Here & Now

Here & Now for Dec. 28, 2018

Jivonte Davis:
The transition from having a home to being homeless, that’s like — it’s way more than, like, anyone can imagine. It’s like, one day, you’re waking up. You’re in a home. And the next minute, you wake up, and you’re on the streets.

Frederica Freyberg:
I’m Frederica Freyberg, on tonight’s program, a special edition of Here & Now” on a very important subject: youth homelessness. We’ll hear the story of a Wisconsin teenager who was homeless during his high school years. And we’ll talk with a leading expert about how state and local officials, as well as community members, can help change these situations for the better. It’s Here & Now” for December 28th.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided in part by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

Frederica Freyberg:
On average, between 15,000 and 19,000 homeless students were enrolled statewide in the past five school years. That’s according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. With those sobering numbers as a jumping off point, we begin tonight with a story of one of them: Jivonte Davis. He shares his experience in this short film produced by UW-Madison Communication Arts major and member of our studio crew here at WPT, Mitch Deitz.

Jivonte Davis:
I always say, “Enjoy what you have, while you have it now. And if it’s gone, try to get it back.” Like for instance, I lost my house. I lost, like, multiple houses. One day, it was there. Next day, it was gone. You get that feeling like, “This can’t be right. I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming.”

[solemn piano music]

If it wasn’t for sports, I don’t know where I would be, to be honest. I started playing basketball once I came to Madison. And it plays a huge role because it’s like, it keeps me — it keeps me focused on something else. While being homeless, it was — helped my game a lot because it was like, I tended to attack the basket more, like more aggressive. And to the point to where people were like, “Get out of this kid’s way!” It’s like, when I’m on the court, I’m thinking, “This is my time. My time to shine.” I want to be the next LeBron. I want to be the next Jordan. In order to be the best, you have to have a clear mind and have a mind opened up to the game. So when I step between those lines, everything outside of me — where I was homeless or even if I didn’t eat that day — all that, my head was gone. All that was empty. It was just me and my passion; the basketball, and that basket. It’s pretty much my — it was my second home. And I knew I can’t go home. Fine. I have nowhere to go at night. I know for a fact, I’ll just shoot some baskets all damn day until I find somewhere to go or until I just get tired and just fall asleep.

[solemn piano music]

Fabiola Hamdan:
I have been doing community social work for the past 17 years, and, lately, I have been seeing the homelessness issue growing rapidly. It’s amazing when I talk to people that they don’t think homelessness exists. And they, you know, live in this little bubble that everything is so great and so nice. Many times, I want to bring them with me and do some home visits and see the reality. For example, I work with a family from Nigeria. Their rent was $1,450. And, you know, more than a mortgage. So, I did a home visit. Went to their apartment. It was a three-bedroom apartment in the basement. It was close to the bus stop and grocery stores. However, dad left the house, leaving mom with three kids. Mom did not work. She just came from Nigeria, as I said. The oldest kids were trying to go to school and trying to work. For six months, I worked with the family trying to stabilize the situation. Landlords wanted their money. There’s no money for this family. So, at the end, they got evicted. So, they end up going to the shelter and they couldn’t be together. Mom and then the, I think, nine-year-old stay in the shelter. And as I said, this woman cannot really find a job. Has no job history here. Her English is very limited. Obviously, the child is having lots of issues at school. You know, can you can imagine, you just get off from school, what you we wanna do? Go home, kick back, watch TV, snacks. All that’s not there for this child, right? So, when he goes to school, obviously he will have a lot of anxiety, anger, and all that. So, this is just one example in how, you know, we have tons of families like this.

