The face of America’s homeless youth

Teens call highway overpass home

Editor’s Note: Getting off the streets can be a daunting challenge for homeless young people. But in some cities, stories of hope are emerging. Watch “Campbell Brown,” Thursday at 8 p.m. ET for more.

Denver, Colorado (CNN) — When the sun dips below the Rocky Mountains and the streets of Denver go dark, Lokki, his girlfriend Magic and their friend Tripp head home.

They climb in between the rafters of a highway overpass, crouching as they sit under the concrete structure that rumbles with every car that crosses overhead.

It is where they will sleep tonight. It is where they say they can live safely after escaping from abusive homes.

“It’s pretty hard,” says Magic, 18, when asked about living on the streets. “But most of the time it’s just life, you know. Life’s not going to be easy.”

She refuses to talk about what caused her to leave home.

Her boyfriend Lokki has a different outlook: He says he enjoys the fun and freedom of life on the streets.

“I don’t really have to worry about anything,” says Lokki, 20. “I get some food and kick back with the homies.”

Out of the three friends, Tripp seems to be the most concerned about the future. He says he began living on the streets two years ago, after escaping a violent relationship with his stepfather.

“If I defended myself against him, I always got looked at badly,” he said. “So when I turned 18, I left.”

He stops talking as he watches a homeless man walk by.

“I’d hate to think that’s the way I’m going,” says Tripp. “That I’m going to end up being 40 years old and on the streets.”

Getting off the streets is a daunting challenge for these young adults and others like them, who have no address, no job, very little education, and many times drug addictions and mental health issues.

Gallery: The face of America’s homeless youth

Video: Foster child emancipates

Video: Foster kid: ‘I’m just really scared’

“We see a lot of kids really since age of 7 or 8 [who] haven’t had any real roots to call their own,” according to Tom Manning, spokesman for Covenant House, which helps those who are young and homeless. “Those are the 18-year-olds who [have] very limited education and really need to start from square one.”

Manning, who has worked with homeless youths for 20 years, said a key goal is reaching these young adults before they “disappear into the streets.”

“It sounds like a movie, but it’s true: Pimps and traffickers, they spot these kids and go after them,” Manning said. “If we don’t get to them, many will end up on drugs or in prison.”

The youths can be helped, he said, if they can learn to establish healthy relationships with others.

“It’s a trust issue: Most of these kids have been abused and taken advantage of by every adult they’ve met,” Manning said.

Trust is at the heart of the family that Lokki has created for a small group of his friends living on the streets of Denver.

They call themselves “Juggalos” — the name for fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse. But now, the name has a more important meaning.

“Juggalos started as a family for people who feel like they don’t have family,” Lokki explained. “Other people see it as a gang, but we just look out for each other any way we can.”

They mostly hang out, swimming in the Platte River or — if they manage to panhandle a few dollars — buying beer or marijuana.

Most days, they eat lunch at Sox Place, which was set up in 2002 by Doyle “Sox” Robinson. He got his street name after spending a year handing out clean socks to street kids.

Every day, about 100 young people come by to eat lunch, use the computers, watch movies and also pick up a fresh pair of socks.

“They are just like any other kids out there, they have the same struggles, the same issues,” Doyle said. “They still want love, they want acceptance, they want protections, they want rules, they want to be held accountable.”

Robinson said his goal is simply to provide a stable place where they can be loved for who they are.

“I don’t try to change them,” he said. “If they want to change, we’re here for them. If they don’t want to change, wer’e still going to love them.”

Robinson, 55, says his Christian faith motivates him to help these kids, although he doesn’t try to push religion on anyone at Sox Place. He says he lies awake at night after hearing their stories of abuse and neglect.

“It shakes my faith in people,” he said. “How can we allow this to happen in our own country?”

The Obama administration recently unveiled a plan to end homelessness in the United States over the next decade. The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will “harness public and private resources to build on the innovations that have been demonstrated at the local level nationwide,” according to council chairman Shaun Donavan.

Robinson is skeptical about whether the government can adequately address the root causes of homelessness.

“We need less government and more grass roots,” he said. “We need taxes not to go to renovating parks, but renovating lives.”

