Legislature passes bill to aid homeless youths in Indiana

By Brigid Curtis Ayer

On a cold winter night, most Indiana residents can simply turn up the furnace by pressing a button, but a growing number of homeless Hoosiers—including an estimated 10,000 youths—roam the streets, sleep in cars or resort to “survival sex” to get out of the cold.

Rep. Dennis Avery (D-Evansville), author of House Bill 1165, the proposal to improve the life of homeless children, said he was contacted by the Vanderburgh County Homeless Youth Task Force prior to the 2007 legislative session, and they outlined the problem for him. Rep. Avery’s bill recently passed the Indiana House and Senate.

“I was shocked to learn there were 362 homeless youths in Vanderburgh County,” Rep. Avery said. “I simply had no idea this kind of problem existed. I thought there were people already serving these children.”

During the 2007 session of the Indiana General Assembly, Rep. Avery authored legislation calling for an interim study committee to examine the problem.

“The bill passed, and I was made chairman of the study panel,” Rep. Avery said.

Because there is not a single agency responsible for keeping track of the number of homeless people in Indiana, exactly how many homeless children there are in the state is unknown.

Rep. Avery said that estimates based on numbers from local school corporations and federal sources range from 7,000 to 15,000 homeless youths.

During the time before the opening of the 2008 Indiana General Assembly, Hoosier lawmakers serving on the Interim Study Committee on Missing Children stated that every child has the right to safe harbor.

Many provisions recommended by the study panel to the Indiana General Assembly were included in House Bill 1165.

“The object of this legislation is to address the causes and consequences of youth homelessness,” Rep. Avery said.

“There are a number of problems that these children encounter,” Rep. Avery said. “If a child runs away and ends up at an emergency shelter which does not specifically serve youth, under current law, the shelter cannot house, feed or give basic medical care to them without parental consent.”

Under Senate Bill 1165, unaccompanied youths aged 16 to 18 could be provided food and shelter services without parental consent.

Some emergency shelter workers have told Rep. Avery that they put out food for a runaway child like they would for a stray dog as a way to get around the law.

“We shouldn’t force people who work in shelters to choose between breaking the law or feeding and caring for a homeless child,” Rep. Avery said.

Another shocking reality facing young runaways is the problem of “survival sex.” Girls and boys are forced into prostitution as a means to survive so they can find a warm place to sleep and get a meal.

“There are nine emergency shelters that serve unaccompanied youths in Indiana. But many of our large cities in Indiana, including Evansville, do not have one,” Rep. Avery said.

He added that Evansville is a little bit worse than the rest of the state in terms of the number of homeless youths because of this, but said it is still a statewide problem.

“Children living in foster homes that have run away may have run away for a very good reason, possibly because of physical or sexual abuse,” Rep. Avery said.

House Bill 1165 extends the time frame in which youth-serving shelters are required to notify parents of unaccompanied youths to a maximum of 72 hours. This would allow the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) time to investigate the child’s circumstances and determine if the home is suitable for the child to return there.

Sen. Vaneta Becker (R-Evansville), Senate sponsor of the bill, said, “Preventing homelessness, meeting the needs of vulnerable children without homes and protecting the many children in foster care homes cannot be solved with one, simple solution.

“These proposed initiatives could help various agencies enhance their services and improve the lives of many children who are homeless and in foster care,” said Sen. Becker, who also served as vice chairman of the interim study panel examining missing children.

House Bill 1165 requires the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority to collect data to determine the number of homeless youth in the state, includes provisions to strengthen educational opportunities for foster care and homeless youth, and provides provisions to restore family bonds by allowing visitation to siblings who are in foster care.

House Bill 1165 passed the Indiana House by a 92-0 vote and the Indiana Senate by a 45-2 vote.

Since House Bill 1165 was amended in the Senate, it returns to the House for a concurrence then goes to the governor’s desk for approval.

(Brigid Curtis Ayer is a correspondent for The Criterion.) †