Why 1,500 Kids Are Homeless in St. Louis: CEO Explains Hidden Youth Crisis

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:00:00] They tend to connect with other kids who are on the streets, and they help them kind of learn the ropes. You know, here may be somewhere that you could go that would be safe, or you should avoid this. And so there is some comradery among young people who are in that situation. They're really just thinking about like, what's my next move? How can I get some food? How can I get clean clothes? And things like that. So it's a lot of energy spent on keeping yourself safe, getting the physical things you need to just survive the next day. So it's a very much in the moment type of mindset. You're not thinking about school, you're not thinking about dreams for the future.

Vance Crowe [00:00:36] I'm Tim Bickett, a grain and cattle risk management advisor from Worthington, Minnesota, and you are listening to the Vans Crow podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you're here. Today we sit down with Pat Halterman, homes of the Youth in Need Organization. Youth in need helps at risk youth get the resources they need, oftentimes kids that are unhoused or living in between places. This is a really interesting subject matter and can be a little heavy when this is a population that we don't see very often. We're going to get to the interview in just a moment, but first, we've been doing a lot of Legacy Interviews while traveling. And if you've thought for a long time, I'd love to capture the stories of my family. Maybe an entire family tree, but I can't get everybody to St. Louis. Well then I'd like you to reach out to me Vance at Legacy Interviews dot com to write and say, Hey, we have this many family members, we'd like to get something set up and maybe we can come to your town and record these. We've done this a bunch of different ways. Sometimes a family has enough members that we can do the entire trip just for their family members, and sometimes people find multiple families to join together to do one larger project. If you're interested in learning more about how we could come out to where you are to record the life stories of your loved ones, go to Legacy Interviews dot com to find out more. Alright, without further ado, let's head to the interview with Pat Halterman Holmes. Pat Halterman hummus.

Vance Crowe [00:02:08] Welcome to the podcast. Thanks

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:02:10] For having me here, Vance.

Vance Crowe [00:02:12] So are kids really running away today? Like in today's day and age?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:02:16] You know, you think about kids running away and it's almost this nostalgic, like back in the seventies, kids would run away so they could smoke pot. We do see kids leaving home, they're more often I think, kicked out and pushed out because of family disputes. Sometimes it's over their sexual orientation or gender identity. So it's, it's com I would say it's complicated. The story of the, the runaway is, is not just like, they don't wanna follow the rules, right? It's usually much more complicated family dynamics. And we use the term runaway and homeless and street youth, and it really encompasses the more of the, the variety of reasons that young people become homeless, right? It could be running away, it could be family poverty. Sometimes it's because they're in foster care and they run away from a foster home placement to, because they wanna be with their biological family or because of a, a abuse. And so kids often will run away from, from home, whether it's a foster home or their, their family home for reasons of abuse or neglect or what we see. We see a lot of parent drug use and kids feeling really unsafe because of their parents' behavior. And sometimes it is that the youth doesn't want the structure or they don't wanna follow rules or they wanna use drugs, and that's not permitted. So the reasons are really, are really varied and complicated.

Vance Crowe [00:03:50] I used to live in way northern California and it was quite common to see kids that were under the age of 18 to like be running away or to, you know, be hitchhiking. But in the St. Louis area, I never see it.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:04:02] They're very hidden. And I think there's different reasons for that. I think the, the way St. Louis is situated, we don't have the massive numbers, but on any given night, there's probably at least 12 to 1500 young people that don't have a state safe place to go. And what happens more in St. Louis is what we use the term couch surfing, right? So young people are going from place to place. So they don't have a family, they don't have safety, they don't have stability, but they technically have a roof over their head. They may be swapping sex to have that couch to sleep on or engaging in other dangerous behaviors, but they're not as, we don't have a, a super visible street youth population where they're camping out and things like that that you see sometimes in, in bigger cities. So they're, they're rather hidden. They also blend in, you know, youth are really good at blending in. They don't wanna stand out. And so when you see a group of youth, whether it's, you know, at, on the Delmar Loop or somewhere, there may be homeless youth among them, and you don't, you don't necessarily know that.

Vance Crowe [00:05:06] And so tell me about your organization.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:05:09] So I am the CEO of Youth in Need, and we serve the entire eastern Missouri region with a variety of programs for children, youth, and families to help them find safety and hope. One of our programs, and the reason we were founded was to ho to help runaway and homeless and street youth find safety and find hope for a positive future. And so we do that through a, a whole range of programs. Everything from street based outreach, where we have teams of folks who are literally out on the streets connecting with young people and providing resources to emergency housing, emergency shelter, longer term housing supports that also include counseling and mental health, mental health support, job assistance, and those types of things.

