Youths who couch-surfed, slept in cars now are helping other homeless kids
As a teen, Roxana Rodriguez-Monzon would sometimes hang around downtown bus stops waiting for the 5 a.m. opening of a Brickell Starbucks. She had nowhere else to go.
Rodriguez-Monzon, now 21 and a student at Florida International University, is part of a cohort of nine young people in the Youth Voice Action Council, or
YVAC — an advocacy group raising awareness about youth homeslessness in Miami run by youth who’ve experienced housing instability themselves. The program is a youth-led coalition, the HOMY Collective, short for Helping our Miami-Dade Youth, supported by the nonprofit Miami Homes for All and the Children’s Trust.
“We wanted to make sure we’re listening to the people who are most impacted because they know what the gaps are in the community,” said Audrey Aradanas, YVAC coordinator and assistant director of programs at Miami Homes for All.
Figuring out the number of homeless youth in Miami isn’t straightforward. Since 2013, local agencies have used the annual iCount Miami census to help provide a snapshot of the numbers. The survey counts young people ages 13-24 with no permanent place to stay.
The most recent data available, from 2019, counted 363 homeless youth. Some were living on the street. Nearly half had a history in foster care and 44% identified as LGBTQ+. About a third were pregnant or parenting young children.
While each person’s story is unique, it’s not uncommon to hear of teens and young adults who are kicked out of their homes or have aged out of the foster care system without a safety net, said Aradanas.
The number is almost certainly an undercount. It’s likely there are hundreds more homeless teens and young adults in the county, said Aradanas. Some who may not even realize they are homeless, said Rodriguez-Monzon.
“People think being
homeless means you’re sleeping under a bridge or on the street, but a lot of times youth are sleeping in cars or couch-surfing with distant friends and relatives,” she said. “What it really means is you don’t have a stable place to live.”
The YVAC members all have first-hand experience with this instability. As part of the program, they spend a year working on projects targeting the needs of young people in unstable housing.
For YVAC member Melanie Ramirez, that meant revamping the group’s website to create easily digestible resource guides that can be marketed to teens and young adults on social media. The idea came from her own experience of checking into a homeless shelter last year as the pandemic was brewing.
Her stress-induced eczema flared up as she struggled to access a laptop to complete her spring semester of college. She was alone at the shelter – her only resource an overworked case manager who was more familiar with serving the needs of an adult homeless population.
“A lot of homeless youth don’t know how to navigate adulthood because usually you get that guidance from your parents. But when you’re unaccompanied and you’re homeless, who do you get that guidance from?” said Ramirez, a student at Miami Dade College. Talking openly about how to find housing and education opportunities in a youthfriendly format will help young people who are homeless and alone but don’t know they have options, she said.
YVAC member Stessie Elvariste is focusing on creating robust mentorship programs that can connect youth with caring adults long before they become homeless.
“I believe in coaching and personal development because I am a product of mentoring and coaching. We need more mentoring programs with mentors who are empathetic and eager to help,” said Elvariste. She is now studying biology at Miami Dade College on the road to becoming a dermatologist.
Other group members are working to build up communication between agencies that regularly come in contact with homeless youth. “A lot of times the police don’t know what to do, so they Baker Act youth or arrest them for no reason,” said Rodriguez-Monson.
Such responses underscore community unfamiliarity with youth homelessness, said D’Mychal Norwood, host homes coordinator at Miami Bridge, the county’s only emergency shelter serving kids ages 10 to 17. Prior to the pandemic, Miami
Bridge had 40 beds between its Homestead and city of Miami sites and regularly saw around 15 teenagers at each site. COVID forced the organization to cut its services in half. COVID forced the organization to cut its services in half to help ensure social distancing.
Bridge is actively looking for volunteers willing to assist as temporary hosts for homeless 18 to 21-year-olds looking for permanent housing.
“We want to help these young people before their situation evolves and they fall victim to chronic homelessness,” Norwood said.
The annual HOMY summit, scheduled for
July 14, is open to the public. Register at eventbrite or contact dmnorwood@miami bridge.org for information.