Teens need more homeless shelters

We all know we have homeless teens in the Valley, but did you know there are more than 50 attending Burchell High without a safe place to go?

In fact, according to school district statistics, our school has 48 percent of our district’s high school-age homeless kids. Michelle Overstreet, a life counselor and a regular classroom presenter on drug and alcohol issues, says we have teens sleeping in all-night stores, convenience store bathrooms and trailers without heat. With all the people living in and moving to the Valley, one would hope we would be able to give them a place to stay. One of the main problems, though, is space.

We still have the Dorothy Saxon Shelter, but it only has 10 beds to shelter teens. So we lost one big resource for our homeless teens. Adding to the problem is the number of homeless teens in the Valley has increased.

“So it was a bad combination of the resources going away and need increasing at the same time,” Overstreet said with a concerned look on her face. So getting this Valley shelter for teens would really help quite a lot. Part of the plan is to include additional shelters in Houston and Palmer within two years.

They want to be able to fit about 30 teens in the new shelter. No one would get turned down. If all the beds are full they will bring in cots and mats for a night. There will be a resident (live-in) “mom” and additional staff coming and going depending on needs and how many kids are living in the residence at the time. Like at Covenant House in Anchorage, teens would have to be into the shelter after 6 p.m. and leave in the morning before 8 a.m.

Overstreet is currently trying to find some property that could be donated. They have a good lead on some homes that could potentially be moved to locations that would help meet some of the needs. One of the first goals is to make this shelter as debt-free as possible. Overstreet, Dave Rose, the district’s Families In Transition Coordinator, The Carney Concerned Citizen Coalition (4C), Charlie Adams, Sharon Scott from Valley Hospital, staff and administration of alternative schools and local law enforcement will be working together on this goal and want it to be as long-term and as low overhead a project as possible.

Overstreet’s goal is to have it open by this fall. Some people tell her she’s ambitious, but she still believes it can be done.

Crystal Carter is a freshman at Burchell High School.