Serving Youth in an Economic Downturn
In His Words: A Youth Speaks Out about His Homeless Experience
Stephen*, a 16-year-old resident in the transitional living program, Family Resources, St. Petersburg, Florida
I’m only in here right now until my dad can get stable housing and a stable job.
He’s a construction worker. He’s trying to look for something else because construction’s not working out too well.
Me and my dad were living in an apartment and all of a sudden he got financial problems again. He got behind on his bills and stuff. He got evicted, and we kind of got kicked out. It sucks. You don’t know where to go at the time.
I want to go back to him, and he wants me back too, so we’re trying to get everything done so we can go back.
I’ve been in trouble with the law a few times because I like to hang out with the wrong people, and I’ve kind of learned my lesson about that. I didn’t know they were doing this, but they were pawning stolen stuff. I pawned my stuff, and I got in trouble for dealing in stolen material. So that’s why I’m going to change it up and hang out with the right people. Going to church, being able to go out and have fun, go to school and church instead of doing bad things like getting into trouble with police.
I just want to stop getting into trouble and get back with my dad.
Usually when he loses a job he looks for another one and he gets one right after. But the jobs he gets, they keep cutting down. He has a job now, with BIC, and I think he’s going to keep that job because they aren’t cutting down. They’re needing him like all the time.
I can’t really worry about it too much. Once he loses a job, it’s gone. He’s got to look for the next one. He doesn’t really show emotion. He mainly worries about what is he going to do to provide for me. He worries about having a roof and clothes on my back. He tries so hard to keep me out of foster care, but it’s kind of hard when the economy’s bad.
There’s a lot of staff that I get a long with and that I can talk about things. There’s a couple of them when I talk to them, they keep it to themselves and no one else unless it’s a major problem. Like if I tell them about my personal life, I can tell that they’re not gonna tell anybody else. They have a certain way that they talk and stuff. It’s kind of hard to explain. I don’t know. Just usually I can trust them.
If they say something mean or something like that, that’s when it turns me away.
If you want kids to trust you, don’t show them meanness. You gotta show them niceness. You gotta lead them in. I know kids that are literally homeless, they’re sleeping on benches. They don’t come in easily, you gotta reel them in. They don’t really trust people with what happened with their life. You gotta be nice about it, you gotta show them respect and niceness before they can tell you what happened.
I seen a lot of people homeless and it doesn’t look fun. It pretty much sucks. I’m the kind of person that if someone needs something I help them out as much as I can. Not anything really big but I’ve gave people money if they needed it. I don’t have a lot and I can’t give them too much—whatever I need I gotta keep, but if I have money leftover I’ll give it to them.
* A pseudonym
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