Vance Crowe [00:05:54] So tell me about the type of person that becomes an outreach, you know, that goes and finds who these youth are.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:06:00] That is such a great question. They are, they are a rare breed of people. Some of them have been formerly homeless or experienced a lot of hardship themselves. You know, we don't have degree requirements, right? It just, it takes a special kind of person who really connects with youth and is able to, you know, to form that, that rapport pretty quickly and develop trust. The young people that we are outreaching to often do not trust adults. So it's not like they just pull up or walk up and kids are like, oh, come on. You know? Yeah. So it's really by being very casual, by maybe offering them if they need a bottle of water, if they need a snack, and we carry those types of things. And then striking up a conversation that then can lead to finding out what their situation is. And so it's really about meeting them where they, where they are.

Vance Crowe [00:06:55] It's gotta be really tough because I would imagine there are people that approach them with kindness that are, you know, less kind, that are actually looking to, to pick them up for their own reasons.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:07:07] It c Yes, absolutely. And in fact, there's a statistic out there that at something like 75 or 80% of young people are approached about getting involved in sex trafficking within like three days of becoming homeless,

Vance Crowe [00:07:23] Even in a place like St. Louis,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:07:24] Even in a place like St. Louis.

Vance Crowe [00:07:26] So tell me about the type of person that becomes homeless, like the, the young person. How old are you finding, and I I say homeless, I guess I'm using the,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:07:35] Yeah. Youth experiencing homelessness is the term that we, that we use. So you're, you're right on with that. You know, it's very different situations. I think some are younger teens, 14, 15, 16, more often what we see are 16, 17, 18, 19, you know, youth and young adults and more

Vance Crowe [00:07:57] Boys or girls,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:07:58] Both. It's fif 50 50.

Vance Crowe [00:08:01] 50 50. Wow.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:08:03] There do tend to be a few more resources for girls. So I would say at times it skews slightly more to more male. But it's everything from, and we have young moms with their babies who are on the streets. Wow. We have youth who have, you know, their family has become homeless and there is in a shelter, and the shelter doesn't have room for older boys, for example, or older kids. We have kids who, as I said, have run away from the, the foster care system and want nothing to do with that. Some, sometimes they, you know, they're not homeless because of mental health issues, but often they develop mental health issues because it's very traumatic to live on the streets, not knowing where your next meal is gonna come from. Feeling like you have to do a lot to keep yourself physically safe. It's, it's really about survival, right? So it's not about being, being healthy, it's about merely surviving from day to day. And you know, I think about the, you know, people often think, well, they made bad choices. Well, they didn't have any good choices. You know, when you're having to choose between stealing or starving, that's not much of a choice to have to make. Right?

Vance Crowe [00:09:21] And what are the demographics? Are these white kids? Are they

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:09:24] Black? So it's, it's everything. I think statistically they, they are disproportionately black, disproportionately Hispanic, disproportionately teen parents and disproportionately L-G-B-T-Q. So, so there's definitely white kids and there's, and there's middle class. I, I would say it skews more toward kids living in poverty. But we absolutely here in the St. Louis area have had kids from wealthy families who, for a variety of family dynamics or because they were gay, became, became homeless.

Vance Crowe [00:10:00] And that's a thing these days, if a child is gay, they're thrown out of the home,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:10:04] You know, it tragically it is, it really is. And I think we were seeing that a lot, maybe 20, 30 years ago. And there's been a resurgence of that. I think there's a lot of just really negative rhetoric out in the world these days around LGBT people. And so we've, we've been seeing that again, more and more.

Vance Crowe [00:10:25] Wow. That's shocking to me. Yeah.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:10:26] You know,

Vance Crowe [00:10:27] I've been around the ag community for, I don't know, 10 to 15 years now, and I can remember, like, they've made a, a giant transformation in, in that space. It might've been seen as something that people would hide away. They didn't want people to know they had a gay sun, but like now, not, not that big of a deal. So to hear you say there's a resurgence surprising to

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:10:47] Me. Yeah. Yeah. And not good, right?

Vance Crowe [00:10:50] We

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:10:50] Want all of our young people to feel valued, to feel visible, and to be able to be who they are. That's how people thrive, is by being your own unique self. And so we see that with gay kids. We see it with, especially with trans and gender non-conforming youth. There's a lot of misunderstandings around, around transgender issues, non-binary. And I think that leads to people being fearful and hateful.

Vance Crowe [00:11:16] What should people understand that you see that they're not?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:11:18] Well, I, I think one misunderstanding is that people think there's, that kids are being influenced to be, to be trans or to be gay. Like as if being exposed to other gay people or trans people or media is going to, is going to make them that way. And that's, that's not true. It's simply not true. There have always been gay and trans people, and that's something that happens from the inside. There's not, you know, external influences can help support someone and make it more, make them feel more comfortable with being themselves, but it doesn't cr create them to be, to be gay or trans, if that makes sense.

