Vigil sheds light on homeless youth in the Valley

PALMER — After more than two years of couch surfing, sleeping wherever she could find a place to crash, the girl finally caught a break.

The homeless teen was awarded a $2,000 Alaska State Fair scholarship, but her excitement was short-lived, said Michelle Overstreet, a counselor at Burchell High School and a co-founder of Mat-Su Youth Housing. Because the girl, whom Overstreet didn’t identify, was on her own, she couldn’t get a cosigner for a student loan, she had no credit and couldn’t accept the scholarship.

Had that happened several years ago, that would’ve just been another of a long list of disappointments for the homeless teen. But the newly formed Mat-Su Youth Housing (MY House) stepped in, Overstreet said.

“My enthusiastic board of directors said, ‘Let’s just pay her way, let’s get her an education,’” she said while addressing a chilly but enthusiastic crowd of several dozen Saturday evening at the Palmer Depot. “MY House picked up the tab for the rest of her beauty school. Now, she comes out to Burchell with a licensed beautician and cuts hair for free. The difference in her life is palpable.”

Overstreet and organization co-founder Michael Carson addressed the crowd at a candlelight vigil to raise awareness of youth homelessness in the Valley and update folks on the progress MY House has made.

That progress includes the recent purchase of a new van MY House can use as an outreach vehicle, Carson said, thanks to a $10,000 grant from BP and two $5,000 cash donations from individuals who wished to remain anonymous.

While the van is a great addition, the real need in the Valley is for some kind of emergency housing for homeless and displaced youth, Carson said.

“The nearest shelter for any Valley youth is a 50-mile ride into Anchorage at Covenant House,” he said. “We don’t have any kind of emergency shelter for kids who might end up needing it.”

Covenant House served about 2,000 kids over the past year, he said, and about 25 percent of those were from the Valley.

“Those are our kids,” he said.

There are many reasons youth can become homeless, Carson said. Some run away from bad family situations, others are forced into the streets when parents are incarcerated or throw them out.

“The numbers indicate we have a majority of kids out on the streets because of issues surrounding families,” he said. “Issues with substance abuse, mental illness, parents who are incarcerated. I’m realistic to realize there are some kids who, because of family conflict, have blasted out of the home.”

Just how many homeless youth are in the Valley?

“That’s a good question, and that’s something we’re going to try to nail down,” Carson said.

To date, the only local data available is from the Mat-Su Borough School District, which estimates more than 800 district youth are homeless or displaced.

While those in attendance at the vigil huddled in their parkas and sipped hot beverages to knock off the 9 degree chill, Carson said he also thinks about young people who have to deal with the cold on a more basic level.

“They don’t have warm homes to go to,” he said. “We know we have kids that are living in cars, and we actually provide gas cards so they can have gas in the tank to heat them up. But I’ve seen those cars and they need to crack the window to make sure they’re sucking clean air.”

Overstreet continued with others stories of hope. There’s an initiative at Burchell where students are running a coffee stand and being trained as baristas. My House also helps troubled youth with legal issues and getting driver’s licenses.

In Houston, a young mother recently lost her home, a fifth-wheel trailer, to flooding.

“She has a 3-year-old little girl and she’s trying to finish high school,” Overstreet said. “We’re building her a cabin. The staff at Burchell High School is helping to build that cabin. Spenard Builders Supply along with The Home Depot have signed on, so a lot of the materials have been donated.”

As a result of that project, Home Depot has also expressed interest in hosting construction classes to teach young people those skills.

“It’s really growing by leaps and bound, and it’s because of this community and people being aware and connected and opening their eyes to the fact that these kids want to do something good,” she said. “They want to be somebody.”

Along with helping with housing and learning employability skills, MY House is confident it can help bring families together again as well, Carson said.

“The good new is, with family mediation, statistics prove that … if they get a three- to five-day cooldown period — and the parents also — and you provide that youth with a safe harbor during that time, they find that 90 to 90 percent of those kids can get back home,” he said. “That’s the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Being there when a teen finally sees that light is special, Overstreet said. “That little girl in beauty school told me two years ago, ‘I don’t want to be like my family. I want to be somebody. I want to be successful.’”

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.