Shelters may be last option for some teens in foster care

The Clark County Department of Family Services is tasked with finding suitable foster families and homes for the children in its care.

But some older foster children are being sent to local shelters for homeless youths, with the department's blessing.

The shelters say they sometimes become the last option for area foster teens for whom traditional foster homes just aren't working.

"They try to do it (place kids there) all the time," said Kathleen Boutin, director and founder of Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. "A shelter or an institution is not really the best place for a kid to live."

Family Services defended the practice of placing some teenage foster kids in shelters as part of the department's independent living program, saying it gives the youngsters a chance to prove whether they're ready to live on their own.

"To the public it seems strange you would have youth in foster care in shelters designed for homeless youth," said Judy Tudor, a Family Services manager. But "it gives them the opportunity to experience that (living on their own) and see if they can do it."

Tudor said housing options for older foster children are especially limited, and acknowledged that the teens sent to local shelters have sometimes exhausted other alternatives.

"It does happen that this child has been in every foster home you can think of and it's not working," she said. "That's sometimes when you say, OK, let's see how you do" in a shelter.

One of those youths is 16-year-old Ronnie Chwasz, a Green Valley High School student who recently moved into a Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth condo that he shares with another boy.

Chwasz has been in and out of foster care since he was 2 years old. He has moved 11 times in 14 years.

His foster care placements haven't worked out for various reasons, he said. Sometimes, his personality clashed with the foster family. Other times, the family decided to no longer house foster children or lost its license to do so.

Chwasz admitted he may have sometimes contributed to the problem, saying he probably has "authority issues."

"Maybe it's me," he said. "I have a problem with someone trying to play the role of my mom, because you are not my mom. A lot of people have tried to put the way they lived on me."

Despite the frequent turmoil in his home life, he is a good student who will be a senior this fall. He is active in the school's choir and will perform in a production of "High School Musical 2" at Green Valley this summer.

"I really started getting into the arts; it was the only way out of crap," he said.

Chwasz works part-time and doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs, he said.

He sometimes had a difficult time following the rules of foster parents, he said, because, "I just kind of wanted to live my life."

That's why a spot at Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth is perfect for him, he said.

"I'm basically independent," he said. "I practice now what I'd do in real life. I do my laundry twice a week. I sweep and mop every Sunday. I don't make my bed."

Boutin said that although a healthy family environment is best for youths in foster care, Family Services did the best it could in handling Chwasz's case.

"I think they really wanted him to be in a loving, stable environment, and really wanted what was best for him," she said. "They try to get kids the best placement they can."

Instead of paying foster parents nearly $800 a month to care for a child 15 or older, Family Services directly pays the teen who is living on his or her own. The youth may then negotiate rental payments with landlords or shelter administrators.

Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth's own independent living program, which can house up to 16 youths at a time, doesn't ask for any of the money, Boutin said.

But the Center for Independent Living, a downtown shelter for homeless youth, usually asks foster teens for about $500 a month in rent.

Kelly Robson, program director for the center, said the shelter "gets a lot of phone calls" from Family Services hoping to place teens there.

"A lot of times, we are their only option," she said. "We're told point blank, 'I have no place to put this kid.'"

Robson said the center accepts the Family Services referrals whenever it has space available, even though she has some hesitation about youths who haven't been able to make it in traditional foster care.

"My first question is, what happened that they couldn't make it in a family?" she said. But "my philosophy is if I have an open bed and I think we can help this kid, it doesn't matter what source they're coming from. Everybody deserves a chance."

The center houses about 40 youths at a time.

Tudor said that only a handful of local foster teens at a time are living in a homeless shelter.

They are part of Family Services' independent living program, which helps youths 15 and older prepare for life on their own. Those who can't make it in a traditional foster home and prove they are responsible enough to handle being more independent are allowed to move into an apartment or other housing.

"Sometimes they (the youths) are so headstrong on doing that if we don't give them an option, they'll run away and end up homeless on the street," Tudor said. "This lets them have the experience of living on their own and, if it doesn't work out, still have somewhere else to go."

When teens don't succeed in an independent living program, Family Services must go back to the drawing board, Tudor said.

"You really have to see what you can come up with. What can we do? Where is it going to work? We don't let kids go until they're 18."

That means case workers are sometimes forced to try yet another foster home or group home and hope for the best.

But Chwasz has every intention of succeeding at Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. Living there allows him to focus on school and his future, he said.

That future includes plans to go to college and study law, though his passion is for the arts and entertainment.

"I don't want to deal with another thing that fails," Ronnie said about his plans to pursue a more secure career field. "I've dealt with enough failure and disappointment in my life."

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.