san jose and santa clara county have the 7th largest homeless population in the country. we've seen the sad reality of homeless veterans and people who are mentally ill. but a lesser-known population also exists here. homeless young people. we'll look at the problem and solutions on this edition of equal time. hello and welcome to the campus of san jose state in this edition of equal time. i'm your host, journalism school director bob rucker. it is obvious just by taking a walk through downtown san jose

that the city has a homeless problem. but what people may not know is just how many young people and children are sleeping on the streets of san jose on a nightly basis david taub shows us the magnitude of this issue, some of the factors that contribute to youth homelessness and the dangers facing young people who are living on the streets. you can see people day and night doing their best to survive on the streets of san jose. and on any given night there are more than 7-thousand people sleeping in shelters and on the streets, according to the annual homeless assessment report from the u.s. department of housing and urban development, or hud. what people are less aware of is that san jose has the highest percentage of unsheltered homeless youth in the country. according to the annual homelessness there are 1,137 unaccompanied homeless youth and children in san jose

and 92.9 percent of them are sleeping on the streets, under an over pass or in places like this... st. james park. dwayne reed first got to san jose when he was 19. he was one of those kids. i just thought i'd stay here and i didn't have no place to sleep, i didn't know the area and some guy i met on the streets said if you want a nice place to sleep where no body will bother you he said i can take you there but we're gonna have to travel. i didn't know he was gonna take me up on a dirt hill in a half completed freeway enclosure and this is where i slept. reed, like so many other young people on the streets today, fled an emotionally abusive situation at home which originally caused his homelessness. and after we talked to some young people on the streets, it became clear that abusive situations at home and how they were raised are recurring themes in causing their homelessness. i think my first answer would be the parents the choices they

make while they're growing up reflects on the child child abuse was a big factor growing up oh there are many factors ahh the first factor of course is trauma at home. young homeless people face the same dangers on the streets as adults. drugs, assault, disease and the cold. however their age and lack of experience only exacerbates these dangers. what type of things would a 19 year old, 20 year old kid be exposed to out here by the other people drugs, alcohol, sex? drugs alcohol back in that day in 97 there was a lot of, a lot of teen prostitution. according to the national center on family homelessness, 92 percent of homeless women have experienced severe physical and/or sexual assault. young women are at an even bigger risk of becoming victims and are easy targets for sexual predators. with the community that are the homeless community that are on drugs are you know most of them are men. women face rape, women face harassment, they face you know being vandalized you know they face

you know everything that a women does, is endangered with even if she's not homeless but 10 times more now. why does san jose have such a large youth homeless population? the answers range from location, to the weather, to the economic opportunities here in silicon valley . the economy here, also the environment, its a great location to set up all types of encampments. according to zillow.com, the average cost for a 1-bedroom apartment in san jose is $2130 a month. the city technically has rent control but it applies only to properties that were built and occupied before 1979. case manager at the bill wilson center veronica haddix says that the huge cost of housing is one of the biggest factors in contributing to young people sleeping in a tent or in their cars. i really think the tech industry has driven up housing cost so much in this area that even if someone wants

to get a studio apartment at 16, 17 hundred dollars, 18 hundred dollars, 2 thousand dollars a month its not affordable for them. it's harder to spot young homeless people in downtown san jose than homeless adults. because of their young age they able to blend in to the society around them. also many of the young people have left the downtown area for more secluded spots around the city . in hidden areas, definitely extremely hidden areas. i think it has to do with um us still being young and having that kind of mentality that imagination of you know and the smarts of ok if you're gonna be homeless what are ways to prevent you know from you getting kicked out or cited or something from your cite so we tend to congregate in places where you probably will not see us. when we come back we will take a look at a group whose goal is to help the homeless youth population of san jose and what everyday residents can do

to help our invisible neighbors. [music] welcome back, we've seen just how young people are going unsheltered from night to night in san jose and some of the threats they have to deal with. david taub takes a closer look at the bill wilson center and what the organization is doing to help the people that need it the most. young people end up on the streets for a number of different reasons, whether they are fleeing a dangerous situation at home or are kids that have aged out of the foster care system and have no one to turn to for help. that's where places like the bill wilson center in san jose come in to offer helping hand to our most vulnerable citizen. we're here to serve them ah to provide

