Homeless Youth Awareness Month Blog Series

What comes to mind when you think of November?

Sweater season, warm apple cider, the crackling of a bonfire in a backyard, the smell of Thanksgiving dinner wafting through a home with the sound of family in the background …


For me, many warm memories come to mind when I think about the season.

However, November is also National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, a potent reminder of the stark realities our DC youth face.

This time last year, DCAYA released a Bold Strategy to End Youth Homelessness. The Bold Strategy was created in collaboration with Covenant House DC, Latin American Youth Center, Sasha Bruce Youthwork, StandUp for Kids DC, Wanda Alston Foundation, and the Washington Interfaith Network. The strategy offered a holistic solution to solving the varied problems which lead youth to becoming trapped in the cycle of homelessness.

Thanks to the ongoing dedication of DCAYA’s community of advocates, the Bold Strategy was adopted by the DC Council, written into legislation, and passed as the Homeless Youth Amendment Act. Unfortunately, the legislation did not receive adequate funding to meet all of the intended initiatives.

Where does this leave DC’s homeless young people?

For Homeless Youth Awareness Month, DCAYA is launching a blog series to address the impact of the DC government underfunding critical resources for homeless youth. Follow the month-long series to understand how a family reunification program, additional street outreach, and other youth-focused services would help stabilize a young person’s life.

While the funding was cut short, what advocates are able to do with the resulting funds is astounding.

• There are 15 new emergency beds to be available specifically for homeless youth. 

• Advocates and providers will conduct annual Point-In-Time Studies to gather updated data on youth experiencing homelessness.

• DCAYA is leading the charge in developing a coordinated intake system for homeless youth. Read more about this initiative in our blog “Coordinated Entry: Boot Camp and 100 Day Challenge.”

So enjoy November. Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner and warm apple cider, but remember your 4,000+ young neighbors who are struggling to find a safe place to sleep or a warm dinner to fill their bellies. Together, as a community, we need DC to fully fund life-saving resources for homeless youth.


Sincerely,

Maggie Riden

Executive Director of DCAYA


Click to donate to DCAYA’s advocacy efforts to end youth homelessness.

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As Hypothermia Season is upon us, we want to remind everyone that if you see anyone outside when it’s 32 degrees or below don’t keep walking, take action and call the Hypothermia Hotline 1 (800) 535-7252. You may end up saving a life.

A Mom's Testimony

DC Alliance of Youth Advocates will post captivating, moving, and educational testimonies throughout the Performance Oversight and Budget hearing season. To watch the full hearings visit the DC Council website: http://dccouncil.us/videos/archive/. 

A young mom of four from Northwest, DC put her own well-being at risk to avoid raising children in a shelter situation. It wasn’t until her son was the target of her husband’s aggression that she reported the abuse and sought help. For thirty days, the DC mom and her children were placed in a hotel room, after which she had to find alternative accommodations.  Her only resort was to rely on a friend, who had five children of her own. The overcrowded apartment became too much, once again, she is left finding shelter this winter for her and her family. A situation she never wanted her children to endure. Listen to the mother's testimony below:

The video is pixelated to protect the privacy of the public witness.
 

While heartbreaking, this story is sadly not unusual. There are a record number of D.C. families seeking shelter this winter, 50% of those families headed by a parent 24 years of age or younger. Marta Bersen from the Washington Legal Clinic identified driving factors in her testimony, as well as solutions she believed the Department of Human Services (DHS) should adopt to halt the crisis in the short term and remedy the problems in the long term. Watch Marta Bersen's testimony here. 

Councilmember Jim Graham asked the Director of the DHS, David Berns, how much it is costing the city to react to the homeless crisis. Director Berns stated that it is hard to tell, but cost was clearly a factor when the DHS made the decision to start using cots at recreation centers to house the overflow. According to Director Berns,  “Once we switched from making the placements into the hotels and into the rec centers the demand has virtually disappeared.”. Watch David Bern's full response here.