All the government can really do is put a roof over someone’s head, he said. And that doesn’t necessarily constitute a “home.”

“They don’t have a home, the sense of family,” Robinson said. “All we’re doing is pushing them to the sides, we’re not dealing with the real issues.”

Belle wandered into Sox Place one afternoon in June, a pretty young woman with an air of confidence that contrasts with the cuts across her cheek and the brace on her knee, injuries she said were inflicted by her pimp.

“People think it’s a choice to be on the streets, but it’s never a choice,” said Belle, 18.

She said she has been sexually abused since she was 6 years old and was in and out of foster care until recently.

Now, she is living in a camp with other homeless kids, hiding from her pimp.

“Yeah, it’s not a house, but a house isn’t everything,” she said. “Family. Love. Friends. This is my family. All I ever wanted was a family.”

She wants to go to college to study psychology and help other street kids, but she knows the odds are against her.

“I don’t have the building blocks to get up in life, to be able to do what I need to do, because I never learned it,” she said. “I have to learn that on my own.”

The odds were against Liz Martinez, who left home at age 12 and eventually became a member of the Juggalos.

“They were better than my own biological family,” said Martinez, who is now 21. “They didn’t put their hands on me, they fed me, they kept me safe, they cared about how I felt.”

After nearly a decade on the streets, she has just gotten her first apartment with her boyfriend and is looking forward to a more stable future for her 5-month-old daughter.

“I have almost $1,000 saved up from selling plasma and doing day labor, and hopefully in the next month and a half to three months, I’ll have my GED,” she said.

Martinez has drawn strength from living on the streets, and she thinks others can do the same:

“If you can survive off of living on the street and sleeping on cold concrete or behind a Dumpster when it’s snowing, you know you have the strength to do just about anything.”

Sometimes I wish I could post pictures of people with whom I’ve interacted so you can see what I see. But most homeless don’t want their pictures taken and I don’t want to make a spectacle of anyone, especially my little ones who are living on the streets.

This week we were helping our friends unload their moving trucks – they made a long trek from Boise to Southern California. We had to leave at 11 am during the move. And of course, due to my ingrained guilty conscience, I felt horrible for leaving before the job was done. But now in hindsight, I’m grateful we did.

It’s Costa Mesa, a nice community close to the beach and full of well-to-do’s and your average working class folks. We turned down a random street to get to the freeway and we spied on our  left a homeless girl walking  very slowly. My axiomatic response is, what do we have in the truck for her? I had nothing. I usually carry bags of food that are easily transported but because we were helping our friends move, I had not come prepared to help a homeless person. I had noticed she didn’t have any shoes on and she obviously slept outside. We turned right and drove on. But then immediately turned right to make our way back around to see what we could do. “I have my tennis shoes that I am wearing” I stated to my husband. She walked like her feet hurt and I wasn’t sure if shoes would help or hurt plus I felt sheepish giving her my used shoes (albeit my most favorite Nike running shoes) and my worn socks. We pulled around and stopped where she was bent over picking something up from the ground . She stood up and I asked her if I could give her my worn shoes… if that would that be okay. I didn’t expect an answer from her – but watched her expressions. She was either extremely drunk or mentally ill, either way, she had a hard time answering. I took off my shoes, apologized for the worn socks and handed them to her. She said “they’ll get ruined…”  “that’s okay, they’re yours”.

We asked her if she had eaten yet? Again, I was not certain of her answer so I told her to keep walking in the same direction and I’ll get her something to eat. I ran into Subway, barefoot, got her a foot long on flatbread – she had very few teeth and I wanted her to be able to at least eat some carbs, and I had the guy cut it up into a few manageable pieces. I picked 3 cookies out, water, chips and we put them in a bag with a handle so she could carry it. While my husband waited in the truck, I took off down the sidewalk in her direction.  4 blocks down, there was my friend walking in her new Nikes. Her feet looked like they might hurt still by the way she was walking but I knew that the hot pavement would not be a problem for that day because she had on her new shoes. I gave her the bag and she made the funny moves with her head and acted like she was trying to talk but couldn’t and she reached out with her soiled hand clenched around something – she was trying to give me a crumpled up dollar bill…. “No sweety… you keep that – enjoy your lunch and please be safe”. And  I waved goodbye turned and walked back up the street – barefoot – and grateful that I didn’t have my shoes on – and knowing what it felt like at that moment to walk over rough hot asphalt barefoot. And I cried – like I’m crying now.  And I am so glad I left before the moving was complete…

Sunday was Father’s Day and we went back to the riverbed to bring lunch and supplies to our friends.