like i said a safe place for them. the annual report on homelessness does not count children that are part of the homeless family unit as quote-unquote homeless youth. because of that its hard to know how many children are living on street of san jose. the good news for homeless young people and children in san jose is that there is places like the bill wilson center which offer programs ranging everywhere from transitional housing to mental health services to education and job training. program director montez davis explains more. so we have a job developer here that works with many organizations as well as companies to provide jobs for our clients, we have case management here ah to work on their case management skills. the number of homeless children and youth here in san jose is staggering but hopefully with the help of places like bill watson center we can begin to help young people turn their life's around and become success story. one thing that montez davis stressed was that we have to keep giving these young people hope. and through that hope we can help young people get their

lives back and achieve their dreams one day. what is all about is providing hope, you know when you're in a place where you're feeling hopeless, yes living in a tent is acceptable. we citizen can also step up and help our invisible neighbors. how can you get involved, i think it goes back to the housing cost and talking to the right individuals and our , our leaders, our city leaders and our county leaders and letting them know this really is an issue for us and its unacceptable. young homeless people still have dreams and through the hope that the bill wilson center is providing hopefully they can achieve those dreams. i want to become a counselor. according to the department of housing and urban development, san jose was able to reduce its homeless youth population from 2013 to 2014. and hopefully through 2015 we can see this become a trend.but there is still a long way to go. in san jose, david taub reporting. when we come back we will sit down with couple of experts to discuss the issue of youth homelessness and talk with a man

who was homeless for the first time in san jose when he was 19 years old. stay with us. [music] bob rucker: welcome back, to this edition of equal time, from the school of journalism and mass communications at san jose state. our focus today is on homelessness, with a specific focus on youth homeless, here in san jose. let's meet our guests. dwayne reed: hi. my name is dwayne reed and i am a member of the downtown street team, based out here in san jose, california. marianna moles: i am marianna moles, the communications and outreach specialist for downtown streets team. montez davis: i am montez davis, program manager for the bill wilson center adopted center. david taub: and i am david taub and i am the correspondent on this story. bob: i wanna thank all of you for being here. this is a topic, everyone in the valley,

everyone in the bay area knows about but we've never really focused on the team aspect of it. so i'm gonna ask you to start going and talk a little bit about your personal experience, being on the street. dwayne: i was..i got homeless when i was 18 and um, and my..my fam..my dad and i did not get along, so he threw me out. and none of my family would take me in and it was..i didn't knew anything about being homeless. so it was a hard experience for me. and along the way, i fell into drugs and alcohol and um, i was, i was raped. bob: you were raped? dwayne: i was raped when i was in my first year of being homeless. and um, it was an experience i didn't know how to handle. and that made me drink and do drugs more. and i carried that with me for many years. it took me a long..it took me almost 20 years to come to grip with that. you know, even when i got off the streets, even when i, you know, even..even after i got off, you know,

and went back repeatedly being homeless. that's.. it took me 20 years to get through that trauma. you know, and a lot of teens on the streets here, they deal with similar trauma. somethings worse than that. and a lot of them don't have no outlet for someone to tell that to. lot of them.. i've talked to a lot of the..the homeless teens here. lot of them..majority of them say, they want someone to give a damn they care, about what they're going through. bob: montez was saying something similar. you can relate to what he was saying? montez: yes. because at bill wilson center, at my adopted center um, we see that all the time. and he is absolutely right. it is the trauma and what these kids are looking for, is hope. so many people say they are hopeless. but they are not hopeless. they need hope. and that's what we do. we at bill wilson center try to provide a hope for..for these young people because its so needed. so many people walk away. they say well, can i have a dollar.

but its not just about the dollar, is about that personal interaction with people. because its so.. its so important to them, because they lose so much. like he said, they are away from their family. they don't have that constant parent, telling them to do the right things. because i always say, there's no such thing as a bad kid. sometimes there's some bad parents out there and that is where the issues that we have with our homeless kids. bob: when you say there are bad parents out there, i'm sure there are people out there saying, is that fair now? not..not always is the problem, the parents. sometimes its simply the individual, the youth. marianna: oh. yeah sure. so we..most of our team members are..um..well they are all above 18 years old. but they do have past um like he talked about. and um, many of them, many of them are parents who have made mistakes. and in turn have lost touch with their kids. and one of the things we do at downtown streets teen, if they, you know, if there's a way, we will find a way to reunite them with their kids.

