Carla Houser seems so comfortable, so enthralled with carrying out her new mission with homeless youth that it comes as no surprise: She’s now giving back. Houser left home and was on the street at 19, finding her own way back through understanding teachers, coaches and other adults.
Youth are resilient, she said, and preserving that sense of hope is a primary aim of Residential Youth Services and Empowerment (RYSE Hawaii).
“I can count on two hands the people who either had a parent incarcerated their entire lives or a parent who was murdered or killed. The things that would make you or I curl up into a little ball and cry for a week, they just pick themselves up and keep going,” said Houser, 43.
Now married with a master’s in social work from the University of Hawaii and an undergraduate degree in sociology from UCLA, her work is centered on this complex of 20 rooms in Kailua. Though privately funded and run, RYSE was given a site in the pastoral setting around the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility.
And yes, the Maryland native’s relationship with her mother is more than healed. Mom is the biggest fan of RYSE, helping volunteers paint it, sewing curtains, sending care packages.
Houser, who most recently served as program manager for the Youth Outreach Drop In Center (YO!) in Waikiki, is now executive director of RYSE Hawaii; most people know the Kailua center by its acronym, which matches its optimistic, freedom-to-dream philosophy.
It’s a residential center for young adults 18-24 but serves all teens on a drop-in basis, closing at 8 p.m. nightly to all but the 10 men and 10 women who live there (a plan to add 10 more beds is underway). Unaccompanied younger teens cannot stay overnight, due to laws on parental and guardian rights.
Houser would like to see a law change to make the homeless under-18 group eligible to stay.
“Hawaii needs to catch up,” she said. “We still arrest minors for status offenses … all we do is stack the deck against them.”
Question: What was the unmet need that prompted the formation of RYSE Hawaii?
Answer: Friends of Youth Outreach Hawai‘i Foundation was established in December of 2015, as the founders were longtime volunteers and supporters of the YO! House in Waikiki.
In just two years the founders pulled together a board and generated tremendous financial support of many individuals and corporate donors to champion the cause of providing a safe place for kids to sleep when the drop-in center closed. …
In 2017, (the) foundation adopted the trade name Residential Youth Services and Empowerment or RYSE to reflect its readiness to execute the mission and in June 2018, RYSE opened a 20-bed housing program as part of the Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center in Kailua.
Q: What were your costs and funding sources, to cover both the startup and operations?
A: In the short time since its creation, the organization has raised almost $1 million, and most of that revenue has been generated through our annual fundraising events. RYSE is also generously supported by the Castle Foundation, Aloha United Way, the City and County of Honolulu through the grant-in-aid process, as well as by a number of faith-based and civic organizations.
RYSE has also established an endowment at the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the goal is to grow the endowment to a $5 million principal, with interest from the fund to be used for operations.
The maintenance and renovations to the Kailua center were covered by the state and the Office of Youth Services.
Q: Your clients have to be in the 18-24 age range. What do you do for younger homeless teens? Is there any way they can find shelter if they’re unaccompanied?
A: We will offer a sandwich and bottle of water to anyone in need on the streets. The “gate keepers” are often our best lead on what’s happening on the streets and also help keep our outreach teams safe at night.
We serve all youth up to the age of 24. Many of the minor youth we encounter are part of a homeless family. The script is usually the same — the adults have their own battles to fight with substance abuse or lack of employment and the kids are left to fend for themselves.
As time goes by, the kids outgrow the encampment space and are forced or choose to be out on their own and have to form their own hui for survival.
You have only a few choices if you’re a homeless unaccompanied minor: enter the youth emergency shelter where you will be reunited with a family member or connected with a foster family or stay on the streets undetected until your 18th birthday. Some youth see the streets as a safer option.
The drop-in centers at RYSE and YO can provide a few hours of respite and fulfill some of the basic needs like food and clothing, but when drop-in hours are over, the housing options for a minor are pretty grim.
Q: Please describe the basic philosophy or approach behind the “empowerment” model. What are you trying to achieve with the kids?
A: I’ve never met a bad kid or one not worthy of some kindness and a little TLC. We pride ourselves on our low-barrier approach.
The longer a youth is homeless, the more they acculturate to street life. They come to accept the risks of abuse and exploitation as a normal part of life.
At RYSE, it’s important for us that they don’t lose hope, or feel that they cannot dream or set goals for themselves. All of our interactions with the youth are intended to be driven by their own self-determination and developmentally appropriate. They are going to fail as most teenagers and young adults do. What’s most important to us is that they keep trying.
Staffers build relationships by interacting with youth in an honest, dependable, authentic, caring and supportive way. We build on the youth’s strengths and insist that they have a regular seat at the table when discussing issues that are important to them.
Q: What are the stages through which the clients progress in your program? Are there enforcement tools for keeping them on track?
A: Our housing program is a two-tiered approach. The first level provides a low-barrier entry point for youth who are still “street entrenched” and are not ready to engage in the full range of services we offer. For these youth we offer a hot shower, a meal and a safe place to sleep for the night. These youth are given time and space to acclimate to a life off the streets.
The second level is for youth who are working to change the course of their lives through employment, education opportunities or treatment. These youth get their own private room and build on independent living skills that create greater stability in their lives and leads to self sufficiency.
We’re not here to tell kids what to do. We purposefully don’t have a lot of rules at RYSE. If you break a rule, then there has to be a consequence. I prefer to have conversations. Young people like to feel like they’re part of the process.
When we empower them with the knowledge of why we do things the way we do, we get buy-in.
Q: What support systems in the government and community that would help your young adults?
A: Nationally, youth are the fastest-growing subpopulation to experience homelessness. With Hawaii’s extraordinarily high cost of living, it gets really tough for our young adults to make it without additional support.
The homeless youth provider community has taken several practical steps towards adapting a coordinated entry system and rapid re-housing program for youth homelessness.
We still desperately need more transitional and permanent supportive housing vouchers for those youth who need more than just a brief rental subsidy.
We are also looking at additional community partnerships to address the lack of adolescent specific behavioral health and substance abuse treatment services offered on Oahu.
Through the Housing First for Youth approach, the key goal is not simply to be independently housed, but to be supported through a successful transition to independence and well-being. This includes housing support, health and well-being, access to income and education, social inclusion and community integration.
