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Grove offers shelter from the storm Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Mandy Martin is the manager for StreetWise, an outreach program for homeless and at-risk youth recently relocated to The Grove in Ashland. The center provides young people with clothes, food and hygiene items two days a week. The word's getting around on StreetWise's new location in Ashland By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune Just in time for a string of nasty winter storms, Southern Oregon's only drop-in center for homeless youth has found a new shelter of its own. Homeless and runaway young people ages 11 to 22 are starting to return to StreetWise, an outreach program forced to relocate from Medford to The Grove, a community center at 1175 E. Main St., Ashland. On one recent morning, 16-year-old "Michelle" and 19-year-old "Andy" found respite from rain and snow at the center run by Community Works of Medford. The social service agency moved the StreetWise program after a zoning problem closed a Medford site in August. "It's a place to chill for the day, to get clothes and food and girl things," said Michelle, a baby-faced blonde who said she's been on her own since she was 14. "I didn't know it existed," said Andy, a dark-haired boy with a shy smile who has camped on friends' couches for more than a year after conflicts escalated with his family. Formerly known as The Lighthouse, StreetWise operated out of a Peach Street site in Medford for two years, offering food, clothing and other resources to an estimated 60 young people a month. Organizers moved to a house at 457 Fairmont St. in July but failed to get appropriate zoning approval for the residential area and had to move. The confusion was a setback for the program that by nature serves a hard-to-reach population, said manager Mandy Martin. It's difficult to get homeless kids to come to a stable site even without moving the location, she said. Since late summer, Martin has organized a team of street outreach workers, volunteers whose task is to take supplies and information to Jackson County's homeless young people wherever they are: in parks, under bridges, hanging around city centers. "We hand out condoms, hygiene supplies, snacks," she said. "And we hand out these fliers about the program." Slowly, the word is reaching the homeless population, Martin said. Just how many young people that includes is difficult to determine. Local homeless advocacy groups have estimated as many as 600 homeless youth in the county; Martin's not sure. "It depends on your definition of homeless," Martin said. "They range from somebody who does not have a mailing address to someone who's had an extended hospital stay and has no home to return to." Michelle said she knows more than 50 young people, some as young as 10, who have no homes. Michelle and Andy spend most nights with different friends, "couch surfing," spending a few days here, a few days there. "It's pretty easy for us. Our friends can trust us because we don't rip them off," Michelle said. "You've just got to be straight-up honest with people and they'll let you stay." During the day, the young people sometimes get food and showers at a shelter operated by the Interfaith Care Community of Ashland. But the teens must mix with homeless adults, which can be unsettling or even dangerous, Martin said. "That's another reason we needed a place to be," said Martin, whose program pays a fee for the new space. For now, StreetWise operates two days a week, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Martin hopes to expand the hours in Ashland and to find a central site in Medford, a goal that is a high priority with the Jackson County Homeless Task Force. Losing a Medford outreach center was "definitely a loss," said Connie Saldana, a task force member. "We're still working to get a new one open in Medford but we're happy there's someplace they can go in the meanwhile," she said. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.