Vance Crowe [00:11:57] Yeah. So this is an area I know so very little about. So I'm gonna ask questions that might, might be not very wealth articulated. That's okay. But when I see the rise in trans, I often think of the a pattern that I saw when I was growing up, which there was this big movement, I think people would call it goth, right? Where people all of a sudden are wearing very dark clothes, they're wearing dramatically different makeup. And there was this huge fear that this was going to lead towards like, you know, satanic.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:12:28] Yeah,

Vance Crowe [00:12:29] Yeah. Like is this the same thing as that? Or is it different?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:12:32] It's, it, it is different. I mean, that is really a trend. And being, being trans is not a trend. It is more acceptable in our society. The same way you talked about gay people in the ag industry, like it used to be you had to hide, but it's much more open. So I think we see more trans kids because they feel more free to be themselves in general in the world. It's not because they weren't there before. And so while it's true that some youth, they may, you know, youth can play with their identities, right? I mean, I, I rocked a, you know, a, a little punk hairstyle when I was in high school back in the, in the late seventies, early eighties. You know how punk was, it can try. It wasn't that punk. I mean, you know, I lived in

Vance Crowe [00:13:13] St. Charles, it

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:13:13] Really wasn't that punk. But we can try on different identities. And so youth may like, you know, try, you know, play with gender a little bit, do you know what I mean? And there's a lot more fluidity these days as far as clothing and different things. But as far as how they actually feel and how they identify, that is a deeply internal and it's something that they have known about themselves for a very long time.

Vance Crowe [00:13:38] And the conflict between what a child is coming to as their identity and the parents is prompting people to have so much conflict that the children either leave or are thrown out.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:13:49] Yes.

Vance Crowe [00:13:51] Tell me about the experiences or what are you seeing out there with this?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:13:53] Yeah, we're seeing, and, and it's not the only reason kids get kicked out for sure, but we definitely are seeing that. And it's just really, you know, in some cases the parents will say, you know, you can't be that way at my home. And the, the child can't not be that way, right? They can, they can act differently, but the, the pain of that is worse than the pain honestly, of, of being kicked out, you know, of having to, to hide a significant part of themselves. And so, you know, we offer services that are open and we let youth express their identity however they want to, you know, it's not hurting anyone. And, and, and they're often much more, you know, much happier, have better relationships with people when they feel like they can really be who be who they are. And honestly, trans youth are at an alarmingly high rate for, for suicide. And it's not because there's something that being trans is a mental health issue in and of itself, it's not. But because of all these negative messages from society and from feeling like you have to hide and that your son misunderstood, that can lead some youth to feel so desperate that they think about taking their lives.

Vance Crowe [00:15:08] Yeah. It seems very complicated to understand what one would do if they, if they say, I have these values

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:15:15] And

Vance Crowe [00:15:15] So I wanna raise my children with these values. But then you run into the conflict of the child then saying, well, then I'm going to leave. And the danger that a child would be in,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:15:24] Like

Vance Crowe [00:15:25] How as a person that's seen what happens when children are out on the street, how would you recommend a parent that has those values handle it?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:15:32] I wish they would, they would reach out and learn more because it's, I think that they would see that it's not really a values issue. And that, you know, when we learn more, we do, we, you know, we do better when we, when we learn more. And that it's really a not, not under not understanding. And it's not that they're something that their child has, has chosen, it's who their child is. And I think most parents, you can try to connect that with the, that their love for their child and their desire for their child to be healthy. And I think there have been many parents who initially were very upset and did not understand, but later grew to understand and to see how much happier and healthier their child was when they were allowed to be who they are.

Vance Crowe [00:16:21] So let's assume the camera back out to like, in general a child. Let's say a 14-year-old girl has been kicked out of her house or is running away, whatever the reason is. What's their experience like you said in the first three days, you think they've been approached for sex trafficking. What, what other things do you know about their experience? You

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:16:40] Know, I, they're often trying the fir, especially initially they're trying to reach out to people that they may know that they could, that they could stay with, but they, they tend to connect with other kids who are on the streets and they help them kind of learn the ropes. You know, here may be somewhere that you could go that would be safe or you should avoid this. And so there is some comradery among young people who are in that situation. You know, sometimes they reach out for help, but often they don't. And so they're really just thinking about like, what's my next move? How can I, how can I get some food? How can I get clean clothes and things like that. So it's a lot of energy spent on keeping yourself safe and, and getting the physical things you need to just survive the next day. So it's a very much in the moment type of mindset. You're not thinking about school, you're not thinking about dreams for the future, which is heartbreaking, right? You want, you, your little girl probably thinks about what she wants to do in the future dreams about things. And I know that you would want that for her. And we all want that for our kids. And these kids are really just focused on survival. They're focused on keeping their things safe. So if they may just have a backpack with a few items in it, and that's very precious to them. And so making sure that that doesn't get stolen. So you're thinking a lot about keeping yourself safe from being a victim of a crime and, and trying to find some safe place to sleep someplace to be during the day where you don't stand out.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:18:13] You know, they're often not wanting to come to the attention of authorities because they do not trust that anybody, anybody in authority would help them, right? Where, and that's not true in most cases, but they're really trying to be kind of under the radar.

Vance Crowe [00:18:30] I mean, my sense is that in the past there used to be truant officers or that's what they always told us. Like, you know, but if you were in my small town of 4,000 people and you were in the middle of the day out on the streets, somebody would be like, why aren't you in school? Right. But in a place like St. Louis, you could see a young person and

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:18:45] Right.

