Eugene weekly., July 01, 2010, Page 13, Image 13

NOWHERE
TO BE
YOUNG & HOMELESS
IN LANE COUNTY
BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN,
RICK LEVIN, SHANNON FINNELL,
CATHERINE FOSS AND ANDY VALENTINE
PHOTOS BY TRASK BEDORTHA
T
hey’re musicians, derby girls,
runaways and train hoppers. Some
of Lane County’s homeless kids
are just taking some time to travel
and escape a dull future, for others,
it’s life on the street that they want
to escape. Some have been to jail;
some have been befriended by cops. Just about all
of them wish that instead of looking at them like their
existence is a problem and a blot on the city, passersby
would look at them like human beings. One homeless
youth who goes by the name of Angel told EW, “I just
want to say that a lot of homeless people get judged
when they’re holding their sign, or when they’re walking
down the street, and I think more people should stop
and actually try to fi gure out their story before they
judge. Not all of us want to be out here. It’s not fun. I
don’t think any of us really enjoy looking like slime, like
we don’t have any worth.”
SHANNON H. (BUBBLES)
CHELSEA (MOUSE)
AGE 21, COLUMBIA COUNTY, ORE.
Bubbles is a single mother of two young girls (2-1/2 and
15 months) who don’t live with her. She has been on and
off the streets since her early teens. Although she still “surfs
houses now,” she currently has a living situation, however
volatile. She said she was expelled in “fourth, fi fth, sixth”
grades, and never went to high school. “My parents are
dicks,” she says when asked how she ended up on the
streets. For a while, “I fell into a drug loop,” Bubbles says,
during which time she was doing both methamphetamine
and cocaine. She said she often found that “being a cute
little girl” people tended to respond to her better when she
was living on the streets, giving her money and food. Right
now, Bubbles plans on getting her drivers license, saving
up some money and moving to Arcata, Calif. “I’m not quite
sure what I’m doing or where I’m going,” she says, “but I
think I’m going south.”
“It’s tough sometimes. Nobody even wants to look at
you.”
AGE 16, ROSEBURG
Mouse spent most of her life in Eugene with brief stint
in California. She was shuffl ed through “a whole bunch”
of foster homes. “I was basically taken away from my
family,” she says. “That was pretty tough. They called
me an angry child. I think most people would be if they
were moving from home to home and didn’t get settled
down at all.” Still, she believes she received a “pretty good
education,” though “it’s hard to get a GED when you’re
on the streets.” Mouse says, “I prefer the streets to walls,”
she says. “It’s freer; you don’t feel controlled.” To get
by, Mouse solicits “spange” (spare change) and gets help
through food stamps, teen feed programs, Goodwill and
churches, all of which she’s grateful for. “God, I’m hungry
sometimes,” she says.
She says Eugene, is “terrible,” especially when she’s
hassled by cops just for sitting on the grating under a tree
on the sidewalk. “If it’s city property and I live in the city,
doesn’t it belong to me, too?” She says she usually sleeps
in a tent or under the Washington-Jefferson Park Bridge,
“but that’s not safe and it’s full of tweakers.” Another
big pain is using the bathroom, Mouse says, pointing out
that, at most places, restrooms can only be used by folks
buying something. “I’m really tempted just to fl ip them
off,” she says “and tell them to fuck off and the horse
they rode in on.”
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EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 1, 2010 13