but it is, it is complicated. and they've made mistakes. but that's what downtown streets and the team is about. its that, you know we believe in second and third and ten chances. as many chances as it takes, to get back on your feet and you know, get back to where you are, no matter what your past is. bob: now i'm gonna wonder out loud for a second and say, the public listening to this say, so you give them so many opportunities to do that. is that part of the problem though that they know they have more opportunities to mess up? marianna: do you wanna speak to that or? dwayne: i don't..i don't necessarily.well i don't necessarily agree with that. because yes, there are some.. there are some teenagers, just like there are some homeless people in the city, there [not clear]. they just..they wanna dropout, hang out. do what they want to do. same thing with some of the homeless teens. but that gets.. but those get overshadowed, by the ones that actually really wanna get off the street. actually looking for someone that care. someone that, you know, they talk to.

lot of the homeless teens are here on the street. they want someone to talk to. someone that genuinely wants to help them without there being some kind of ulterior motive underneath. and, you know, the bill wilson center, you know, they're, they're at the forefront of that. you know, but we need other organizations to step up, you know, to step up and care about these kids because we can't..in this..in this area we can't keep doing away people, undesirables. we can't keep doing it. we have a lot of children on the street, who the society has already deemed undesirable. you know, that we need to care about. bob: now david, you are a student in our program. why were you interested in doing this. david: well i..i have always been interested in..in homelessness. i've always thought that, you know, we grow up, always hearing that america is the best country in the world. and if we all want to believe that, i feel, that we should be able to house and feed our people. and especially our young people.

and san jose being the number one city in the country with the highest rate of unsheltered homeless youth in the country. i'm..i'm wondering; why san jose? why not san francisco? why not los angeles? why not new york city?what is it about san jose in the silicon valley that attracts so many young homeless people and then why is it an issue that silicon valley is dealing with specifically youth homelessness being so high? i..i just..i..i..i'm looking for answers. why is it.. why is it us? marianna: well most people don't know that, san jose is in the top five for homelessness in the country whereas.. bob: top five? marianna: top five.. bob: that is amazing. marianna: that was los angeles, new york city and seattle. david: los angeles, new york city, san francisco, seattle. marianna: sanfrancisco is actually in top 10. so most people think, they have more homeless than we do because they are more visible. you know, in san jose they have a lot of creeks and parks to hide out in. but yeah, we have far more homeless than san francisco does. montez: but its also about the resources.

we have the resources. i get kids that fly.. they're coming from, from kentucky, from washington dc, from all over the country. and they web..they go onto the web, they research and they find all the resources here. like downtown street team, like the bill wilson center, that specialize in working with young youth. so yes they come to this area. and i just wanna go by, kids do need that fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth and seventh chance, because they lack the foundation. if you don't have a foundation, there are kids who don't even know how to wash clothes. why? because they never had an opportunity to learn how to even wash clothes. so they need that constant reminder, that constant opportunity for chance, for change in their life. that's what we are here for. marinanna: that's exactly what we do too. because we find that if we don't judge and we just welcome them back to our team each time, we've seen miracles happen, where people come back and they do a complete 180 with their life. bob: when you say miracles, you mean they literally turn things around, look for job

or finally get attached to a home or.. marinanna: yeah. we had one guy um, michael davis, who became quite recognizable in the community. um, he called himself a sick puppy because he was the kind of guy, he said, you didn't want to run into me on the street. he was in palo alto and he had this nickname with the um, police department. they are called 38..they call 'em 3850, because he would panhandle to get his 3850 to put his wife up in a hotel every night. and then he would go, you know, deal his drugs and do all this other bad stuff and then he actually came to one of our meetings to get out of the rain and he was looking to just get something from us. and he ended up say, you know, thinking, wow, they really want to help me and he became one of our spokespeople basically. and he, yeah he totally turned his life around. bob: that's fascinating. marinanna: yeah. david: i think it's really important that the chances are always there. you know, i..i don't think that there are being a lot of chances, deters people from changing. i think, you.. you know, people are gonna change when they want to.