Vance Crowe [00:18:45] Not think much of

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:18:46] It. Right. And you know what is interesting, and this surprised me that, that some of these young people do keep going to school and which is kind of amazing. So they don't have a safe place to sleep. They're going to here and there every night, but they, they go to school and then sometimes the way that, that someone at a, a caring teacher or a counselor may notice that they've been wearing the same clothes, they don't smell so good. And, and you know, we hope that they have those trusting relationships. And then we get calls a lot from schools that someone is discovered to be homeless in, and they're actually attending school.

Vance Crowe [00:19:25] If they don't have a place to go, they don't have friends that'll let 'em couch surf. Where do they go?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:19:31] I mean, we hope that they call us and that's why we're out on the streets and trying to, to connect with them and come to our shelter. And there's a couple of other shelters in town, covenant House, and Epworth and St. Louis do great work. But there's, there's, we found them camping under bridges. There's, you know, things you may drive by and not notice, but there's, you know, a culvert or something and there will be people, people in there, abandoned buildings, even in the suburbs. We've had kids who were, who in some cases for a quite extended time, lived in detached garages, you know,

Vance Crowe [00:20:11] Oh,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:20:12] At someone's behind someone's house.

Vance Crowe [00:20:14] Wow.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:20:16] They will often seek help a little bit more when the weather gets cold. You know, that's when I really worry about young people who are completely un unhoused.

Vance Crowe [00:20:27] Yeah. As a person that's done camping and having a one night miserably in the cold or cold and wet. Like, that's like something traumatizing, even if you're, even if you have a warm place to go home to at the end of the, at the end of the camping trip. So imagining having that be in perpetuity and not knowing where you can get safe. So kids, when they're running away from a foster home, they have to be a little concerned that if they get brought into the system, they may have to go back to a foster system that they ran away from.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:20:57] Very much so. And so they're, they're pretty good at staying at staying hidden, but, and they run away for a variety of of reasons. You know, in our, in the foster care system in Missouri, we have, we have almost twice as many kids per capita in the foster care system as any, as other states as the national average. And it's not because parents abuse their kids more in Missouri. And a, the main reason that kids come into foster care is poverty is neglect, which is really often equated with poverty. Right. And so it's the parents not having enough resources. There certainly are some horrific cases of true abuse and true neglect. And this is not intended to minimize. And I'm glad that the system is there for those kids. But too often our system separates kids from their families when they don't have enough resources. And honestly, it would be cheaper and more beneficial and less traumatic to help families with those resources and help them stay together safely than removing kids. And so you get these kids in the foster care and they desperately, they have a bond with their parents. They desperately miss their parents. And so sometimes the foster home is fine. They're, they, their needs are being met. They don't hate it there, but it's not their parents, you know, so in some cases they're running so that they can be with their, with their parents.

Vance Crowe [00:22:17] So you mentioned like, was it 1200 to 1500 per night in the, in the area?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:22:23] That's the estimate.

Vance Crowe [00:22:24] Is that growing? Is it shrinking? Is it staying the same?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:22:27] You know, it's hard to, it, it's always hard to count. This is a population that's very hard to count. I think it, we have seen it increase. It's, it, the pandemic had a weird effect where kids got even more hidden during the pandemic. Oh yeah. So it, it's, the numbers went down and we knew that wasn't true. Right. But we were just having a harder time finding the youth. But we're definitely seeing that, that pick up

Vance Crowe [00:22:54] What are the questions that people should have about unhoused children that, that maybe they don't have 'cause they're not thinking about it.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:23:00] You know, I think to really, you're asking very probing and insightful questions of who these youth are because I think it's, it's easy to just kind of think of surface things and think these are bad kids. They're criminals. Are they, they're drug addicts or something like that. And the reality is much, much more complicated. And so I wish people wouldn't, they think about youth who are homeless. They would think about kids that they know and think about their own kids. 'cause it could be it, you know, we, we tend to think those are those kids that are over there and not our kids. And I think of it that they're all, all of our kids, and I, I think we all should be very, very concerned that there are young people that don't have that opportunity to grow up to dream and, and to, to thrive. And that's lost potential. It's lost economic potential for our society. And it's just a loss of human potential that these youth have great potential, many gifts. We have so many, I mean, they're all unique, but some are very talented artists or musicians and brilliantly smart at math and all the different things. They are just regular kids and they're in a situation that they, they shouldn't have to be in. I mean, the average age for young people to become you, you're not gonna wanna hear this 'cause you're, you have a 3-year-old, but the average, do you know what the average age for a young person to become completely financially independent from their parents' 26. And, you know, talk to your friends that have adult children.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:24:32] And I'll bet you some of them are still on their parents' phone plan. Even if they're living on their own, they're on their parent parent's cell phone plan or their health insurance. And the parents are there to provide that safety net. Right? Like I have a 28-year-old and her, you know, her car broke down last week. Well, she knew mom and dad would be there to help if needed. Right. And our kids don't have that. So they're 17, 18, 19 and having to really make their way in the world alone without that safety net. And that's, that's really, really hard. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:25:02] And I think that safety net, like even you talk about your kids or my kids, like, I think it's actually a relatively new invention that we have this idea that you get to be 18 or 21 and you're out the door. Because if you even look at the architecture of most of the middle class homes, they were designed to have grandma and granddad on one floor, mom and dad on another, you know, the kids that are just, just getting older on another floor and having that multi-generational and then families living within several blocks of each other. And I know from doing all these Legacy Interviews that many, many people grew up this way. If you're in your eighties now, you generally grew up with family all around you. And so this like, you know, we think of it as the nuclear family being like the natural state. And I think it's actually really stripped down from all the other molecules that are, that are typically connected. And so to be completely disconnected and free floating, I mean, would be overwhelming even for a 45-year-old man, let alone a, a child with very limited ability to generate income or know, know who to trust, these kinds of things.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:26:08] Yeah. And so there, I totally agree with you and I think there's so much benefit in having that extended family and all of those connections. 'cause you don't get everything you need from one person. Right. And they're, it is wonderful, a wonderful way for kids to, to grow up like that with all those connections.

