Advocacy groups say new ways must be found to help a nearly invisible group of teenagers who try to keep their homelessness a secret from authorities. Yet those programs would help a tiny percentage of the hundreds of homeless teenagers, who live unsupervised by adults.
In the series, "On Their Own," The Sun documented this
week the lives of Iven Bailey and Gary Sells, who
struggled to complete their senior year at Lake
Clifton-Eastern High School. Their story illuminated a
little-known problem, child advocates say.
"We have got to look at alternative approaches," said
Leslie Leitch, executive director of AIDS Interfaith
Residential Services Inc. (AIRS), which assists a
clientele that includes homeless teenagers.
Such children, she said, have been known to child
welfare advocates for years. Some are stealing, some are
prostituting, some are selling drugs.
"We can make them wards of the state, but that shouldn't
be the only alternative for these teenagers," she said.
Leitch and others say changes must be made to
institutions -- including the child welfare system and
the schools -- to provide the right kinds of services.
There were 2,289 homeless students in the city schools
last year, about half of whom lived in shelters at some
point. Others lived with friends or relatives, or in
vacant houses.
Many hide their moves from one friend's house to
another, their hunger and their vulnerability because
they say they fear becoming part of the social services
system and being taken away from familiar schools and
neighborhoods to land in a group home or foster care.
The "On Their Own" series has prompted an outpouring of
support for the two young men and others like them. In
response, the Fellowship of Lights, a 35-year-old
organization that runs the city's only shelter
exclusively for teenagers, announced Wednesday that it
will establish two funds, one to handle donations for
Iven and Gary, and one to help teenagers at risk in the
city.
Several nonprofits and city agencies, including the
Fellowship of Lights, have been meeting for more than a
year to create one of the two new models. It would be a
center for 28 teenagers expected to open no sooner than
the summer of 2007, Leitch said.
At the center, she said, teenagers would stay for up to
three or four years in suites with their own rooms and
common living areas. A housemother would supervise the
groups. But unlike in foster care, participants would
not have to become wards of the state and would be
trained for a career or offered academic remediation.
However, Maryland law stands in the way of such a
program, she said. There appears to be a conflict
between two laws. One allows a 16-year-old to sign a
lease; the other does not allow anyone under 18 to live
without a parent or guardian.
The groups -- which include AIRS, the Fellowship of
Lights and Baltimore Homeless Services -- are seeking an
exception that would allow residents of the proposed
center to avoid becoming wards of the state.
The second model could come from a collaboration between
the Abell Foundation and the SEED School of Washington,
D.C., a public boarding school. Abell is exploring the
financial feasibility of opening a school for middle-
and high-schoolers in the city.
Abell has gotten inquiries over the years from
principals who were desperate for rooms where a few of
their students could stay overnight, said Robert C.
Embry Jr., president of Abell, a Baltimore foundation
that focuses on education. The kids might not be
homeless, he said, but the principals would tell him,
"There are kids I can't send home at night."
Funding for the Baltimore boarding school could be
difficult because Maryland's charter school law does not
provide public money for boarding.
Calls for systemic changes in foster care are also being
made by legislators, including Del. Bobby A. Zirkin, a
Baltimore County Democrat, who said legislation will be
introduced in the forthcoming session of the General
Assembly.
If the system were better and teenagers were not afraid
of it, he said, the number of homeless youth would
likely decline.
Iven Bailey and Gary Sells graduated in part because of
the break up of the city's largest comprehensive high
schools into small schools, where students were better
known to their teachers and principals. Bonnie S.
Copeland, chief executive officer of the city schools,
said the last of the large high schools won't disappear
for three or four years.
The school system, she said, must also provide more
social services, health care and work opportunities for
students to make money legitimately.
"It is not enough to focus on the academic needs of our
students," she said.
What is needed as much as anything, says City Councilman
Kenneth N. Harris Sr. is the involvement of people in
the area to mentor and help children. "It is going to
take the entire city to get involved," he said. "If
everyone in the community in which they live would just
go into the school for one hour, once a month," children
would be helped.
The series has kindled interest in volunteering,
according to Ross Pologe, executive director of the
Fellowship of Lights. One woman told him the young men
in the story were like her 25 years ago, and a college
senior told him she felt she should be giving back, he
said.
The Fellowship of Lights, a United Way participating
agency that has beds for 19 homeless teenagers, will
establish a donor-directed fund "for the purpose of
enhancing Gary and Iven's educational and personal
development." A second fund will be set up to help the
many other Baltimore teenagers who may be living without
parental support, Pologe said.