Street roots., October 11, 2013, Page 9, Image 9

street roots
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Oct. 11, 2013
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transitional housing.
S.Z.: Where do keep your possessions?
K.B.: I have some friends and family who
let me keep my stuff at their houses until
my situation levels out. I would stay with
them if I was able to. I was couch-surfing for
a few weeks, but those days were numbered
anyway. People were making space for me
even though they didn’t really have any.
Eventually they said they couldn’t do it
anymore.
S.Z.: Tell me about your mother.
K.B.: M y mother is an awesome person.
I love her to death. She’s staying at a place
where she’s not even sure if she’ll be able to
stay there very long. But I know that if she
could, she would definitely take me in. She
doesn’t want me out on the streets and she
wants to know that I’m safe.
S.Z.: Is this the first time that you’ve been
homeless?
Tm a lot stronger
than I thought I was’
How one man is building a better life from the ground up
BY SUE ZALOKAR
S T A F F W R IT E R
t was Kyler Buzalsky’s nature of
acceptance that attracted me to his
story. I teach dialectical behavior
therapy, among other subjects, and if ever
there was a poster child for cool, calm
detachment from highly stressful, possible
negative behavior triggering circumstances,
Kyler is that person.
In the face of impending and eventual
homelessness, Kyler was working seemingly
nonstop I met him. He had a job as a
summer intern and was also trying to
secure housing while living in a homeless
shelter, and preparing to enter the fall term
at Portland Community College. I was
struck by this sense that his homelessness,
though inconvenient, was not about to stop
him from living his life.
This summer, he registered as a Sunrise
E A ST youth at the Native American Youth
and Family Center (NAYA). In that time,
with the help of his skills coach, he has
achieved his forklift operator certification
and he worked all summer as an intern on
the NAYA construction team.
Being homeless adds a whole other layer
to the challenges he faces, but he says he is
determined to make his way through this.
With the help of his NAYA youth advocate,
he has completed two of three applications
for transitional youth housing opportunities
in Portland. He is also moving up the list
for temporary housing. He hopes that one
day he will have his own place to call home.
He dreams of going to Alaska. He’s never
been, but he’s sure he’d find a friendly face
there. He is part Aleut. His tribe is from the
Aleutian Islands in Southeast Alaska, and
he’s sure he has extended family still there,
although he’s never met them or heard their
names. His mother was adopted by non-
Native Americans, and his family moved
I
from Seattle to Portland when he was in
kindergarten.
At the time he enrolled in the summer
intern program on the NAYA construction
crew, he had no carpentry or construction
skills. When I first sat down with him, he
had spent the past few days roofing and
siding a house.
Sue Zalokar: What did you think going in
to this internship?
Kyler Buzalsky: I just hoped that they
would take it easy on me and walk me
through it - and they have been. If I ask a
question, they’ll show me what they’re
looking for and let me work on it. I was
doing some staining on some wood and I
was shown how to do the work. I didn’t do
the best job on the first few boards that I
did, but I learned. Later, my boss gave me a
compliment saying that I had done good
work and that I had picked up a new talent
very fast.
S.Z.: How did that make you feel?
K.B.: Great! I’ll admit I don’t really have a
lot of self confidence, but this job has really
been helping me with that. It has shown me
that I can do, really, anything.
S.Z.: What was a favorite experience from
your internship this summer?
K.B.: My favorite job was this sidewalk
job that we did. One of my supervisor’s
neighbors contracted us to repair the
sidewalk because it looked ugly and it was a
hazard. It was my first time ever using a
jackhammer and it was a lot of fun. The next
day we started laying out a layer of quarter
inch rock — a quarter inch or less is very
good for concrete work. We placed boards
up to line the sidewalk.
One of the problems that we had to deal
with was the whole reason it needed to be
repaired; there was a big root that was
growing underneath (the sidewalk). The
neighbor guys said to just pull the root right
out of there. It was a big leaf maple.
Apparently it would have been fine without
that one huge root because it had maybe a
dozen others just like it. But our boss
wanted us to get the experience to
overcome that sort of a challenge. Maybe
some other job, some other tree couldn’t
spare that root. I learned how to make
bump in the concrete that isn’t a hazard. It
flows very smoothly.
If you don’t mind lifting 50-pound bags of
concrete over and over again, it’s great
work.
S.Z.: What has your internship taught you?
K.B.: My NAYA internship taught me that
I am a lot stronger than I thought I was and
that I can accomplish goals that I never
thought I could.
S.Z.: Tell me about your situation right
now.
K.B.: Right now I am sleeping in an
emergency shelter, Porch Light. I’m on the
waiting list for Street Light, which is
temporary housing. Basically, it has all the
same rules, just a little more responsibility.
I’ll have to do a chore every night, but I’ve
been carrying heavy pieces of shingles and
bags of concrete. I can do dishes or mop a
bit.
At Street Light I will be able to keep my
stuff at the shelter. I can’t do that at Porch
Light. I think there is also more personal
space at Street Light. It’s a little more stable
place and a nice stepping stone for
K.B.: Technically, yes. It’s been over a
month now. Back in November, I was at risk
of becoming homeless. So I knew it might
be coming. I have been trying to have sort
of a safety net before I managed to hit rock
bottom.
My sister moved to the Portland area and
I was able to move in with her, so I didn’t
become homeless then.
My sister didn’t think I was being
responsible enough so to help push me to
be more responsible, she told me that I had
a month to come up with (part of the rent).
I wasn’t working at the time. When the
month was up, I didn’t have the money and
my sister said I hadn’t tried to do anything.
I didn’t communicate with her about it, and
she was sorry, but she had to ask me to
leave.
Then I was couch-surfing, now I stay at
the shelter.
S.Z.: Tell me about that.
K.B.: I still can’t sleep comfortably. It is
what it is.
S.Z.: Why can’t you sleep comfortably?
K.B.: I’m uncomfortable with large
groups of people and there are usually about
30 people at the shelter every night.
Everyone comes from their own
background, I don’t hold anything against
anyone. People make choices, people make
mistakes that’s just how people are. As long
as no one does anything against me, I’m fine
with them. I’m just not comfortable.
If I got to know everyone who was there
in one night, I might be able to sleep
soundly, but I really don’t think that is
possible.
S.Z.: A nd those people change every night,
right?
K.B.: Oh yeah. I’ve seen some people
there one night and then never again. I’ve
seen people who were there three or four
nights in a row. I made one friend there.
His name is Darren. He actually came in the
same night that I did. His first night was the
same as my first night. The past couple of
nights, he wasn’t there so I had no one
there that I am friends with. He has been
staying at a friend’s house. I’m really glad
for him. I wish that I could stay the night at
a friend’s house. But I have to be there in
case they call me for Street Light,
otherwise, I’m taken off the list.
S.Z.: You seem very driven to accomplish
your goals and I think that is remarkable.
Your internship and the search for housing
must take up so much o f your time.
K.B.: I m starting college in September.
I m doing the Gateway to College program
at Portland Community College to finish my
See STRONGER, page 11