Every week, the young men and women in the Homeless Youth program gather around a kitchen table for their life skills group.

And every week, they start their hourlong discussion by saying something positive.

“It’s November and it’s not snowing,” one girl said.

“I got a job,” another offered.

“I had an interview.”

“I got an apartment.”

“I ate,” said D, the only young man present at the day’s meeting.

With a shrug, he told the group that’s about all the positive he had that day.

Long waiting list

There are 22 people in the Homeless Youth program, a grant-funded housing assistance and mentoring program for ages 18-21.

Between them, the group has 21 children under age 3.

Before entering the program, 10 had been couch-hopping, and 12 lived in emergency shelters.

But some have been homeless because they were pushed out of their family homes, too old for foster care, evicted or referred by social services.

As of mid-November, 110 young people were waiting to get into the program. Another 153 were turned away over the last year.

Learning the basics

Those accepted to the program are put in an apartment within one week.

For the next 18 months, they get rent assistance, which decreases as tenants are able to pay more and more of their own bills.

They also get help with household goods, as well as mentoring, said Lisa Haen, director of Transitional Housing Services, which includes Homeless Youth and a companion program for adults at Kenosha Human Development Services Inc.

If tenants need to learn how to scrub the bathroom floor, a caseworker gets down on his knees to show them how. If they leave the pilot light on their gas stove, a caseworker will show them how to shut it off — and explain what might happen if they don’t.

If they don’t know how to find work or how to further their educations, caseworkers help with that, too.

Sometimes, they just listen as these young people take what they’re taught and try to put it into action.

“It’s about them. It’s not about doing things for them,” Haen said.

Stepping stone

And that’s the goal of the program — not to teach young people how to live on the system, but rather, Haen said, to teach them how to live on their own and rely on themselves.

So, when these young people are done with Homeless Youth, they should have a place to live. But they also should be more self-determined and have more skills and income.

Those goals are reviewed quarterly and reinforced weekly with sessions like the life skills group.

“Many of them feel like it’s a stepping stone, that this was what they needed,” Haen said.

The program also includes volunteer work, which caseworkers feel is an important part of not only giving back to the community but also helping the young people feel like they belong to that community.

Supportive family

Through the program, the young people involved can come to feel not only like part of the community but also part of a supportive family, which many of them lack — and very much need, said Veronica Judon, a caseworker.

Judon tried to explain that to a young woman named J, who grappled during the session with the conflicting concepts of supporting herself and her son doing a job she loved, even if it meant making less money.

Remember, Judon said, money isn’t everything.

“I’d rather be happy than make more money,” Judon said. “That’s why we’re here. I love what I do.”

“So y’all love us? Is that what you’re saying?” J asked.

“Sure do,” fellow caseworker Kristin Stensguard said.

“Y’all are forever with us,” Judon added.

“So, what’s my last name?” J challenged.

“When you’re with us, your last name is Homeless Youth,” Judon said.

J stopped and thought before she laughed. “Oh, we’ve got to work on that one,” she said.