Revel Sims:
One of the most highly-impacted populations from eviction or displacement are youth and children. So we know, for example, from studies that have been done in the past, that displacement, losing your home, can be similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. And because the house and your identity is so interrelated and tied together that losing your home can sometimes be one of these “roots shocks,” as it’s been called, that really affects your psyche and your emotional well-being. And youth take that on quite a bit. Generally, eviction is related to homelessness, but in certain areas, it’s even more so. And my understanding of sort of what is happening here in the housing market in Madison and Dane County is that because it’s so tight and there are so few options for folks that one: the sort of potential to be evicted and end up in — and end up being homeless is higher than other places that have higher vacancy rates. Most economists and most housing experts agree that around a 5% vacancy rate is needed for a healthily-functioning housing market. Back in 2007, the census had Madison just, you know, almost 5% vacancy rate. Since then, it’s fallen to around 2%. So, we’re seeing more people come in. And we’re seeing less housing being developed, particularly at the low end of the housing market. And I’m speaking here mostly in terms of the rental housing market. So, what that means is that the housing market is getting really tight. Things like eviction or displacement become especially problematic because if you are evicted, the likelihood of you finding a new available unit to rent becomes even more challenging.

Jivonte Davis:
One night, it was like, I had a basketball tournament in Minnesota. I was doing AAU. So, I went to Minnesota for three days. You know, my phone was off, so I couldn’t contact my mom or anything. And then, um, I came back from the trip exhausted. You know, wanted to go home, get ready for school and everything. And then it was like, I used my key to open the door and the door wouldn’t open. I kinda seen the, like, the “For Sale” sign up in the lawn, but like, I never paid attention to it. And then, our neighbor from across the street came outside and was like, “So, are you looking for your mom?” I was like, “Yeah.” She’s like, “So, I just seen a moving truck leave here yesterday.” I called my mom and she told me that she ended up losing the house while I was gone. And by me and my phone being of, she couldn’t contact me and tell me. She started crying and she’s like, “We’re in Sun Prairie.” And she told me, “You can stay here or you can do what you gotta do.” And I told her, I can’t be in Sun Prairie. We don’t have transportation. And I go, “I still have to finish school. So, I just stayed on in Madison on my own. I was staying at friends’ houses. What they call it nowadays, they call it couch surfing, where you sleep from couch to couch, from house to house. And that’s what I was doing. The transition was hard because I was so used to like, I was so used to taking advantage of everything that, like, we did have when I was home. We did have home like, you know, electricity, fresh water, you know, heat. I took it for granted pretty much and you never — you don’t know that until you get on your own. And then it’s like, man, how am I gonna pay for tonight? Or like, what am I gonna eat? Or how can I charge my phone? Like, I told myself, One day, it’s there. The next day it could be gone.”

Amy Noble:
I may be a social worker, which in a lot of people’s eyes, is, you know, something that immediately says, “Don’t talk to her.” But, honestly, if you just spend some time and ask a few questions and you’re interested, people will just tell you what they need. And they’ll tell you what it’s like. And they’ll tell you what’s going on. And I’ve had students tell me that they would — one of their strategies for finding a place to stay would be to go to the mall and just kind of hang around and watch. And find a group of kids that they don’t know. Find out if there’s a party. And then go along and go to the party, and then, just be the last one to leave. And say, “You know what? Can I crash here ‘cuz it’s too late?” or, “I can’t find my bus pass” or something. So, when you’re making yourself vulnerable in that kind of way, the probability that you’re going to make some choices, however dangerous, or for lack of a better word, unpleasant — it’s much deeper than unpleasant — it’s much more likely. So for people to be able to see that in fact, we have young people who are trading access to their bodies for places to stay, which is human trafficking. That we have young people who are not graduating in four years from high school because of a disruption that’s happening. And they’re having to find a place to stay and sleeping on a couch or whatever. I think the more that we can see that and have it be viewed, that the entities and the organizations that already work with young people can shift and partner more with those entities that are not.

Revel Sims:
Housing has been, kind of, totally removed from the political agenda. At the same time, then communities all over the United States are talking about housing as a crisis. In New York, radically changing things in Miami, Chicago, housing is central to some of the most important demographic areas of our country. Yet, at this time, when housing is so important and people are talking about housing as a crisis, it doesn’t come up on the political campaign. Presidential campaign, for example, not a single candidate had housing as being one of the issues that was important to deal with. Whereas in times past, when we went to the 1970s and 1960s, housing was discussed. You know, presidential candidates talked about housing. They talked about the urban crises. These are things that popped up as being important for us to solve as a society I think we need to return to that kind of really deep language about what kind of cities you want to want to live in. And we need housing and housing politics to be front and center right now in order to deal with those things.

