Young people face risk of homelessness
TREASURE ISLAND (KTVU) -- At first glance, you would not consider that Austin Parrish has been homeless for most of his young life.
He is among a group of youth in the Bay Area who has struggled to find stable housing or a permanent place to sleep from night to night.
“Having a home would mean that I feel like I have stability, like I belong somewhere with a family," said Austin, 15. "And being homeless means I’ve just been going around."
Austin’s parents divorced when he was 8 years old. He said his mother's addiction struggle limited her ability to provide a stable home while his father worked as a truck driver and was rarely around. This meant that Austin spent his adolescence living in several homes.
“I’ve lived in a hotel, I’ve lived in a car, I’ve been homeless," Austin said. "And just moving around so much makes me feel homeless because I don’t have a house to go to that I can really call mine.”
Homelessness among Bay Area youth is not easy to track.
Data compiled by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development show that in 2016 in San Francisco, 1,488 people between the ages of 16-24 were living on the streets, in shelters, or were minors living without a parent or guardian.
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The figures don’t accurately reflect, however, the number of youth who live in unstable homes.
“No one really pays attention to the fact they may have a roof but they do not have a home,” said Teri Delane, the principal of Life Learning Academy, a charter school on Treasure Island that deals with at-risk youth. “Unstable housing is the number one predictor of kids who end up in the juvenile justice system.”
Delane said young people are one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to homelessness because they are transitioning out of public systems such as foster care. She said they are also way more likely to stop going to school.
It’s why administrators at Life Learning Academy are raising money to build a dormitory and become a boarding school.
“We’re going to build something for these kids because we see it every day. If you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist,” Delane said. “My vision is to have a place where I can have kids live in a community and a family and eventually have a place where I can bring a hundred kids from across the country.”
Austin is now a student at Life Learning Academy, and as of a month ago, he says he has a stable place to live with his father. He says the school has given him a new sense of belonging, and hope for his own future.
“To just grow up and have my kids not live the life I lived as a child so they can have a stable home," Austin said. “Children should be helped. Children should be focused on so that they don’t become homeless adults.”