Mike Couick
Teenage homelessness doesn’t look like dirty clothes, a cardboard box or a “will work for food” sign. Instead, teenage homelessness is largely invisible. It’s the high school junior sitting in honors English class, the teen behind the counter at your local fast-food joint, the college freshman riding the city bus in the evenings for hours on end just to sleep in a safe spot, the kid who lost his parents to illness and has been bounced around between family members since, and the teen living in a hotel with a mom who works two jobs just to buy food.
Caused by a wide range of hard issues, the reality of teen homelessness sometimes looks like a 14-yearold coping with a mentally ill parent, trying to decide whether she should move in with her boyfriend’s family, where there’s drug abuse in the home, stay with her aunt in an overcrowded house where she pays to sleep on the couch, or risk wandering the streets on her own.
The Department of Justice estimates that more than 1.7 million teens every year experience homelessness in this country. The National Runaway Switchboard estimates that, on any given night, there are about 1.3 million homeless young people living on the streets, in abandoned buildings or staying with friends or with strangers. An estimated 75 percent of homeless or runaway youth have dropped out or will drop out of school. They are also at a significantly higher risk for physical abuse, sexual exploitation, substance abuse and death.
Young people in foster care have an even higher likelihood of becoming homeless. Aging out of the system, often with little or no income and limited housing options, puts them at risk for ending up on the streets. And very few homeless youth are able to find housing at standard homeless shelters because of limited beds or shelter admission policies.
Since 1977, however, an organization called Palmetto Place has been providing a home to abused, neglected and homeless kids and teens in the Midlands. Since opening its Unaccompanied Youth program in 2012, Palmetto Place has housed more than 35 homeless teens. With two houses and a combined capacity for more than 50 youth, Palmetto Place provides wrap-around services to each teen, in addition to meeting their basic needs. Offering transportation to interviews and jobs, as well as training for independent living, Palmetto Place aims to help each teen to live and thrive on his or her own.
Knowing that simply putting a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs doesn’t fully address the problems at hand, Palmetto Place works with other community agencies to find services and secure resources to meet individual needs. Along with its staff and a team of houseparents and childcare specialists, Palmetto Place invites members of the community to pitch in to help with tutoring, meals and activities. Whether it’s sponsoring an outing to the zoo or the beach, delivering kid favorites like spaghetti and meatballs, or hosting a donation drive to help stock the houses, volunteers help create the positive and supportive atmosphere these young people have been missing.
This year, 10 Palmetto Place resident teens graduated high school with plans to attend college, enter the Army or continue in their current jobs. Beating the odds stacked against them, they found refuge, support and a community that allowed them to thrive.
If you know of other organizations working locally to solve problems and improve the lives of neighbors, please write to connections@ecsc.org, or Connections, 808 Knox Abbott Drive, Cayce, SC 29033.
_____
Write Us
Are you part of a community initiative? Share your story with the readers of South Carolina Living. Write to:
Connections
The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina
808 Knox Abbott Drive Cayce, SC 29033
Email: connections@ecsc.org
_____
Related stories
We are all connected – Join the conversation as we search for local solutions to some of the state’s most pressing social problems.
Lessons learned – The inspiring story of Royal Live Oaks Academy of the Arts & Sciences teaches a powerful lesson about the benefits of community-based education initiatives.
Fighting addiction – A South Carolina college commits to helping students who are making the effort to recover from addiction to powerful prescription opiates and heroin.
Repairing homes and lives – Using teenage volunteers to renovate homes for elderly, disabled and disadvantaged residents, Columbia-based Home Works of America improves housing while forging stronger communities.