Approximately 25 people attended a special meeting about youth homelessness in downtown Kent Aug. 6, including representatives from the city, the police department and business owners.
Hosted by Kent Youth and Family Services with involvement from Auburn Youth Resources, the meeting was designed as a way to begin a discussion about the growing problem of homelessness in the city.
According to statistics provided at the meeting, more than 2,800 unsheltered homeless people were counted during the One Night Count by the Seattle King County Coalition for the Homeless earlier this year, including 90 in Kent. And according to the Kent School District, 425 students were identified as homeless during the 2008-2009 school year.
Many of the homeless students, however, fall into the category of “couch surfers,” who spend time at the homes of friends and therefore may not be on the streets.
“Many kids who are homeless won’t even recognize themselves as homeless because they do the couch-surfing thing,” said Mike Heinisch, executive director of Kent Youth and Family Services.
“A lot of youth that are homeless don’t look like they’re homeless,” agreed Katalin Hausback, outreach coordinator for Auburn Youth Services.
Employees at the Christian Science Reading Room on First Avenue downtown talked about their concerns in seeing what appear to several homeless youths in the parks surrounding the train tracks downtown, as did workers at the library, whose building is often a hangout during the day for the homeless.
The purpose of the meeting, Heinisch said, was to inform people about the services available for homeless youth, as well as inform business owners about what leads teens to the streets and what life is like for them.
“They are survivors,” Heinisch said “Their strength is surviving.”
Among the programs aimed at teens is KYFS’s housing outreach program and Lighthouse teen late night. Kent has also partnered with Auburn to bring an outreach van to the city several times a week.
Also attending the meeting was Katherin Johnson, housing and human services manager for the City of Kent, who detailed some of the programs the city offers to fight homelessness, including creating nutritional packs for teens, as well as working with shelters throughout the city.
Heinisch also offered advice to the business owners in attendance that the teens can be approached and are not usually dangerous, but have trust issues, usually due to their situations.
“A kind word can go a long way,” he said.
Additional discussions like the one this past week are planned, but none have been officially scheduled.
For more information on the programs offered by Kent Youth and Family Services, visit www.kyfs.org.
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