While opening the Parks and Rec Centers may have seemed like a quick fix to Director Berns, both Marta and Jamila Larson from the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project mentioned the fear families have regarding their children sleeping next to strangers. Marta explained, “The law requires the safety, health, and stability of homeless children. Most families have left the rec center after staying one or two nights. This means that while they felt unsafe staying in their cars, at Union Station, with abusers, or in ER rooms, they felt less safe sharing space with strangers in DC rec centers.” Watch Jamilia Larson's testimony here.

The mother echoed this point at the end of her testimony as she broke down from the weight of her dire situation, “I would have endured getting hit every day than to be homeless with four children. Because that’s hard. To be with your four children and not know where you’re going to be next.”.* 

*DCAYA would like to clarify that individuals in domestic violence situations are encouraged to seek domestic violence services as some resources are available. Please contact DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence or MPD Domestic Violence Unit if you are experiencing domestic violence.

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

Behind the Brain: Understanding Youth Homelessness

Letter from Dan Brannen, the former Executive Director of Covenant House DC.

Covenant House Youth

Puberty, adolescence and young adulthood are, indeed, three of the most life transforming times of our lives. These developmental stages mark the beginning of our sexual maturation, the final transformation of our brains (and associated hormonal and neurotransmitting systems) and the beginning of a new social and biological construct – adulthood. The amygdala (emotions), the hippocampus (memories) and the corpus callosum (mental perception) are three integral parts of the brain that assist in adolescent development: affecting the way adolescents/young adults feel about themselves and their relationships, how they view and feel about past experiences and how they then translate these feelings in order to act in and experience their own world.

So, what does this brief description of human development have to do with homeless and struggling young people? Everything.

Both genetic and environmental factors impact the development of our brain and associated physiological systems. Research has borne out that trauma (whether from physical abuse, neglect (health, educational, or relational), sexual abuse, bullying, community violence, teen pregnancy and/or the stigma attached to poverty) clearly impacts our biological, psychological and social development: three extremely important developmental areas for teens and young adults. These developmental areas, or maybe better-termed “trajectories,” are further impacted by life situations such as poverty and family (and/or housing) instability.

Homeless older teens and young adults have all certainly faced traumatic experiences in their lives. Their lives are unstable at best and in crisis for most. Even if housing is made available to them, they suffer the ills created during their tumultuous young lives: ills that cannot be cured by a housing only mindset and that will ultimately come back to “haunt them” later in life – again creating periods of or even chronic homelessness.

Graphic from Covenant House Tumblr: http://covenanthousedc.tumblr.com/

Researchers, providers and community leaders know all of this. Yet, little is done (relatively speaking at least) to do anything about it. Creating and/or bolstering known, successful prevention and early intervention strategies takes courage – because it takes a reconsideration on how we feel about teens and young adults: especially those who struggle the most amongst us. We need the deep and complete understanding that a comprehensive set of solutions must be made available (now) to them in order for their healing and “redevelopment” to occur. We know it will work and we owe it to them.

Heavy investment into a 20 year-old (for example) will reap major rewards as compared to waiting until that same 20 year-old is 50. When at 50, not only will our interventions have been less successful, but also that individual will have spent 30 more years of suffering and pain.

Ultimately, we know that bettering the life situations of homeless and struggling young people, altering their current life trajectories, will have a much more profound impact on preventing a lifetime of tragedy. And to borrow from the sentiment of Ben Franklin, we must invest in “preventive and early interventive solutions.” Solutions that we know will result in much better outcomes than many “pounds of cure” and years of engagement could ever bring.


Tell your Councilmembers you support a data driven, holistic solution to "Ending Youth Homelessness in Washington, DC" by adding your name to the E-Sign On Letter.  