Vance Crowe [00:26:25] You know, as you were talking about the, the trans issues and parents and kids coming into conflict. One of the things that I realized from these interviews that I do is that multi-generational families or extended families often have liaisons. Like you go to an aunt that's able to communicate with the mom that, or the, or vice versa. The mom can go to the aunt to have information translated. And I really think that so much of the conflict between parent and child is in many ways a result of the changes that we've made to our society. The very, like the atomization of it being, being something that makes it so it's much, much harder to communicate messages or to keep social bonds strong.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:27:06] I think you're exactly right. And you know, when I was talking about kids getting broken up by the child welfare system, often those are families. It's a, it's a single mom with three kids and she doesn't, she doesn't have that extended family support. Whereas if you have that, you know, one part of the family maybe falls on hard times and other people will help out also. So agree about the communication and also just that, just that support.

Vance Crowe [00:27:29] Oh yeah. You

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:27:30] Know,

Vance Crowe [00:27:30] I think single parenthood, whether it's motherhood or fatherhood, like, you know, we, I have a wife that's an amazing wife and like trying to keep two kids alive and clothed and healthy and is, is so overwhelming.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:27:43] It's very overwhelming. And you think about if you're doing that by yourself, you have very limited financial resources. And so, you know, a common reason, this is a little off topic, but that children may come into foster care is because the, a parent left them alone to go to work and because they don't have childcare. Yeah. And yes, is that a bad decision? Sure. But if your just, if your choice is, if I don't go to work, I can't pay my rent and I don't have a place to live, or I do this while my kid is sleeping and hope and pray for the best. Do you know what I mean? Like, again, you have mean have to choose between and, and

Vance Crowe [00:28:18] You have choices have so different standards now, like when I was growing up, like I, I was the middle child of seven, so there were always siblings around, but my mom could go to the grocery store or go to the next town over. But now if you leave a kid, I don't even know what the rules are, but they're pretty harsh now for when you can leave a child a home alone, it's pretty strict.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:28:38] Sure, sure. And if something would happen, you know, that would come to the attention of authorities. And some communities are more scrutinized than other, than other communities, quite frankly. So I think that's, that's very real. But you think in an extended family, as you were talking about with multi-generations, your opportunity, you know, people watch your each other's kids, right? So that's, it's much less of a concern that you really have those kinds of tangible supports and emotional supports that you need.

Vance Crowe [00:29:05] So let's talk about the government's role in, in kids, right? We all obviously have the foster system. We have like wh when, when law enforcement gets involved with whether or not somebody's being a good enough parent, where else is the government interacting with the families in, in a way that touches you? Right?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:29:25] I mean that's a, that is a big way. I guess this, the federal government actually has a program to, to fund services for youth who are experiencing homelessness. So the way we are able to provide some of our services is through federal and local funding, which I'll, I'll tell you about in a second. To have those resources so that we can, you know, we, we certainly do a lot of fundraising, but also that some of those bigger dollars come from the government so that we can do the street-based outreach and emergency shelter and transitional living and all those things. We're also really fortunate in Missouri to have some county based children's service funds. One of the largest being here in St. Louis County. But it actually, this model funding model started in St. Charles County. It's spread to about 10 counties in Missouri, where it's a local county based sales tax that helps fund children's mental health services, which also includes services that I was talking about, the four for at risk homeless youth families who are struggling.

