OKLAHOMA CITY - A state Senate panel on Thursday discussed ways to help homeless youths become successful adults.
"Being homeless sucks. Excuse my language, but it does," said Jessica Mitchell, who lived in a car with her mother before she was helped onto the right path by Youth Services of Tulsa.
Mitchell, who now works for the agency, said it helped her get an apartment. She obtained her GED and a bachelor's degree from Oral Roberts University.
"Living in other peoples' houses is bad," said Mitchell, 28. "Sometimes, living in your car was better."
Mitchell and her mother wound up at a shelter before she learned of the resources available at Youth Services, she said.
Robert Reed, 19, is receiving assistance from the agency after he aged out of foster care.
He lived in about 30 foster homes after he was taken away from his mother when he was 2 months old, he said.
Reed was homeless after he left the foster-care system, he said.
The Department of Human Services needs more options for young adults who age out of the system, he said.
"For a lot of these kids, there is no safety net," Mitchell said.
Once she began receiving help from Youth Services, Mitchell said she had to learn how to break out of survival mode and to trust people.
Homeless people, particularly women, are preyed upon and are vulnerable, she said.
Mitchell said a lot of the kids she now works with were homeless or aged out of foster care and do not have identification.
"If you don't have an ID, you can't do anything," she said.
Youth Services of Tulsa tries to assist young adults with obtaining birth certificates and Social Security cards, said Jim Walker, the agency's executive director.
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee held the interim study hearing at the request of Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie.
She said the goal of the study is not to expand the role of government but to find ways to remove barriers that prevent children from excelling as adults.
As many as 400 teenagers each year age out of state custody, Griffin said.
"The most intrusive act government does is to remove a child from a home and family," she said, adding that the state doesn't have millions of dollars to throw at the problem.
But "we owe these children something," she said. "We have intruded upon their lives."
Barbara Hoberock 405-528-2465
barbara.hoberock@tulsaworld.com
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