Amy Noble:
Anything that we can do to make transportation feasible to employment with a living wage and, you know, have housing for people who are working, you know, workforce housing that is affordable for families and for young people. I think those things would go a long way to eliminating so many of the really traumatic things that are happening for children and families in Madison.

Fabiola Hamdan:
It’s not “those people” and us anymore because our kids are going to the same school. We are driving in the same streets. All the stressors in these communities are gonna have a ripple effect and it’s affecting all of us.

Revel Sims:
We need to make sure that members of our community are taken care of when they’re in need. And you can economize that. You can put numbers to that. And you can talk about how much more it costs to deal with somebody who’s on the street than to house them and make sure all their needs are met, whether it’s alcoholism or if they have any kind of mental health issues. That it’s cheaper to house people than to deal with that when folks are on the street. We know that. And if money is what moves people to understand why that’s important for a society, hey, that’s fine. And I’ll be happy to tell you that it’s more efficient to deal with all those issues when people are housed and when they’re on the street. Um, but I think we should also be open to talking about these things in terms of values. And what values do we want and what kind of society do we want to live in?

Jivonte Davis:
I want to go play college football on a high level. Right now, I’m currently playing arena and semi-pro football. Before it all ends, I want to probably get my business degree. And I want to help out the community as much as possible still. Being homeless in Madison or being homeless in the world, in general, it’s taught me a lot. It was, it was hard right from my first couple of months on my own was — it was hard, but I was like, as long as I had my sports to look back on, my pride was still there. I still had my pride, even being homeless.

Frederica Freyberg:
“No Place Like Home” was directed and produced by UW Communication Arts senior Mitch Deitz. Homeless advocates estimate that some 20,000 people experience homelessness in Wisconsin on any given night. As for children, about the same number of public school students in Wisconsin lack a regular nighttime residence, including those who couch surf or stay with friends or relatives. Joli Guenther is assistant director at the Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services. She joins us now with more. And Joli, thanks very much for being here.

Joli Guenther:
My pleasure to be here, thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
What stands out about that film to you?

Joli Guenther:
So, Jivonte’s story is certainly unique and he really points out to us the vulnerabilities of families in terms of economic homelessness. I would say that that’s a very typical situation. And has become more and more typical. The programs that I work with are seeing more and more youth who are threatened economically so that it’s not solely family conflict that is leading to youth leaving the home or being forced out of the home. The other thing that I think really stands out to me about Jivonte is how remarkably resilient he is. And when we approach our services and our policies regarding youth, youth experiencing homelessness or youth who are runaways, that the strength really lies in those young people now. And that our policies need to reflect that, that we have opportunities to build on those strengths. And that those strengths are unique. That they are defined by the people that we’re working with, and so that Jivonte’s strength is sports. Somebody else’s strength might be art or music, but that we are giving youth ways to build on those.

Frederica Freyberg:
You were talking to me about how this is not just an urban problem. It’s increasingly kind of split evenly between rural and urban areas.

Joli Guenther:
Absolutely. There’s some very interesting research that is coming out that was actually funded under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act at the federal level. From the Chaplain Hall, that has found that the frequency of homelessness in urban and rural youth is the same. For following youth up to the age of 24, it’s 1 of 10. So it’s remarkably common. And for youth under the age of 18, it’s 1 of 30.

Frederica Freyberg:
So, what are the numbers of children sleeping in cars or shelters as opposed to kind of couch surfing or the thing that Jivonte found himself doing?

Joli Guenther:
So, those numbers would be reflected in the point-in-time homeless counts, and I don’t actually have those numbers readily available, but again, the numbers that you referenced at the beginning of the documentary that we are looking at 15,000 to 19,000 students that are homeless each night.

Frederica Freyberg:
Do you get the impression that the general public understands or is aware of this, these kinds of numbers, these children, these families?

