Act would be a big helpto area's homeless youths

Compiling a list of the truly effective methods of helping homeless youths in Washington state is about as frustrating as making a nightly head count of how many children lack shelter.

The difference, sadly, is that the first list is much, much shorter than the second.

But there's hope in a strategy born of one counselor's street-level experience with the admittedly exasperating-to-reach population. It has great potential to lengthen the first list, of solutions, and in doing so, shorten the count of homeless youths.

Judging by its lightning-quick progress through the cumbersome Olympia machinery, the HOPE Act (Homeless Youth Prevention/Protection and Education) is tantalizingly close to approval by the full Legislature.

After a unanimous vote in the Senate, which agreed to $4.1 million in funding over the next biennium, the legislation (SB5557) next faces the House Appropriations Committee and then the full chamber.

Elected officials cannot help but see the plan for what it is -- a well-thought-out supplement to the Becca Bill, which was created to help return runaways to competent, loving parents.

What the Becca Bill did not do, however, was seriously address the plight of homeless youths who were no longer being parented by one or two adults but by the state -- in other words, it didn't offer much to dependent children.

The HOPE Act would serve these teens, particularly 16- and 17-year-olds, who, because of failed foster care placements, scarcity of resources or other reasons, live -- often dangerously -- on the streets.

Besides lacking a roof over their heads, the teens, who number about 2,000 in King County, are more vulnerable to crime. Surveys show at least 39 percent of them have been victims of robbery, and 31 percent have visited an emergency room because of assault, rape or other urgent health need.

As the legislation now stands, the Department of Social and Health Services would license 150 shelter beds, half for short-term crisis residential services and half for long-term residential programs.

The teens would come voluntarily to the HOPE Centers; parents would be notified and the youth returned home unless he or she was already a ward of the state, or dependency was an issue.

In relatively short order, the youth would be linked with education, counseling and self-development programs, all geared to help him or her become self-sufficient.

What speaks eloquently for the HOPE Act is its bubble-up, not manage-down approach. Drawing from past experience as associate clinical programs director at YouthCare in Seattle, Jim Theofelis developed what appears to be a realistic, little-frills strategy. Then he refined it with the support of groups like the Children's Alliance and Washington State Coalition for the Homeless.

Theofelis and the groups that endorse the HOPE Act have walked the streets with these youths. They know that while some don't want to come in from the cold, others yearn for a better life. If their own parents aren't able or don't want to be responsible for them, the state has an obligation to their surrogate parents until they turn 18.