8 March 7 - 13, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents and across the country because youth home- lessness has a hidden nature to it, Kahn said. Limited access to appropriate crisis care, emergency shelter and rehousing assistance make dealing with youth homelessness more challenging, Kahn said. There’s also a need for better access to living-wage jobs, transportation and behavioral healthcare services. According to Kahn there’s a lack of cul- turally appropriate services tailored to meet the needs of this group, one that some na- tional research says is up to 40% LGBTQIA. Pregnant and parenting teens also struggle with homelessness. There are unique challenges that home- less youths face. Many shelters won’t accept them because they’re still minors. Since they’re younger, they may also lack identifi- cation and personal records required to get the help they need. “It’s just really hard to navigate that space,” Saintus said. “When they’re 18, they’re technically adults, but when we see them they’re still kids. They’re still youths. A lot of them have a lot of trauma, so going to an adult shelter seems scary.” Youth homelessness is sometimes re- ferred to as an invisible crisis, but Saintus said it’s happening in our backyards every day. “In our community we really don’t know that we have homeless youth,” she said. “That’s what we keep hearing. Even the kids, they go unnoticed. Even if they’re homeless in high school, they’re not going to share that they’re homeless because there’s a stigma that comes around with that. So, they’re not looking for help or a lot of times people don’t even recognize they’re home- less or they’re unhoused simply because they blend very well.” While she couldn’t be too specific for pri- vacy reasons, Saintus shared a few success stories that have emerged from After8toEd- ucate. One of the first people to use the drop-in center was able to get his ID, enroll in a training program, get a job and eventu- ally move back to his home state of Michi- gan. Stories of cross-country family reunifica- tion have also come out of After8toEducate. Two sisters wound up downtown at the Greyhound bus station when their mother found out about After8toEducate. She con- tacted the organization to help her daugh- ters, and it was able to use some of its funds to send the sisters back to their mother in Oregon. After8toEducate also helped a homeless youth return to her paternal grandparents in Houston. The organization still keeps up with her today. Now, she’s planning to get her high school diploma and aspires to be- come a beautician. Another 19-year-old spent nights at a local shelter and went to the drop-in center during the day. Now, she has a home and a job at Wingstop. She’s also attending barber school and hopes to one day open her own barbershop. Another youth was found sleeping in the woods by police who brought her to After- 8toEducate. She was a runaway who hadn’t been to school since the sixth grade. Now that she’s 17, Child Protective Services couldn’t help. “She was tired of living in the woods, so she was able to come here, take a shower, get a warm meal, get clothes, et ce- tera,” Saintus said. She was able to get into a transitional living program after working with an After8toEducate caseworker. Saintus estimates that some 80% of the youths they serve have trauma from becom- ing homeless. That’s partly why the organi- zation has a licensed master social worker who can help homeless youths with mental health issues. “We really look at it as a holis- tic approach,” Saintus said. Denise Carmona, project manager at Af- ter8toEducate, said people are often amazed by the number of homeless youths. She guesses there are far more out there than we know. “Times that by two or three, and that’s probably the accurate amount of youth homeless in Dallas,” she said. “That sounds a little more around the ballpark. That’s scary, but I believe it more and more every day because I keep seeing more new faces coming through these doors, and they’re coming from somewhere.” She said if homeless youths had the re- sources they needed, they wouldn’t need to come to the drop-in center. “That means they’re needing something, and that’s why we’re here,” she said. Another organization called Elevate North Texas is focused on providing emer- gency housing to young people ages 18–24 through various programs. Jason Vallejo, the organization’s founder and executive direc- tor, said one program provides a 30-day hotel stay for homeless youths. During that stay, they’re provided with case management to connect them with resources they need. “We want to find out what piece of the Jenga puz- zle fell out that caused everything to come tumbling down,” Vallejo said. “We know that housing is just the first part, and so we need to figure out what additional resources do they need to get back on their feet.” The organization does what it can to con- nect youths to other housing options through case management. Elevate North Texas also has a reunifica- tion program with the goal of reuniting homeless youths with family members or friends who can help provide housing. Valle- jo’s outfit tries to prevent youth homeless- ness altogether through diversion. For example, if a youth falls behind on rent and faces eviction, Elevate North Texas will step in and try to mediate with the landlord to buy the youth more time to get caught up on rent. Elevate North Texas sees two groups the most: those aging out of foster care and those from the LGBTQIA+ community. “Three hundred youths age out here in North Texas every year, and at least half of those youths will end up incarcerated or ex- perience homelessness within the first year of aging out of foster care,” Vallejo said. “That’s very staggering.” Additionally, Vallejo said over 70% of the people Elevate North Texas works with come from LGBTQIA+ community. “It’s just heartbreaking to know that that’s what we’re seeing,” he said. The organization also helps people coming from families who have recently lost their homes. “The families are saying ‘It’s everyone for themselves,’” Vallejo noted. One young man went to Elevate North Texas after his father was injured, leading him to lose his job and resulting in the family losing their home. They stayed in their car for a while but eventually had a wreck and had nowhere else to go. Both parents got into their own respective shelters. The younger sibling went into CPS, and the youth in question eventually found Elevate North Texas. A big barrier for youths facing homeless- ness is the fact that there’s no central access point for them to obtain resources, Vallejo said. “Our systems are failing our youth,” he said. “It’s just really heartbreaking.” Nathan Hunsinger Above: Diamond Davis, 20, and Angel Scott, 19, give themselves manicures; Bottom, left: Salathain Dunn, 20, shoots a small basketball. Nathan Hunsinger Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