Books are a big part of what we bring to the riverbed

There are about 100 men and women who live in the riverbed here in Orange County.  Like I have said in my page “Wrestling with Your Views of Homelessness” some choose this, some have lost the heart to keep trying to get out of their situation, some are so broken by their lives that they just can’t live otherwise, some are so addicted to drugs and alcohol that this is THE only way to live, some are long term homeless and some short term. We don’t come to the riverbed with the answers; we come with the basic human necessities. We bring wholesome food and supplies for their week. We bring neither condemnation nor judgment. We bring referrals if they ask for it. We don’t slam them on the back with a bible, and we don’t tell them their stupid.

The variety of personalities is just like you would see in any other community or group of people. You have the comedians, the politicians, the leaders, the followers, the master manipulators, the gentle, the aggressive, the happy and jovial, the intellectual, the helper. They’re all there. And we love them all. Characters are always welcome!

Sample of the meals we serve

We had a good size crowd Sunday. They are beginning to hear we’ve moved our location and they’ve found us! The communication in the homeless community is amazing. We had BBQ pork sandwiches, diced pears, brownies, sports drinks, coffee.

10,000 pounds of food on our driveway

We were given 10,000 pounds of canned food from Second Harvest for the homeless and needy. We had a packing party

Packing canned goods

with our friends from various church groups and packed about 500 bags of food – each one with a military style can opener. These bags were also given out Sunday.

At the riverbed, they recognize our red truck and jump up when they see us drive in. Each one is always willing to lend a hand helping us set up tables and put the food and supplies out. We are always greeted with such love and gladness. It’s a mad rush, getting everything out and in their hands. But we always manage to get everyone fed and sent on their ways.

We are particularly grateful this month. We have had some significant money donations. These have come actually just in time. Not having a large resource of personal funds ourselves, we count on donations from others. Food costs $300 to $500 per month, insurance is expensive, the paper goods to serve the food is not cheap, tents, tarps, and other supplies is another cost. We are blessed with VERY generous people in our lives. Generous with both their money and their time.

Books are as important as food

We have volunteers making food, helping serve the food, packing bags – we cannot do this on our own and we are so grateful for the hearts of those who help!

Father’s Day was another great day at the riverbed! Happy day to all of you!

“Why are they homeless? Why dont they just get a job? Why are you bringing food to them when they could come and get it themselves? How could ANYone live under a bridge? What’s wrong with these people? “

We’re far from being counselors or skilled at addressing social injustices in this world, but we do know how to love and we do know the meaning of generosity. When someone asks us these questions, we don’t always have an answer and more importantly we don’t care to know the answers. We will use any tools that we might have to help when our homeless friends ask for help but what we offer most of all is just simply love and respect. Our job is to love and respect not to change them if they are not ready to be changed. I would LOVE to say, “Joe Homeless lived under a freeway overpass until I, the Knight in Shining Armor, came and rescued him from himself! Now he lives in a 4 bedroom house on a hill… all because I am so great”.  But, let’s be real… that is not a reality. We’ll be there and help point the way to  programs, groups and other types of help whenever we can, and we will always be there to listen and respect them.

We also provide a place for those who have a heart and compassion for helping the needy but just don’t have the resources. It is as much of a blessing for us to watch people who help serve hot lunches as it is for those who receive a hot lunch. Some people would never step out of their comfort zone to go over to a scraggly homeless guy and invite to come and have a warm wholesome lunch, but they do when they are with us. And once they come to be a part of what we do, they are hooked – they want to help month after month.  And then I hear, “How can I help?” “What else can I do?”  “How can I bring this to my church or group?” Their lives have been changed.