bob: right. david: and no one is going to make them change. and as long as you guys, like i was at your meeting um, yesterday and you guys at the bill wilson center giving these chances, hopefully, i mean i'm..i'm thinking in my head, hopefully the..the idea is, they'll get it at some point. maybe it might take them 5 chances, maybe it'll take them 6 chances. but maybe that sixth chance is the one that they get it on. bob: how young are we talking in terms of the youth that are on the street? dwayne: i've..i've seen, i know from my experience these teenagers on the street right now, they are 15, 14, 16, you know. i..i mean, i..i seen..i remember seeing a girl that was 12 years old, pregnant. her home was on the street, you know, at the light rail. didn't know, how to get around in the.. where to go. that's heartbreaking to see that you know. i mean because, you know, i am 39 years old and when i see that..that, it makes me feel you know what if that was my daughter, my son, out there, break my heart.

you know, to see them out there, right there. and we don't.. and you know, and it's so quick to..to judge, but you don't know a person's circumstances. why these kids are out there. somebody's like you know, like we've already spoken up. some of these kids just, they..they didn't want to be at home. home is hard, you know. some just, you know, they've been abused, they you know, their parents are..are substance abuse..they just don't want to be there. we don't know the circumstances. so, yeah, the most important thing, we can not judge. we need to do just have a open mind, open heart and be willing, that's the most..that's the other most important thing to me, willing to help these teens, you know, and to genuinely help them to..to figure out why are they homeless and how do we get them off the street and..and equip them with the resources that they need so they will stay off the streets. bob: we know, many may come here because the silicon valley, you know, attracts a lot of people, certainly lot of business, a lot of money. montez, you think it might be that silicon valley is not doing enough because many

in the silicon valley say they are doing outreach, they are trying to help, but what would you say about what more they could do? montez: i mean silicon valley is doing a lot. i know the mayor's gang task force is very much involved in the home.. homelessness. the city itself has taken up a stand in saying that you know what, we want to help. but it is going to take more because you know, you know the old saying, it takes a village to raise a child. well guess what. san jose is that village and its going to take all of us to help these kids out there and to get..to establish that foundation for these children. bob: now that sounds good and i tend to agree with you on that but let's break it down for people who would say, "now wait a minute. how do i approach a young person on the street? how do i do that without looking like i'm gonna cause harm? how do i do that? because i don't know how the help, i don't know the questions i ask. what's the best way for the average person to address that? how would you recommend we do that? dwayne: i..you know because i..sometimes i go to the market, i see someone, you know, outside that may panhandle and things

like that and you know, what i do is, you know, i..i try to just really try to get down to the [not clear] just really try to just talk to them, get a report. [not clear] as you know..you know, what..you know, why are you [not clear]. you want something to eat? i can get you in.. that kind of opens up the door for them talk. because a lot of them, they are really, you know, a lot of them generally they..they do..they just, you know, they wanna eat but they just, you know, they just don't wanna go in because the way they look or what not. but you know, just, you know, take some time out to just talk to them because a lot of them are very very smart, very very bright, very intelligent, very well-spoken and like i said before a lot of them just wants to want to just take 15 minutes out of time, to just sit down, talk to them. because when you especially with youth, when you talk to them and you..and you and they see..they see that you really genuinely want to talk to them, they will open up, in that, they'll tear down those walls and they'll be more receptive to just, be trusting more,

they'll open up and that makes it easier for people to, you know, they have those resources available to help them you know, and you know, because, its like this is silicon valley. it seems like everybody here is..is in a hurry. they have a heart attack. you know, always going, always on the run. and my mom always told me, you know, if god put someone in your place, to talk to them, do it. because you never know who that per..you never know that person you could be talking to for five minutes could be someone that you could saved their life in that five minute time frame that you set aside. david: yeah bob: go ahead. montez: even if you don't feel comfortable, there's always other things you can do. you can call the city hotline for the homeless and we will-they will deploy an outreach team. i know the bill wilson center we have an outreach team, so as soon as we get that dispatch we are on our way to engage with those kids. another way is to just support organizations such as ourselves because that will give us more resources to go out

