Intertribal Life Newspaper -

PORTLAND, Ore.—The Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Multnomah County, Oregon, works with over 100 youth, ages 16 to 24, experiencing homelessness and housing instability.

The program follows a housing-first, trauma-informed service model, providing stable supports around housing and other basic human needs like food, hygiene, childcare, and connection to culture. This model is especially culturally appropriate for Native youth, most of whom come to NAYA in crisis. Up to two-thirds of program participants are young parents, half may struggle with substance abuse issues, and almost all have been victims of domestic violence or are fleeing abusive situations at home.

Advocates are trained in trauma-informed care and understand the unique circumstances that lead to homelessness within the Native community. The Homeless Youth Program works with clients to develop their plans to meet long-term goals including employment, education, and healing from domestic violence, substance abuse, and systemic traumas. We believe culture is healing.

NAYA Direct Services Manager Allyssa Casad, Choctaw, was recently interviewed in a blog (nayapdx.org) about the program:

What are the goals of NAYA’s Homeless Youth Program?

Our biggest goal is to make sure that youth are supported and able to move into a place. We use a housing-first model. A lot of programs require that people are first clean and sober and have a job before they’ll house them. That’s not a trauma-informed approach. We have better success supporting youth when they’re not experiencing excessive trauma on the street, so we house first and then start working on jobs and other goals that they have.

We also make sure they have food. And we often supplement their rent costs until we can get them working and able to pay on their own. A youth advocate sits down with them and creates a goal plan, and talks about what’s going on and what the youth wants. If they want a job and need to work on their résumé or go back to school, then we walk them over to NAYA’s College & Career Center. If they need to work right away, we refer them to the Community Works Program.

We work very closely with our domestic violence (DV) Healing Circle. A lot of our young women have experienced DV or are currently experiencing DV. Advocates sit down and talk about things that are going on. We ask, “How can I help you? What’s going to benefit you? What are your goals?” Then we go from there to determine the next wraparound step.

How do youth learn about the program?

We get referrals from our downtown partner agencies for Native youth, but most of our referrals come from the community where someone’s auntie or friend or sibling heard about this service we have. We also get a lot kids from local tribes who come here and live in their cars looking for a fresh start.

A lot of our youth are aging out of foster care or are experiencing homelessness at an early age due to a lot of systemic trauma that happens to our community in general. NAYA is the only culturally specific program in the Homeless Youth Continuum.

What are the misperceptions about Portland’s Native homeless community that you want to dispel?

The Native community experiences homelessness differently than other programs’ participants. Our families are living in cars. They are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling up in one-bedroom apartments. The biggest issue with that is that there are often unsafe people there. Maybe an abuser is there. Other times, leases say you can only be in someone else’s place for 20 days. Then they all get evicted. It’s this really awful cycle.

A misconception about homeless Natives is that they’re out on the street in tents. People think that they should just get a job or they should just work harder. People think our youth want to be homeless or they’re choosing to be on the streets. That’s very much not true.

These are kids who have experienced so much systemic trauma that we need to be able to provide them with trauma-informed, culturally specific services. For example, the shelter is downtown, but our youth prefer not to go there because they have experienced systemic trauma in similar situations. They say, “I was abused in a group home,” or “I don’t want my child taken away,” or “I don’t want more systems in my life because they have created all of these divides and oppression in my past.”

It’s not a chosen life. It’s a life that our youth are really self-conscious about. They want so much more for their kids. They want to provide their culture to their kids. They come here saying, “I need to be in a space where people understand how this happened to me, why it happened to me, why it continues to happen to me—that I’m not choosing to do this.” So being able to come to NAYA is hugely important.

This seems like very challenging work.

There’s nothing like working within your own community. I really enjoy working with youth, those who are 18 to 25. I’m able to provide our youth with culture, support, relationships, and belonging. I know that’s so important.

It is challenging, but seeing the successes of youth, that’s why I’m doing this. I’ve had clients who went back to school. They were able to get financial aid and childcare. We’ve had youth who have finally been able to receive mental health services. We’ve had a youth graduate from college, get a job as a nurse, and maintain her own place. She continues to call to say, “Thank you so much. I feel like I’m now a fully functioning person. I’m taking care of myself. I’m taking care of my child. I’m making sure I’m not traumatizing my child the way I was traumatized.”

It’s so much more than housing. It’s looking at very real human needs. Housing is just one part of that. Once they are housed, we keep them on our caseload to make sure that they stay housed, or they’re getting mental health, drug and alcohol, or DV services. It’s pretty amazing to see these youth feel proud of themselves and more connected to our community. It’s amazing to see them flourish and grow. It makes the work worth it.

As an urban Indian agency, NAYA Family Center annually impacts the lives of over 10,000 individuals from over 380 tribal backgrounds.