I got a call from a friend who works down the street at The Coffee Bean yesterday. “There is a homeless guy in here – come and bring him what you have!” I loaded up my truck with pop-top canned food, snacks, waters, a new pair of jeans, jackets, shirts and headed down to the coffee house. When I walked into the crowded shop, Cathee pointed out the gentleman sitting in the center of the commotion eating a muffin that someone had bought for him. He was dirty, his hair was greasy and unkept, dirt under his long fingernails, shoulders hunched over his very thin frame, and head down – I walked up and put my hand on his shoulder and asked him if I could give him some food and clothes. He got up quickly and left his muffin to follow me. “Don’t anyone touch his muffin!” I yelled! “I’ll guard it!” yelled back a patron. We walked out to the truck and I loaded him up with his goodies. He needed a pair of pants and it looked like they were going to be a good fit for him. I wish I had a pair of shoes for him.  Where you from? I asked – he replied very softly “Tennessee” I could tell he wasn’t a talker – just a survivor. He took 2 heavy bags of food and walked back inside The Coffee Bean.

I take away from this story at the Coffee Bean two great things… 1. How much I love to see people like Cathee so desperate to help someone in need. 2. How much I LOVE to see someone in need get those needs met, even if it was just for today – it was one day he didn’t  have to search for a meal.

I am not going to cure homelessness – somewhere it’s written that the poor will always be here… but I am going to be able to help soothe the hunger pains and put a warm jacket around their shoulders – what more could a human being ask for ?

Hunger and homelessness is striking more and more Americans even in affluent areas such as Orange County. We hear conflicting reports of the economic upturn at the same time economic downturn. We hear of hope and prosperity returning to the United States and yet we read about the 35,000 homeless folks, a large portion of them families that infects these United States. And more impacting than reading it is seeing it with our own eyes.  Most of us can’t drive through town without seeing someone pushing a cart or hauling a overloaded backpack with their lives stuffed deep inside.

LifeHouse is out weekly in Sunny  Orange County, California feeding the homeless and providing some of their very basic needs. Razors to shave with, jackets to keep them warm, sleeping bags to hunker down in at night along the riverbed.

Help Yourselves!

Being a very small nonprofit, we still are able to affect hundreds of lives each month. But we can’t do it without support. We ourselves feel the pinch and tightening of the wallet but we have a roof over out head and a way to put gas in our cars. Our mission is to help alleviate just a tiny bit of the stress of wondering where the next meal will come from by bringing a lunch to a group of homeless people who live along the river bed. Sometimes there are 35 guys out there and sometimes there are 2 but we leave what we bring – we know at some point most of the guys out there will be walking by and be able to get a meal for that day.

Donated Books and our Mobile Library

We also provide a hot lunch once per month at a local park. Spaghetti or hamburgers, or turkey on Thanksgiving, whatever it is that we are able to get from Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County (www.feedoc.org) . This last time we were at the park we were blessed by a friend named Arvind who rented a taco guy for us. Arvind said that if he gets a bonus at work this month, he was going to give back to the community and he did just as promised. With his generous donation he was able to feed nearly 100 homeless men, women and children. We are so grateful for his generosity as well as the generosity of others who have given in abundance. Some of the people who help, bring food that they have cooked, some come to serve – always a kind word for the friends who live outside they appreciate the unselfish commitment of these folks trying to make the lives of our homeless friends just a little more bearable.

We recently had another one of our generous friends Rose through her school donate hundreds of books to us and we formed a mobile library for the homeless. we load books up in totes and take them with us to the parks where they can pick any books they want to read and keep them when they are done, return them next time we’re there or share them with friends. This has proven as great an gift as the food is.

A constant companion this cat doesnt wander from his owner

We are seeing a different face of homelessness on our journeys around Orange County. We are meeting people who have had high paying jobs or even owned their own businesses who are not living out of their cars, looking for the next meal and for a place to park for the night that wont get them in trouble with the police.

Second Harvest has featured a man from Texas who is living in his car after having a successful business. I have posted the article here. http://blog.feedingamerica.org/2010/02/who-is-hungry-in-america/

“[Marginalized] groups represent all those whom poverty relegates to the very margins of society where their dignity is ignored, their rights are violated, their humanity is degraded, and their hopes are shattered. Solidarity with them is not a matter of politics. It is part of our solidarity with Christ and the expression of our love for God.”

