Holidays difficult for homeless teens

By Becky Bosshart

Published Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 | midnight

Updated Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 | 2:16 p.m.

For Las Vegas Valley teens without a home, holidays just reinforce the pit-of-the-stomach feeling that comes with any other day that has no security and no prospects for the future. Homeless teens spend their days roaming the Strip begging or searching slot machines for credits left behind. Life is dangerous and fraught with emotional hardships.

The holidays feel even worse, because these are the times when the dinner table is something to gather around and they have no table and no family, said Nicole Carrothers, 18. Last year she ran away from her adoptive mother in Hemet, Calif.

The teen took a Greyhound bus to Las Vegas to meet a friend. She ended up in an even more uncertain situation by Thanksgiving.

"I had a dinner, but I'm in jail," she said. "I'm not out with family."

After a few days roaming the Strip without sleep, she was arrested by undercover vice officers on pandering charges. Carrothers spent Thanksgiving in the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center. Then Christmas in a foster home.

Carrothers was charged with giving false information to police and she was put on probation for seven months. It didn't seem like it at the time, but it saved her from a life on the streets, she said.

Carrothers had a few shaky moments, but she got off the streets with help. The Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth independent living program put her in a rent-free Henderson apartment. She may stay until she's 21 as long as she is going to school or working, receiving counseling and observing a curfew.

She plans to attend the College of Southern Nevada in January and has started going to the Word of Life Christian Center in Las Vegas.

"I want to take dance, film-making and child care development classes. One day I hope to open up my own dance studio for kids," she said.

Carrothers is turning her life around, but there are more teens on the streets who need help, officials say.

Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth is helping twice as many homeless teens this year as last year, Executive Director Matt Hirsch said. In November, the drop-in center helped almost 500 teens with bus passes, food vouchers and hygiene products, double last November. As many as 50 teens a month are new clients, meaning they have recently ended up the streets or are new to the area, he said.

"The numbers of homeless youth have gone up substantially," Hirsch said.

It's getting worse and the economy is mostly responsible, said Susan Goldman, project facilitator for Title 1 Hope, a Clark County School District student support program.

"The numbers are increasing tremendously because of the high cost of living and the loss of jobs," she said.

Last year, the School District registered 4,800 kindergarten through high school students living in transitory housing, in cars, parks or with relatives. Just since the start of the school year in September, more than 3,500 have been registered, Goldman said.

Many homeless youth struggle with emotional issues, said Marcia Wiegand, Street Teens coordinator. She sees how the streets affect teens, especially during the holidays. Tough teen boys eagerly reach and hug the stuffed animals she buys them for Christmas.

"They're lonely," she said. "One of the biggest things they are missing is the consistency of a family. The warmth. The belonging."

Carrothers said she longs to belong, and she's found ways to make it happen. She is surrounded by friends who are also in her program. She spent Thanksgiving at a special dinner for homeless youth.

"In time you just have to grow up," she said. "You don't always have to be with family. You can be with friends."

She keeps in touch with some members of her adoptive family. When asked what she would be doing for Christmas, Carrothers smiled wide. She's flying to Boston to spend Christmas with her adoptive aunt and cousins. They are her new family.

Becky Bosshart can be reached at 990-7748 or [email protected].