CRACK HOUSES KIDS' ONLY OPTIONS

Edmonton's most damaged, unruly kids - in the province's care - are
being kicked out of group homes and often left to fend for themselves
on the street.

Some of these kids, as young as 13, are so disruptive, because of
addiction or mental health problems, that there is virtually nowhere
to place them, says Wallis Kendal, an outreach worker with the iHuman
Youth Society which helps hard-core troubled street youth.

He regularly gets calls from group homes to come pick up
uncontrollable teens. Some of the time, he can find a safe place for
them; other times, he can't.

"I (sometimes) drop them at crack houses," says Kendal. "I'm not
joking. I take kids and drop them at what they call a crack house.
It's better than having no place to live."

Many of the kids booted out of group homes refuse to go to the Youth
Emergency Shelter because their problems are so much more complex than
those of the teens at YES, says Kendal.

And most of the kids he works with would rather sleep on the street
than on a mat at the Hope Mission Youth Shelter, he adds.

Most group home staffers simply aren't trained to handle
out-of-control, high-risk youth, says Kendal. So the group homes phone
him or the cops, often late at night, to get rebellious teens off
their hands.

"If you're a kid and you have no place to live and your mother and
father are the government of Alberta . and if your mother and father
can't take care of you, you feel pretty freaked out," says Kendal.

Not surprisingly, many of these young people, who are supposed to be
cared for by the province, sink into a criminal lifestyle, says Youth
Criminal Defence Office lawyer Pat Yuzwenko. "I've got a lot of kids
in jail who are there because they have nowhere to live."

The group homes set impossible standards for high-risk teens, most of
whom have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, she adds.

'So when they break group home rules, they're shown the door. "They're
just kicked out and 'good luck to you, pal,'" says Yuzwenko.

Children's Services spokesman John Tuckwell denied that disruptive
kids are ejected from group homes. "We do not turn people away," he
said Friday. "If a youth . is a risk to (himself) or to others in the
group home, appropriate alternate placement would be sought."

The ministry is prepared to investigate any allegations to the
contrary and "act promptly," he added.

Children's Services has an "amazing" group of specially trained social
workers who assist high-risk kids but placements are limited, says
Yuzwenko.

Edmonton clinical social worker Karen Nielsen, who has worked with
some of the teens Kendal has mentored, specializes in counselling kids
who've experienced trauma, such as abuse, addicted parents or other
family dysfunctions.

Yet, it can take a year to arrange a psychiatric assessment for such
broken kids, she says.

"These really are society's throwaway children," she says. "We need
more resources for these young people."

There are similar problems with high-risk street youth in Calgary,
says Kendal. In fact, reps from Calgary's Youth Criminal Defence
Office plan to meet Kendal next month as a prelude to starting an
iHuman group there.

Also next month, Kendal, Nielsen and other youth advocates are meeting
to brainstorm about how to help Alberta's most troubled and vulnerable
street kids.

Kendal and Nielsen would like to see specialized group homes for teens
with such serious behaviour problems they don't fit in anywhere else.

"There's a group of us who are hoping that, somehow, come hell or high
water, we'll be able to get something set up," says Nielsen. Adds Kendal:
"We take the kids that are dangerous that nobody wants."

His message to the province?

"You're either going to take action or you're going to regret the day
you don't take action."

If this isn't a prime example of the importance of early intervention,
I don't know what is.