Vance Crowe [00:30:30] Tell me about children's mental health support.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:30:33] Youth in need provides a lot of counseling for mental health counseling for kids of all ages. From preschool all the way up through young adulthood. And we do that in schools. We work in many, many schools throughout St. Louis County, St. Charles County and Lincoln County. And then we also do counseling in the community. We have a little office at a church in North County at a rec center in St. Charles and some other places as well as just a traditional office-based counseling. So for kids of all ages, any income, it's completely free. You just have to be a resident of those counties to be eligible. It doesn't go through insurance or anything. And we have master's level therapists trained as social workers or counselors who, who provide those services to help kids with. I mean, kids today are in a mental health crisis. They really are nationally struggling with depression, anxiety, many, many mental health issues. We're fortunate to have the ability to serve literally thousands of those kids right here in the St. Louis area.

Vance Crowe [00:31:38] What do you think is causing the mental health crises?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:31:42] That is a complicated question. It's probably a many things. I think the Pandemic Conti contributed to that. But it also, something interesting in the pandemic is it opened up a conversation about mental health issues. So I feel like with kids and adults, they're a lot more willing to talk about mental health issues. A lot of, you know, people will openly talk about going to a therapist. And so I think that it has normalized it some or de-stigmatized. And so I think parents are more, feel more comfortable with seeking services. I think there used to be sometimes like if a teacher would say, you know, I'm worried about your kid, you might wanna take 'em to a counselor, parents would balk at that. Like, there's nothing wrong with my kid. It almost, there was some shame or something and your, your child having some mental health struggles. But I think a lot of that has really has really changed and has really dissipated. So I think parents are more have to ask and kids are, you know, I mean we are educating kids a lot about social, about emotions and healthy emotions and relationships and, and I think they are more verbal about saying, I'm struggling. I'm having some anxiety I need someone to, to talk to. So I think there's external forces that are causing more of these issues. But I also think there's more openness in seeking help.

Vance Crowe [00:33:00] I can see a parent being unsettled about, you know, a child going and speaking with another adult that you're not connected with that doesn't have the same, you know, background or values as you. I can see that, I mean, certainly not something you hope for for your child. Right,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:33:15] Right. Yeah, I I can see that too. And you wonder what are they gonna tell 'em? Right. And there needs to be a level of confidentiality, right? It's, the child's not gonna feel comfortable if they think every single thing they say is reported. So, you know, we really work with parents, so we don't just see the child in isolation. We also talk to the parent and really try to help them feel comfortable with the situation. And then often they will see though that they're, they may feel some anxiety, but they see that their child is benefiting by having someone to talk to by having someone who's giving them, you know, some tangible coping skills. Like here's what you can do when you, you know, here's a breathing exercise, here's something you can do. And so they see the benefit of that.

Vance Crowe [00:33:56] I think we won't know until we have the benefit of hindsight, but it seems like such an odd time to have so much mental crises in America. I mean, it's clear. I I I had a roommate in graduate school that had anxiety attacks and there is no getting around it. Right. He's not faking that, but, you know, we are not faced with going to war. Right. There would've been a time where, and a 17-year-old kid was looking at like, well, when I turn 18, I'm going to the draft and then they're gonna send me with a gun to go get shot at and shoot at other people and Right.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:34:29] We

Vance Crowe [00:34:29] Don't have that going on. Right, right. So it, it's, it seems like it's hard to understand why we're at this place

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:34:35] In

Vance Crowe [00:34:35] Society. Yeah.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:34:36] Well I know, you know, there've been studies about the alarming RA rise in the suicide rate of young for young people and they've found links to, you know, isolation, kids being more isolated. You know, I think about when I was young, everyone my age, as soon as you turn 16, you got your driver's license because that represented freedom. And kids aren't getting their driver's license. Isn't that

Vance Crowe [00:35:02] Nuts?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:35:02] That's wild. But a lot of it is, they can connect, they connect through their phones, they connect through their computers, but it's a different type of con and that can be lifesaving for some young people. But it's also, there's a sense of isolation. And I think social media, there's, there's pros of social media that some young people find a sense of community, you know, through, through social media, but also the comparisons. And I mean, you hear about kids who just, you know, they made a post and it only got so many likes and they're devastated. Like their entire self-worth is based on, you know, how they are perceived in, in social media. And so I think that is a huge stressor for many young people.

Vance Crowe [00:35:40] Yeah. There is something to that for sure because every, whether we had social media or not, there's always social credit, right? There's a hierarchy that goes on. But one of the best parts about, you know, before you had the internet was that you could go home and the only way somebody could get to you was to call you up and have somebody answer the phone and you had a cord on it. And now there's like, you know, giving a child a cell phone is the equivalent of making a pipe into the Garden of Eden and just saying like, anyone can get access now to this child. And that's gotta have pressure on the, on the mind of a child that didn't happen in the past.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:36:19] Oh yeah. That some of the things that they're exposed to online are the way that they can be, be groomed or be be coerced online or very scary. It's also interesting, I mean, I really do look at, there's pros and cons because it's also, there's ways that youth can pri more privately get help, right? So St. Louis was the first place to have a text based, text message based helpline for young people. So it's a hotline, it's a traditional hotline that you can call, but you can also text. And that was a great way that even a kid, you think about a youth who's experiencing trafficking or they're in an unsafe, it's some kind of unsafe situation that they can pri you, you know, you may be able to, you can't make a phone call, but you could send a text message. And so they can interact with a master's level clinician through, through texting, which is also a great, it's a great way to get, like I said, to get help.

