From KERA News:
Several communities across North Texas are seeing an increase in young people experiencing homelessness — including in Plano. While some children experience homelessness alongside their families, many young unhoused people are out on the street alone.
These are the young people that Plano’s City House tries to help get off the street. The nonprofit, founded in 1988, offers unhoused young people up to age 22 a home as well as services to equip them with skills they need to succeed.
Several school districts in North Texas said identified more students including homelessness, including Plano ISD, which identified 1,365 unhoused students last school year. Sheri Messer, the CEO of City House, said the nonprofit has seen a 7% increase in clients. In 2023, the organization helped 1,175 youth experiencing homelessness.
At the nonprofit’s youth resource center, teenagers and young adults lounge on plastic lime green couches. There’s art on the walls painted by former clients and a bookshelf filled with donated books and informational reading material tailored to the center’s clients.
There’s also an area with clothes called the YouNique Boutique. It includes everything from basics like socks, underwear and pajamas to prom dresses and outfits suitable for interviews.
Sapphire Beverly, a case manager with City House’s transitional living program, said all of the items in the clothing closet are donated new.
“We don’t accept any items that are used because we believe our clients deserve the best and items that are new,” Beverly said.
‘They’re just in survival mode’
The transitional living program, which serves young adults aged 18 to 21, lasts for 18 months and teaches basic life skills like how to balance a budget or get an oil change.
Adithya Arjun said the program has made a difference in her life. The 20-year-old lived in her car for over a month after her mom kicked her out. That was her first day of school at Collin College.
“After school, I’d either stay at the school library or just around the campus or at a cafe, and just study to stay out of the heat and be somewhere,” Arjun said.
Arjun found out about City House from a counselor at the community college. City House also has a street outreach team that visits places where young people seek shelter. The team hands out snacks and baggies of toiletries.
Resident Adithya Arjun and caseworker Sapphire Beverly survey the clothes available for clients of the City House Youth Resource Center in Plano.
Yfat Yossifor / KERA
Messer said it can take a while to earn street kids’ trust.
“They’re just in survival mode,” she said.
Messer said many of them fled difficult situations at home, including abuse. Others were kicked out by their parents. In some instances, mom may have a new boyfriend who doesn’t get along with her kids. Or a kid’s parents won’t accept their sexuality or gender identity.
Regardless of why young people became homeless, living on the street can delay maturity and development, Messer said. They need help learning how to become adults and live on their own. That’s what the transitional living program is for.
City House clients come from all over North Texas. And Messer said there are teenagers and young adults experiencing homelessness who come from all walks of life.
“Kids that have come from wealthy homes right here in Plano that went to Plano schools, have fled their home,” she said.
For Arjun, living in her car was the happiest she had ever felt. It wasn’t sustainable, but it was an escape from a toxic home environment after her parents’ divorce.
‘We don’t have to worry’
Before she was kicked out, Arjun said she’d dread going home. Now, Arjun lives with other women like her at City House — people who have become her new home.
“I get to go home, and I’m excited to go home,” Arjun said.
Arjun still has nine months left in the transitional living program, but she’s already making plans for her next step.
“They help us, start looking at apartments and budgets and things like that early on, so by the time we’re done, we’re ready,” Arjun said. “We don’t have to worry.”
That’s something she says wouldn’t be possible without City House’s help.