A Meditation on Our Response to the Call of Christ – the Society of Jesuits

For our hot lunch at the park,  Arvind donated his favorite Taco Guy to cook and prepare tacos for our homeless friends!

Help is always welcome! Even if you dont have a specific ‘job’ to do, come and meet some of our friends!

An Open Letter to our Volunteers.

Saturday the 20^th is our next hot lunch in the park for the homeless. This time Arvind Joshi has very generously donated the lunch!!! He hired a taco guy to come and make some great tacos, beans and rice for our friends.  I have attached a flier in the event that you want to print them up and hand them to anyone you see on the streets who might be able to come and enjoy a hot lunch.

Here are some guidelines for our volunteers – these just make it a more pleasant time for everyone involved. We never want to put the kibosh on any of you naturally generous people but sometimes folks are not sure what is the best thing to do.

1. Eat before you come. We never know how many people will be at the park on any given day so our priority is always to give the homeless friends as much food as they can eat. The leftovers are boxed up and Noel and I take them down to Katella Park at the riverbed and hand those out so they have a dinner for that night.
2. Don’t give any money – unless God very specifically says to (cause He’s God and we’re not…  ) Most of the time it just causes more trouble than not. You can always donate to LifeHouse (tax deductible) and we use the money to buy more food etc.
3. Don’t give rides
4. It’s not a good idea to give them your cell phone number – if you want to give them ours you can.
5. You’ll be amazed at some of their stories and their history when you take the time to get to know them – One of the biggest forms of help you can give is just sitting down and eating with them or sitting and talking to them. The ones that don’t want to talk to you will make it clear. They will start to trust you when they see that you are real and you genuinely care.
6. If they  tell you that they need something, like a tarp or jacket, then send them over to us. We bring things with us and we have resources to buy those items. Also, if they mention something that they need that we might not have, let me know so I can start looking for that item at a good price. The other day, one guy asked for wide brimmed straw hats for the summer – we don’t have them but I will find them and buy a supply for them through LifeHouse.

You’ll notice that we don’t force God down their throat, we don’t even pray before we eat. Our friends know we are Christians and why we do what we do is because God told us to but they are waiting for the big ‘hammer of God’.  We have had opportunity to pray with people because we have developed trust and a relationship with them. It’s a proven fact that more people are brought to a place of salvation after you continue to love on them, feed them and befriend them week after week. But please do pray on your way down to the park and pray while you’re there for divine appointments and jump at the opportunity to bless them if they ask to be prayed for. There are many times that things can feel very ‘dark’ there at the park – pray your brains out for the Holy Spirit to overwhelm that place!

Rose  donated a boatload of books from her school! We’re going to eventually do a mobile homeless library but for now, we’ll have some boxes of books at a table.  we’ll give them the ability to take 2 books each and they can bring them back when they’re done (it’s not necessary)  or share them with others.

Here’s another idea, if anyone has an orange tree or any other fruit tree in their back yard that they need to offload the fruit, bring those with you! they love fresh fruit and they can take it with them with they leave!

Bring an apron with you – if you want

I can’t begin to tell you how much we love your gigantic and generous hearts! We are so blessed! Thank you thank you thank you for taking time out on a Saturday to show generosity to people who need it! Each month we are filled with amazement at your generosity.

Email me at info@lifehouseministryoc.com if you have any questions.

Love hugs,

Julie (Noel) Cruz

LifeHouse Ministry

Charles with our fresh delivery

Each Friday, Charles faithfully brings a truck full of goodies to our home to fill our freezer, frig and pantry. Second Harvest has a program where instead of throwing away food, grocery stores give it to Second Harvest and SH makes it available to us (agencies) . So weekly, the SH trucks stop at various food stores in Orange County to pick up breads, dairy products, meats, cereals and so much more,  food items that are still in very eatable condition! Some things are near the sell-by date and some things have far away expiration date. It’s always different – but it’s always great. When it arrives, I email all my families and tell them ‘food is here’ and most of them are over in a few minutes. What we have left over, we take over to the Katella Park gang on Saturday afternoons. Yogurt, milk, premade sandwiches…

Always a gentleman, Charles always says “bless you guys” on his way back to his truck! Once again, thank you Second Harvest and thank you Charles!

Second Harvest Truck