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The best way to reach homeless kids is rarely used
(Washington Post)
One of the hardest parts of homelessness is admitting that you have nowhere to go. In the beginning, there’s always another friend to plead with, another couch to sink into, another number to call. But eventually, as weeks give way to months, that fiction yields to reality.
For Kory Molina, an emotive and garrulous 20-year-old who fled Honduras four years ago, that moment came in April 2013. She had just spent several weeks on a couch at a friend’s Colmar Manor, Md., house. It was her fourth couch in six months. And her friend’s mom was now telling her the house was too crowded — she had to be out by Saturday.
“I would never walk into a shelter,” Molina said she thought, quickly ruling that out as a possibility. “I would rather sleep under a chair than go to a shelter.”
Instead, Molina arrived at a place she had heard about in Columbia Heights, perched near the corner of 15th and Irving streets NW. It targets homeless youths like Molina, but it doesn’t shelter them. Instead, the Latin American Youth Center’s Street Outreach Program offers them a place to hang out with friends, do laundry, take a shower, get something to eat — and ask for help. It’s informal. It’s casual. It’s called a drop-in center.
Nationally, the facilities, which have been largely underfunded for decades, are receiving renewed attention because of fresh research suggesting that they’re the best way to bring homeless youths into the social service system. The Latin American Youth Center program will extend its hours, thanks to more funding from the city. The District has also funded another drop-in center managed by Sasha Bruce Youthwork, which opened last month in Southeast Washington. Covenant House also operates a drop-in center.
The model hinges on an informal atmosphere, especially attractive to a homeless subgroup considered among the most elusive. That’s primarily because homelessness is embarrassing for peer-conscious kids.
For Kory Molina, an emotive and garrulous 20-year-old who fled Honduras four years ago, that moment came in April 2013. She had just spent several weeks on a couch at a friend’s Colmar Manor, Md., house. It was her fourth couch in six months. And her friend’s mom was now telling her the house was too crowded — she had to be out by Saturday.
“I would never walk into a shelter,” Molina said she thought, quickly ruling that out as a possibility. “I would rather sleep under a chair than go to a shelter.”
Instead, Molina arrived at a place she had heard about in Columbia Heights, perched near the corner of 15th and Irving streets NW. It targets homeless youths like Molina, but it doesn’t shelter them. Instead, the Latin American Youth Center’s Street Outreach Program offers them a place to hang out with friends, do laundry, take a shower, get something to eat — and ask for help. It’s informal. It’s casual. It’s called a drop-in center.
Nationally, the facilities, which have been largely underfunded for decades, are receiving renewed attention because of fresh research suggesting that they’re the best way to bring homeless youths into the social service system. The Latin American Youth Center program will extend its hours, thanks to more funding from the city. The District has also funded another drop-in center managed by Sasha Bruce Youthwork, which opened last month in Southeast Washington. Covenant House also operates a drop-in center.
The model hinges on an informal atmosphere, especially attractive to a homeless subgroup considered among the most elusive. That’s primarily because homelessness is embarrassing for peer-conscious kids.
