MANKATO, Minn. (AP) - After the REACH helped Kaytlin Williamson, 21, and her baby find a home, she continues to be a frequent visitor to its Youth Drop-In Center.
“This is like my second home now,” she said.
Three years ago she was living in a tent. The Twin Cities native came to Mankato to attend Minnesota State University but things did not go as planned. She became one of the hundreds of young people in the Mankato region who find themselves without a place to call home.
Williamson called an area shelter for help. She was told they had no beds to spare but she should try the REACH, which supports young people who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk for becoming homeless.
Williamson found temporary shelter at CADA and then moved into her own apartment with help from the REACH’s Transitional Living Program.
The program, which provides rent financial assistance and teaches independent living skills, is one of several offered by the REACH to area young people ages 12 to 24.
REACH’s leader, Tasha Moulton, says her organization relies on partnership with other community organizations to meet the needs of the area young people who are facing homelessness.
“We all work together and I think that is very unique to our area,” she told the Mankato Free Press.
That sentiment was echoed by Rachel McNamara and Molly Fox, social workers for Mankato Area Public Schools who aid homeless students and their families.
“There’s that old saying that ‘it takes a village,’ and it really truly does,” McNamara said. “It really is a collective response.”
Numbers unknown
It’s hard to estimate exactly how many young people there are in south-central Minnesota without stable housing.
An annual count conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t break down data beyond the state level. There were 685 unaccompanied youth who did not have a home in Minnesota counted last January.
Wilder Research conducts another count across Minnesota, but only once every three years, and in greater Minnesota the data isn’t broken down beyond large regions. In its 20-county southeast Minnesota region, which stretched from Brown County to the Wisconsin border, the latest study in 2018 counted 226 children with their parents, 14 unaccompanied juveniles and 58 young adults.
Neither of the counts include people who are staying temporarily with friends or family - often called couch hopping.
The REACH provides services to around 200 young people each month, Moulton said. But that number includes youths who are at-risk but not without a home.
Mankato Area Public School has this school year aided around 165 students without a permanent residence, ages birth through 12th grade. That’s around the same number as last school year, McNamara said.
The Connections Shelter in Mankato currently houses two families with children and four young adults, manager Jenn Valimont said. It is one of a handful of overnight shelters in the area.
Where they stay
Moulton said the Connections Shelter has helped fill what had been a significant insufficiency in overnight shelter options for young people. The shelter, which opened in 2016 and is located this season at Covenant Family Church, accepts people from all backgrounds.
Most of the other overnight shelters in the region limit services to certain populations, such as families and women fleeing domestic violence. And they often have waiting lists.
At the Connections Shelter, Moulton said young people have told her they feel safe and comfortable. But it too has limited capacity and it is only open during the colder months. A year-round shelter for young people is on Moulton’s wish list.
The majority of the young people who come to the REACH while experiencing homelessness are couch hopping, Moulton said. They might have a place to sleep that night but aren’t sure where they will sleep the next night or next week.
They might not be as visible out in the community, but the people who work with them say those people need just as much support to find stability.
“It’s not just the people out on the streets and in shelters,” Valimont said. “If you do not know where you’re going to lay your head each night, you are homeless.”
How they got there
Many of the families with whom McNamara works have gone through a disaster, such as a house fire or a medical emergency that displaced them from their home or created a financial crisis.
“There are vast reasons that leads a family to experience homelessness,” she said.
The same is true for the young people who are out on their own, Moulton said. But there is often one underlying commonality.
“We have so many young people walking around with unaddressed trauma,” she said.
Many come from an unstable home or from an unhealthy relationship with a partner and have survived abuse, neglect, trafficking or other trauma. When they don’t have adequate help coping with that trauma, Moulton said it can snowball.
“We need to break the cycle,” she said.
The lack of affordable housing in the Mankato area and long wait lists for governmental rent assistance also is a barrier for many people who have been displaced, both Moulton and McNamara said.
Breaking the cycle
The REACH is a division of Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and receives federal and state funding along with donations.
The REACH only offers meals, clothing, a place to warm up and other essentials to help young people get through the day.
It also helps youth search for housing and employment, teaches independent living and budgeting skills, provides referrals to mental health care providers and other community resources, and offers other services aimed at ‘breaking the cycle.’
Even after finding stable housing, Williamson still comes to the REACH a few days a week with her 8-month-old son for “moral support.”
She’s now introduced several acquaintances to the REACH.
“She goes out her way to help everybody, no matter what it is they need,” Williamson said about Moulton.
Youths don’t have to go to the organization’s headquarters inside Bethlehem Lutheran Church in downtown Mankato. “Street outreach” staff travel across a nine-county area to connect with youths and raise awareness. They also go to schools to meet weekly with older students who do not have a home or a guardian.
The REACH also visits schools and juvenile treatment centers to educate students about how they can protect themselves from becoming a victim of human trafficking.
The organization also works with teens and young adults who are or have been in foster care to help them successfully transition into independence.
Moulton knows from personal experience it can be a difficult transition. She aged out of foster care at 18 and was homeless while she finished high school.
“I think it makes me more relatable. But I never say ‘I understand what you’re going through’ because everyone’s experience is unique,” she said.
Support in school
Federal law sets requirements for how school districts respond to students who are homeless. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 gives students who become homeless the right to continue attending their school after they are displaced. The district typically must provide them transportation.
A student who has been displaced can instead opt to go to a school nearest to where he or she has found temporary shelter. In this case the school is required to waive enrollment deadlines and waive fees, some documentation requirements and other enrollment barriers.
The rules apply both to children with families and to adolescents who have run away from home or don’t have a guardian for other reasons.
Every district is required to appoint a liaison to ensure their schools are in compliance. Fox holds that position and says her district goes far beyond the federal mandates in its support of students who don’t have a stable home.
“We try really hard to be connecting and collaborating with all the community resources to get them everything they need,” Fox said.
McNamara said they help with everything from getting a student a warm jacket to helping a family apply for Housing Choice Vouchers.
The district serves families with children as young as infants, helping them access district and community early childhood development and preschool programs.
The social workers don’t limit their aid to students and their educational needs. Every unfilled need in a family can have a negative “trickle down” affect on a child’s ability to learn, McNamara said.
“Our job is to support and advocate as best we can to help families and to help children be as successful as they can be, socially, emotionally and academically,” McNamara said.
With every family, McNamara says she shares the message that experiencing homelessness “doesn’t define who you are.”
“Everybody needs help at times,” McNamara said. “And asking for help is really hard.”
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