinking, smoking pot and partying. He stayed long enough to get a job and then moved in with a friend's grandma, paying her a little rent.

"Then I lost my job and grandma got tired of me," he said.

There were family issues in his Denver home, he said without elaboration. He started drinking at age 14 and smoking pot at 16. He dropped out of high school early in his senior year and left home at 17.

Over the next three years, he bounced between Denver and Colorado Springs, staying with friends or acquaintances or at shelters. He spent a couple of months in Denver County Jail. He tried Urban Peak and even briefly returned home.

Then one day, he told himself "I'm done with this," and he went back to Urban Peak, which helped him get his birth certificate and Social Security card.

Now 20, Chaparro is working on his GED and recently left for a Job Corps training program in Utah.

"Diesel mechanics," he said shortly before he left. "I'm really looking forward to that. My dad showed me mechanical stuff since I was 3 years old."

Chaparro believes he had to hit the streets again to appreciate Urban Peak's efforts to help him grow up and take hold of his life.

"Sometimes you just need structure," he said. "I can't live like a kid anymore. I've got to get on my game about stuff."

Many E.J.'s have passed through Urban Peak, McIlwee said. It's not uncommon for youths to arrive, disappear awhile and come back - sometimes several times.

"When a youth walks in that door, we're very inclusive and accept them where they are and get them the help they need," McIlwee said. "When they're ready, they can do amazing things.

"But this is not a hot and cot."

The youths must be ready to grow up. They can't come home drunk or high. They must work toward independence.

"They're held responsible," McIlwee said. "We learned a long time ago if they're going to change they have to give at least 50 percent."

Urban Peak case workers encourage the youths to stay in contact with their family or make amends, but that's not always possible.

Often, the troubled teens come from families that are unable to resolve problems. But like many other communities, Colorado Springs doesn't have enough alcohol- and drug-rehabilitation or mental-health services, and families often don't seek them soon enough. That could be because of the stigma or lack of resources or because parents have their own problems.

"It's not always that they're bad families," McIlwee said. "Some just don't know what to do."

Taking the next step

Since arriving at Urban Peak in late July, Slocume has reconnected with two older biological sisters she barely knew and has found a family among them and their children.

The loneliness she felt that first day began to evaporate as she made friends who had gone through similar ordeals. She's preparing to enroll in Pikes Peak Community College for spring semester and wants to study art. She recently sold her first painting - an acrylic.

She's also looking for a job and expects to move into a transitional apartment this month She's excited for her future, but a little sad about leaving The Place.

"It's safe. It's fun to come home and be in a place where I can talk about my day," she said. "This sounds silly, but I love dinner time because it feels so normal when we all sit around the table together. It feels like a home. This is the first time in my life that I really felt like I was part of a family.

"It's like the sitcoms - but how unreachable that seemed to me before I came here."

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Contact the Writer: 636-0251 or sue.mcmillin@gazette.com

THE STATS ON HOMELESS YOUTHS

Generally, data on homeless youth includes those aged 12 to 24, the age at which young people are considered able to be financially independent in today's world. Experts say that age has been steadily rising, and some predict the age of financial independence will soon be 27.

MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS

• 45 percent reported mental health problems in one year; only 9 percent have accessed mental health services.
• 32 percent have attempted suicide.
• Mental health problems are as much as 11 times higher for homeless youth than for the general population.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

• Homeless youths are three times more likely to use marijuana and 18 times more likely to use crack cocaine than non-homeless youth, but only 10 to 15 percent are treated for drug- and alcohol-related problems.

CRIMINAL ACTIVITY

• 23 percent report stealing.
• 14 percent have broken into a residence.
• 20 percent report dealing drugs.
• They experience rape and assault rates two to three times higher than the general youth population.

UNSAFE SEX

• More than one-third engage in "survival" sex.
• Of those who engage in survival sex, 82 percent trade sex for money; 48 percent trade sex for food or a place to stay; 22 percent trade sex for drugs.
• They're 7 times as likely to die from AIDS and 16 times as likely to be diagnosed with HIV as the general youth population.
• The pregnancy rate of 13- to 15-year-old homeless girls is 14 percent, compared with 1 percent for non-homeless girls.
• One of every three teens on the street will be lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.

Source: National Network for Youth, based on studies issued from 2003 to 2007. For more information and to see the full report on the consequence of youth homelessness, go to www.nn4youth.org.

DETAILS ABOUT URBAN PEAK COLORADO SPRINGS

Urban Peak Colorado Springs began providing services to homeless youths and runaways in 2000. It operated out of Catholic Charities Marian House until it opened its own facility. The Place, in December 2004. It has a $916,000 annual budget and relies primarily on grants and corporate donations. It also holds annual fundraising events and gets about 7 percent of its funding from individual donations, according to recent annual reports.

The Place

The converted warehouse in south downtown Colorado Springs has two 10-bed dorms (one for males and one for females), showers and a laundry, a kitchen and large dining area, a TV room, a closet with donated clothing and a computer room. It also houses offices for case workers, a volunteer coordinator and administrators.

The average length of stay at The Place is eight weeks. It is transitional housing and does not provide emergency shelter. Residents are not allowed to stay the night if they are drunk or on drugs; random urinalysis tests are conducted.

Services

Urban Peak works with multiple community agencies to offer a range of services to youths who live in The Place and to other teens and young adults who might be living with friends or a relative but are struggling to make it on their own. Executive Director John McIlwee describes that agency as "a broker" for youths who need many services.

• Street outreach: Case managers and trained volunteers seek out homeless youths in the region and offer assistance.

• Case management: Clients are assigned a case manager who figures out what they need and helps them get it. This includes services such as getting enrolled in GED courses, legal help, finding substance-abuse counseling and mental-health assessments.

• Health care: The Place has a small clinic staffed through Peak Vista Community Health that offers general medical care and preventive education.

• Education assistance: On-site GED instruction is offered in partnership with Colorado Springs School District 11. Case workers also help with college applications/enrollment, trade-school referrals and the like.

• Job placement/assistance: Urban Peak works in partnership with the Pikes Peak Workforce Center and the Job Corps to help clients find jobs. Residents of The Place can participate in a Life Skills program that includes instruction on resume preparation, filling out job applications and interviewing skills.

• Housing options beyond The Place: Runs some transitional apartments and works with federal programs to help youths find low-cost housing.

Whom it helps

Urban Peak assists people ages 15 to 21, although it must have permission from a parent or guardian to help someone under 18. Participation is voluntary, and those who leave the program are welcome to return.

In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Urban Peak provided services to 248 people - 94 stayed in The Place and 154 received services. The previous year, it served 173 people - 109 stayed in The Place and 64 received day services.

What clients think

• "I always thought about the future, but not in a positive way," said Liz Slocume, 20. "If you'd asked me where I'd be in 10 years I would've said ‘dead or in jail.' When I came to Urban Peak, overnight my life was completely different. I'm in a new chapter in my life."

• "If I didn't have Urban Peak I would be living on the streets," said E.J. Chaparro, 20. "And if I was on the streets I'd probably be selling drugs or trying to do day labor to get money to get by."

• "Urban Peak helped me get back with my family and back in school," said Jessica Smith, 20. "I used to sing when I was younger. I just started singing again for the first time in five years. I wrote a song for my dad and recorded it to send to him."

Contact

Web site: www.urbanpeak.org/up_cos.html
Phone: 630-3223