Vance Crowe [00:37:16] Yeah. You've mentioned trafficking, like sex trafficking and grooming.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:37:20] It's

Vance Crowe [00:37:20] Something I see posters for in the airport.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:37:23] You're

Vance Crowe [00:37:24] Seeing this in your world.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:37:26] Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, there's a lot of different ways that sex traffickers coerce and entice youth and you know, through bribing them through physical force. But the most common thing that we see is that they pretend they care about 'em. And our youth are so vulnerable and so, you know, they feel so uncared for that this adult who has very, you know, the evil intent for them, right? Yeah. But pretends that they care, they buy them clothes, they, and it's things that, you know, you may look at and go, oh, that looks sketchy. But for young people, if they're, they're starved for some attention and to feel valued, and this is somebody who's telling them that they're at, that they're attractive, that they, and giving them some attention, buying them meals. And so then that's just a couple steps away from them, you know, forcing them into the sex trafficking.

Vance Crowe [00:38:26] Gosh. And that, that exists, the sex trafficking here

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:38:30] A hundred percent. It, you know, it's, I think people think it's these great big operations and we see it more as in individuals who are engaging in this. But you know, we've had, we had several young people come to youth in need, and they had been, they had all been being trafficked out of a car wash in North County.

Vance Crowe [00:38:49] Whoa. So just a small prostitution ring and their, and they're, they're finding their, their supply through children that are homeless. Wow. Yeah. I think the word trafficking, you know, I, I guess my impression of it without thinking about it too much is they're moving them from one place to some, some place bad. Right. But you're describing it as no, it's it's happening. They're getting 'em here and they're using them here.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:39:15] Yeah. Yes. That's what we see, that they're trafficking them for, you know, commercial sexual exploitation.

Vance Crowe [00:39:22] So now tell me about your work. You, you described that you guys give people hope and you're, you're giving them housing. So tell me about somebody that has been in this, in a bad situation and they encountered youth in need.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:39:36] Yeah, I actually just now, when I was talking about sex trafficking, I was thinking about a young girl named Maya that's, I'm making up the name that's similar to her name, but it's not her name for confidentiality. But she, our, our street outreach team had encountered her and we could tell something was a little bit off and we were able to get her alone to where she could feel safe and tell us what was going on. And, you know, it wasn't, she, we, we provided some things that she needed, you know, she needed some hygiene products and we, we carried just different things that, that youth might need. And then just made a point to go back and, and check in on her from time to time, try to find her, get, you know, if she had a phone, get her phone number and just kind of start to have that to build a relationship. And eventually, you know, she did share about the situation that she was involved in. And, you know, our staff over time were, you know, really able to show her that she was worth more and that that wasn't, that that was, you know, wasn't getting her anywhere in life. And that she was really being, being used. And it's, it's a harsh reality that this person that she thought cared about her was using her. She came to our emergency shelter a couple of times. She, the, the pull with this man was very strong and she would At times get lured back into that the money was good.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:41:10] And she would, again, she didn't have other connections, she didn't have other relationships with people who cared about her other than our youth and needs staff. But eventually she was able to completely break free of that situation. And we were able to get her set up in her own apartment. And the last I heard she was in her twenties and was, was working and getting ready to have a baby but do really doing, doing well. And, you know, I think the most important thing for us, she was seeing hope for a fu her future and was feeling that she was worth more than she had thought before.

Vance Crowe [00:41:47] So how big is your organization?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:41:50] As far as

Vance Crowe [00:41:51] Yeah, like staff or,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:41:53] I mean, like staff we have, well we started as a small little crisis shelter, but we have in, in St. Charles, we've grown to serve all of eastern Missouri. So we have 400 employees,

Vance Crowe [00:42:02] 400 employees,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:42:04] And our annual operating budget is about $30 billion.

Vance Crowe [00:42:08] Oh my goodness.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:42:08] And so we, and it's, we have a variety of programs. So besides the programs for youth experiencing homelessness, we do mental health counseling as I was referencing. We also do some foster care case management. And one of our largest programs is actually for young children. We do early childhood through the Head Start program in some rural counties west of St. Louis, as well as in St. Charles and St. Louis City and St. Louis County. So working with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers in educational environments. We have early childhood centers and do home visitation services, and they're geared exclusively toward families who are experiencing poverty. So providing that super high quality early childhood education for families that can't, can't afford that. And, and really wraparound support for the, for the whole family to help them work on what their goals are as individuals and, and as a family to really wrap that support around that young person to make that child, to make sure they have the everything they need to be fully ready to enter kindergarten.