and reach those kids as well. bob: very good. david, you were going to say? david: well, i think both of what you guys just said is a huge part because when i'm in san jose and i'm walking home i go right behind grace baptist church to go home and, you know, i'm sure we know there's a homeless community back there. and i think the value of just engagement is huge. like, these are people, they want to be talked to. i think of how society deals with it as like our invisible neighbors. we know, we pass by so many people in the streets without even looking in their direction and so many of these people just want somebody to say "hi" to them. ask them how they're doing, "how's your day?" i mean, you're a human being-the value of just communication, human communication, human interaction, is something that is invaluable, i think. bob: and you don't need technology to do it. david: you don't need technology. bob: just talk to them as human beings. david: how are you? marianna: that is the number one thing our team members tell us that you can do for somebody who is on the streets.

you can acknowledge them, say "hello," look them in the eye. something we do as staff is we hand out our resource card that has our team meetings on it and they say-we tell them, "go to this meeting, they'll help you find a job, you have to go to the meeting." and, i mean, that's a big step, go into that meeting, because you don't know who is going to be there, you don't know what to expect-you know, it's huge! bob: i think that's what the public wants; not only give them a helping hand for the moment, but also a future, some opportunity for a job, some sort of sense of purpose in life. but i want to go back to my student friend here. [david laughter] bob: on the college campus, during the spring semester, we were hearing news stories about san jose state homeless, and san jose state students not getting along very well-some issues there. david: right. bob: what about that? david: i think students here, i mean, they see homeless people on the campus. that's a fact of daily life at san jose state. but i don't know if a lot of students are very well-equipped for interacting. i think a lot of students are scared, a lot of students are put off automatically by just the idea

and stereotype of "he's a homeless person and..." bob: we don't know how to deal with that. david: right. bob: right. david: so i think students should be- marianna: and often you don't know either. david: right. and students should be more aware. i think, i think there's very small minority of homeless people that want to cause you harm. and i think if we open our hearts a little bit more we can start to learn and educate ourselves a little bit more about the people that are in our community. bob: so a lot of it is fear of the unknown. david: i think so. bob: you don't know what you're encountering. david: i think so. bob: very good. marianna: i think, too, we are-we've just started, i guess, surveying college students to see who is homeless in college. and, since i started working at downtown streets team, i've had a couple of people i went to college with here at san jose state who messaged me privately to say, "hey, i'm about to get evicted, what do i do?" i've had one girl who i was friends with, and i was in class with, who told me she was homeless

when she was in college. i had no idea! david: mmhm. marianna: she was living in her car and it took her five years to come out and tell me that, but it took-because i was working with that population, so it was a safe place. bob: and that is a sad reality. i've been on this campus at san jose state for 21 years and i've had students in my class who were scrimping and saving and trying to get through school and they were living in their car. they were homeless. and they would reveal those stories to us personally but they didn't want it to be well-known to the classes so we don't talk about it. maybe there's something else we can do, maybe, to get people to talk about it on a campus, or in a community setting. how do you get people to talk, to come together and talk about it? montez: well, i think right now, what you're doing right now today, right now, is something that should be done all the time-a discussion. you asked a question, "why do you think homeless people come to san jose state? why do they do that?" it's because they want that interaction. it's around people-diversity!

being able to say hello, they're looking for that personal interaction. and what a better place can you get that, here at an university. why not? if i was in their case, why wouldn't i come here to san jose state and be out here trying to mingle with the people, as you say. bob: you're youth- montez: you're youth! bob: so you are young people, very intelligent young people, you want to connect wit them. but the other side of the coin, i'm sure the administration would want me to say, "yes, but how do we control that or at least maintain safety?" because, again, we have a responsibility as administrators to make sure that the students are safe, as well as any visitor. so how do we do that and not cross a line of making it, "get out." dwayne: i think the university is doing a fantastic job, you know, because i know personally a lot of homeless individuals that do, you know, go in this campus and they've never had any negative interaction with the students or the campus police. the campus police they're very-you know,

i remember when i was being homeless, walking on the campus and, you know, had to sleep on the campus because i didn't' have no place to sleep bob: i encourage you all to keep what you're doing up and helping the youth that are diso-that are homeless-because somebody has to care. and part of that is our responsibility as well. marianna: yes. bob: thank you, thank you very much. marianna: thank you for having us. bob: thank you for joining us. please come back for another edition of equal time.

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