The Kitsap Young and the Homeless

The Kitsap Young and the Homeless
By Chris Henry

Kris Templeton talks about what it is like to be homeless during Saturday’s StandUp For Kids “48 Kitsap Youth Street Connect” event at Silverdale Waterfront Park. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)


Kris Templeton talks about what it is like to be homeless during Saturday’s StandUp For Kids “48 Kitsap Youth Street Connect” event at Silverdale Waterfront Park. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)

Michael Parker talks about his life during Saturday’s StandUp For Kids “48 Kitsap Youth Street Connect” event at Silverdale Waterfront Park. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)

The band Snakebite performs during Saturday’s StandUp For Kids “48 Kitsap Youth Street Connect” event at Silverdale Waterfront Park. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)

Brothers Brent Carslin, 12, left, and Trevor Deardorff, 8, listen to the band Snakebite during Saturday’s StandUp For Kids “48 Kitsap Youth Street Connect” event at Silverdale Waterfront Park. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)
SILVERDALE —

Loud music, tricked-out motorcycles and the promise of free stuff was enough to draw many of Kitsap’s homeless and at-risk children Saturday night to Silverdale Waterfront Park.

The event, sponsored by the Kitsap Chapter of StandUp for Kids, was held as part of the national organization’s annual 48 Hours on the Streets campaign to raise awareness and reach out to homeless teens and young adults.

Kris Templeton of Silverdale knows what it’s like to leave home with nothing but the clothes on her back. When she was 15 and living in Texas, her mother found out that she was bisexual and kicked her out of the house.

That’s a common reason that kids become homeless, according to Jo Clark, StandUp for Kids’ executive director. According to the national organization, 40 percent of homeless teens are gay or lesbian.

Templeton, now 17, spent three weeks couch-surfing and on the streets.

“Couch-surfing wasn’t that bad. It’s when you have to sleep in a park in the middle of winter, that’s bad,” she said. “I wasn’t homeless for too long, but to me it seemed like forever.”

Templeton, now estranged from her mother, is living with her sister and getting ready to graduate from Central Kitsap High School. She plans to attend community college, majoring in psychology and fine art.

Templeton, who now tries to help other homeless teens, is one of the lucky ones, said Clark.

There are many more teens and twentysomethings in Kitsap without a place to call home, and though data from a recent U.S. Census count is not yet available, those who work on behalf of this population say their numbers are growing.

The Kitsap Continuum of Care Coalition, in its annual homeless count Jan. 28, found that 27 percent of Kitsap’s homeless included in the survey were school-age children. That’s one fuzzy snapshot of a mostly hidden population, many of whose members are leery of being identified, said Brian Maule of the U.S. Census’ Silverdale office.

In other snapshots, 25 percent of students at Bremerton’s Rennaissance alternative school define themselves as homeless. Forty-nine percent of students at South Kitsap’s Discovery alternative school qualify for free lunches. A number of them are homeless, highlighting one effect of the economy and poverty that tears at the fabric of family life.

Census workers found a “higher than expected” number of people, including teens, to be living in cars. Some continue to attend high school or community college despite their substandard living arrangements.

One of several organizations helping the homeless throughout Kitsap County, StandUp for Kids provides weekly donations of food, clothing, hygiene items and other basic necessities to more than 25 youth at local alternative schools.

To reach other homeless teens, volunteer Valerie Martin and others deliver food to encampments in the woods.

“Kids can only couch-surf so long before they wear out their welcome,” said Martin. “We’ve got kids living in tents in the woods. ... they’re just everywhere.”

While the public perception is that they’re defiant, troublesome kids, 80 percent of homeless teens have good reasons for not wanting to live at home, according to national statistics.

Rejection over sexual orientation, drug or alcohol abuse on the part of parents, and parental abuse of teens top the list of triggers leading to a life on the streets, Clark said. Kids who age out of the foster care system also are part of the homeless-child equation.

Michael Parker's father beat him, first for wetting the bed and then as he grew, for other reasons. Parker abused drugs. His mother periodically kicked him out between the time he was 13 and 17.

“It wasn’t for a long period of time, but it happened multiple times,” Parker said. “I had to sleep in a school playground, in the woods. ... I had to wash myself in a bathroom to make sure I didn’t reek of body odor.”

Parker, now 26 with a home in Bremerton, a fiance and two children, wants people to know that the homeless, especially homeless teens, need and deserve respect and support.

“I know what it’s like to be in their shoes,” he said. “I know what it’s like for people to walk by you. It sucks.”

Efforts to help homeless teens are growing in response to the need. Coffee Oasis, for example, recently purchased the Solid Rock Cafe in Port Orchard, bringing to four the number of outlets that the nonprofit operates on behalf of homeless kids.

Success stories like Templeton’s and Parker’s do happen, said Daniel Frederick, who heads up street outreach for the faith-based organization. But breaking the often multi-generational cycles that put teens at risk remains an uphill battle.

Frederick likens it to a kettle of boiling lobsters.

“If one tries climbing out, the others will pull it back down,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of kids do well for a while and fall back in.

“What are we going to do but embrace them again?”

This story has been changed. Kris Templeton is not an official volunteer with StandUP for Kids, and Michael Parker did not leave home because his father abused him, as the story originally read.