Journalist Sandra Fish did a fascinating profile of Urban Peak, a program for homeless youth in Denver, for Al Jazeera America. Here's the beginning:
David Jennings was 16 when he found himself on the streets, an angry, violent young man.
“I grew up in a really abusive household,” said Jennings, now 30. “I only understood one thing, and that was violence.”
After couch-surfing at a friend’s house, he went to a homeless shelter with a youth program. A counselor there referred him to Urban Peak, a Denver program that offers shelter, transitional housing, job training and more to homeless youth ages 15 to 24.
“I learned so much about myself and about the world, and that people really did care,” Jennings said of his year and a half living in an Urban Peak apartment and getting counseling through the program.
Adolescents and young adults on their own make up a fraction of the nation’s homeless population. Most face rejection or abuse from their families. Traditional programs aimed at the chronically homeless often place them in a potentially dangerous situation at a vulnerable age.
There's a lot that is still unknown about this sector of the homeless population. The numbers are inexact. And it's not clear beyond well-known programs in New York, San Francisco and Cincinnati, to name a few, just how many centers like Urban Peak exist. While more research needs to be done, what is clear is that they offer perspectives on how to prevent homeless teens from becoming homeless adults.
Comments (0)