DCAYA would like to express our most sincere thanks to Dan Brannen, not only for this thoughtful blog post, but for his years of dedicated service to DC youth as the Executive Director of Covenant House DC. For those who may not know, after many years of commuting between DC and Pennsylvania (where his family resides) Dan recently made the difficult decision to depart Covenant House, finishing his tenure there in mid November. 

To say he will be missed is an understatement. His voice is a powerful one and his expertise and thoughtfulness about youth is, in a word, profound. We wish Dan the very best as he starts his next endeavor and hope to see him back in DC very, very soon. ~ Maggie Riden, Executive Director of DCAYA

For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

Leaving Our Youth Out in the Cold

Every year the Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH) creates a “Winter Plan” to meet DC’s legal obligation to shelter all residents during nights of hypothermia risk (when the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit). This year we advocated alongside many members for a clearer strategy to address the needs of unaccompanied children in this plan.


Progress: Coordination and 6 new beds

There has been progress made in this effort. Multiple systems, specifically the ICH, DHS and CFSA, have dedicated the organizational resources to engage in this complex dialogue fraught with federal requirements and local mandates.

Also, DHS has committed to developing 6 additional emergency beds for children that will be up and running for the rapidly approaching winter months. This brings the total number of emergency beds for unaccompanied children to 12.

Remaining Issue: A Clearly Articulated Strategy

The progress has hit a sticking point though. Unlike the family and adult singles system, there has yet to be a clearly articulated strategy to ensure an adequate system of response and safe housing in non-standard (but likely) circumstances.

The three foreseeable non-standard circumstances that we are most concerned about are:

• If the existing community based slots reach capacity 
• If evidence of abuse and neglect remains undetermined, thus limiting the likelihood of timely intervention by CFSA 
• If a child simply refuses to return home

On the third point it’s important to understand that youth are kicked out or run from home for many reasons; and just because there isn’t immediate evidence of abuse or neglect, does not mean ‘home’ is a safe place to be. In addition, youth do not go to a shelter as a first or even second resort. Youth arrive at emergency shelters because they have exhausted all other resources and being home is no longer an option. 

Given the goal of the Winter Plan, we need a simple and clear response strategy that frontline shelter staff or other first responders can easily and quickly navigate. They need to know who to call should the youth system reach capacity. Last year, one member organization had to turn away 150 youth from February to May. This is simply not okay. With a clear protocol in place, the responding agency or partner will be able to quickly route a young person to a system equipped with the knowledge and skills to pinpoint a young persons needs and determine next steps. An adult shelter is not the place to do this.

Options: Emergency-Funds for Community Providers or a Lead Agency

Two options are tenable. First, the District could establish an emergency reserve fund that would allow community based providers the financial flexibility to respond rapidly to provide shelter while logistical details are clarified. This response model mirrors the District’s use of motels or emergency overflow locations in the family or individual adult system.

Secondly, we could identify a lead agency with the resources and expertise to triage the situation, quickly respond, and ensure the child is safe until a longer-term intervention is identified and executed.

Bottom Line: Make a responsible plan

Regardless of which organization or agency is designated to lead in non-standard circumstances, the Winter Plan must clearly articulate a strategy to adequately meet unaccompanied children’s needs. The ICH, DHS, CFSA, DYRS, and the Runaway and Homeless Youth Providers must ensure that a child is never left out on a dangerously cold night simply because we were unable to plan for the inevitable. Winter is coming, and we need to prepare to ensure the safety of our District’s children and youth.



Maggie Riden, Executive Director of DC Alliance of Youth Advocates, testified at the Winter Plan Oversight Roundtable urging city council to clearly define and implement a plan for unaccompanied children. As a member of the ICH board, Maggie advocates for resources on behalf of unstably housed youth in the District.  


More on the story:

Winter’s Coming. Is the City Ready to Shelter Its Homeless?

Winter Plan Roundtable: Rough Season Ahead for Families and Youth

Advocates Testify on Behalf of Homeless Youth

 For more on youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.