Joli Guenther:
I think it’s shocking. I think that most of the general public would be shocked by how common this is. And those numbers reflect, not necessarily that there are youth on the streets. So the point-in-time counts that we look at don’t necessarily reflect the full spectrum of youth who are inadequately housed. And I think that when you look at Jivonte’s example, he wouldn’t necessarily show up on those. If he is finding a couch to stay on, if he’s got a friend who will let him stay for a couple nights, then he’s not going to show up in those numbers. He might even not be reflected in the school district numbers.

Frederica Freyberg:
How well is Wisconsin positioned to help these children and their families?

Joli Guenther:
We have some enormous strengths in our state. There have been some good things that have happened on the state level in terms of moving the systems to work more closely together. So we have recently moved the Juvenile Justice Child Welfare Runaway and Homeless Youth Services together under the Department of Children and Families, which is also housing our efforts at anti-human trafficking. And I think there’s a real recognition by people who are working in the state departments that these are not individual silos of youth. That the youth that we’re serving overlap. And that youth who are exiting the child welfare systems, youths exiting the juvenile justice systems are incredibly at risk for homelessness. And so recognizing that and focusing on the kind of outcomes that I talked about earlier, that we are focusing on positive outcomes for these youth and giving them something to move towards puts us in a good position. That’s a strength that we have in Wisconsin. We need to do more. We do not have a comprehensive guarantee of services, as is offered on the federal level and as is offered in some states. Minnesota’s a good example of that. They have a comprehensive Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and funding has followed. And that has allowed them to expand the services that they offer in terms of shelter, in terms of street outreach, and really in terms of giving youth what they need. Whether that is, like, a place to charge a cell phone and get a meal that night, or to move into educational and vocational services.

Frederica Freyberg:
What is the biggest risk for a homeless or runaway teen?

Joli Guenther:
We know that the time on the street, the first 48 hours is incredibly risky. That when youth are in that situation, one in three within 48 hours will be lured into prostitution. These youth are resorting to using their bodies to meet basic needs. And those needs may include money, but they are also a place to stay. Also just a meal, that the — there’s a level of grooming that occurs in offering what is needed that night. That escalates into greater crimes. That’s an enormous risk for the young people and also an enormous cost to our systems in the long term.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are the emotional tolls for youth in these circumstances?

Joli Guenther:
One of the points that was made in the documentary was regarding the trauma that’s associated with losing your house. The most effective services for youth recognize that trauma that is inherent, and that isn’t to say that every youth that we work with has PTSD, but we know that the rates of suicide and depression and PTSD are three to four times higher among runaway and homeless youth. And that there’s an incredible risk associated with that. Even when the events that have happened don’t lead to manifestation of those symptoms, the impact of what has happened is still there. And so recognizing that young people that receive services need to define how those happen in their own way, what they need, what feels safe for them. That we can’t say this is how the services need to be provided, and this is what you need to do in order to have a bed.

Frederica Freyberg:
Now, you’re engaged in street outreach. What does that look like?

Joli Guenther:
Street outreach is one spectrum of services that can be provided to runaway and homeless youth. It really does use a harm reduction model. So knowing that youth are on the street, the workers offer, of course, access to a shelter. That is a tenant of service provision, but about, What do you need today? What do you need in order to be safe? What do you need in order to prevent some of those choices that we talked about, that if there’s somebody around the corner who’s offering you something else, what do you need in order to be able to make your choice on your own? So maybe that’s a bed. Maybe that’s transportation. Maybe that’s access to a healthcare clinic, food, vouchers for meals.

Frederica Freyberg:
Very briefly, with only about 30 seconds left, how do people that need them connect to the kinds of services that are being provided by people like yourselves and other advocates?

Joli Guenther:
There’s the National Runaway Switchboard, which is the federally-funded operation and hotline. They can contact our agency through our website, Wisconsin Association for Homeless and Runaway Services. And we have 16 local programs throughout Wisconsin that can be accessed through our website.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right, Joli Guenther, thank you. And thank you for your work.

Joli Guenther:
My pleasure, thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
That’s our program for tonight. For more information on youth homelessness, including links to agencies providing help, click into the “Here & Now” web page at wpt.org/hereandnow. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a safe New Year’s holiday.

Announcer:
Funding for “Here & Now” is provided in part by Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.