Vance Crowe [00:43:15] What, you know, you mentioned poverty and there's a certain station that you can reach in life where poverty seems so far away as to almost not be real, right? You can imagine like, oh, if my bank account were lower, I'd have to make some different choices. But like, what is living with poverty like in, in, in Eastern Missouri these

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:43:35] Days? You know, I, the poverty level is something, the federal poverty level is something like, oh, I wanna say it's around $20,000 for a family of four. And so when you think about that and what the cost of just housing is and the cost of transportation, I mean, especially outside of St. Louis, the rest of Missouri, there's very limited public transportation. You have to have a car. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:44:01] You

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:44:01] Know, and even

Vance Crowe [00:44:02] In St. Louis, I mean, they like keep lowering the bus routes and

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:44:05] Exactly.

Vance Crowe [00:44:06] Yeah. It, it's be very difficult

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:44:07] To get through

Vance Crowe [00:44:08] The city.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:44:08] Exactly. And so, you know, the families that we see that are experiencing poverty, I mean, it's a constant just surviving day to day, they often may be living with someone else. So they're in a crowded living situation where they don't have privacy. It's substandard living, it's very common that they're living in a place that becomes condemned and they become homeless and may lose their kids because of that. We have families who are living in their, in their car, they, you know, rely on, I mean, there is a patchwork of services, but getting, you know, you have to get to them. You know, the services don't usually come to you. So maybe you can get food from a food pantry if you can find a way to get there within their hours and find a way to get back and either take your kids with you or find someone to watch your kids. So it's a constant, I mean, you know, I think people may think that people living in poverty are not that smart, but they're some of the smartest people I've ever met because the way that they have to figure out and maneuver to get through a day is, is I, I don't think I could do it.

Vance Crowe [00:45:15] Yeah. I had a few years in my life where I didn't have a car, I had very little money, I was just outta college and I had to figure things out and I was in a much more advantaged position. But the time, poverty is the thing that is like overwhelming. You know, you think like if you don't have a car, going to the grocery store isn't just a 30 minute, you know, adventure. This is like a multi-hour thing where you've gotta time it out with the buses and get to the grocery store and how much can you carry? And then you've gotta get it on a bus. And then getting at home, now you have very limited time. And now if you have kids on top of that and trying to get to work, like the time poverty is the thing that you just, you you is nearly impossible to get out of Yeah. To gain traction.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:45:57] Yeah. Everything takes so much time and you know, anywhere you go, you have to wait in a, in a, to get services, you know, you have to wait in a line. And, you know, I think sometimes I, I'll hear people in schools who are frustrated because a parent isn't, doesn't seem very engaged in their child's education, but the parent is trying to, you know, just survive. Or maybe they have a job but it's during the school hours and they're, they're hourly worker, they can't take off work to, or they, if they do, they don't get paid to go to their child's school and, and things like that and medical appoint, it's hard. You know, it's, I know, I think physicians for example, get frustrated that, you know, people don't make their medical appointments for their, for their kids. And it's like, you don't know what you're, I can make this appointment for three weeks from now, but I have no idea. Yeah. Like I'm figure that out

Vance Crowe [00:46:46] Work. Yeah,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:46:46] Yeah, yeah. So it's, it's very hard to, to plan.

Vance Crowe [00:46:51] So tell me about this work for you, right? It seems like you are working on a thing that you may be able to contribute, but you're never going to stop this problem.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:47:02] That is true. I think we'll never stop. Like some of the reasons that people become homeless, although we certainly try to advocate and look at things like child welfare reform and, and things like that, that systemic change. That could, that could help. When we think about ending youth homelessness, our goal is to have the right services at the right time so that the moment a child would become homeless, we have the service that they need. And so that youth in need has been very intentional within, in our organization and working within the community to just build out that array of services. And it is insufficient, but to have services where we can meet people on the streets. We have emergency housing, we have longer term supports, a variety of supports. And again, not just with one organization, but within the community to truly be able to serve that youth wherever they enter the system and whatever their need is.

Vance Crowe [00:47:59] Well, as you think about the world going forward, rents are getting higher, right? As inflation continues to burn through parts of society, what do you see on the horizon for, for homelessness, particularly with youth?

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:48:13] I mean it's very concerning. It's youth homelessness is not a, a priority. I think when people think about homelessness, they think about some of the big cities that Los Angeles and Seattle and these huge homeless adult populations. And that is a huge issue. And I don't have the solutions to that, but I think youth often get left out of those of those conversations and it's very different. The solutions for adult homelessness are very different than I think the solutions for youth homelessness. I think with adults sometimes it is as simple as give them a place to live with young people. They need a lot more, they need a lot more support. Like I'm not just gonna put a 16-year-old in an apartment and say have at it. Right. They need, they're still growing, they're still learning. They need, they experienced trauma, they, they need that emotional and tangible support.

Vance Crowe [00:49:04] Well if people wanted to learn more about youth in need or kind of your organization, where should they go? Yeah,

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:49:10] Go to our website. It's www.youthinneed.org.

Vance Crowe [00:49:15] Alright.

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:49:16] Well

Vance Crowe [00:49:16] Pat, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate you guys. Thank

Pat Holterman-Hommes [00:49:18] You, Vance. It's been a pleasure to talk to you.