Local experts connect Angelica's story to other cases of homeles by Suzanne Hanney
Chicago homeless youth experts who hear about Angelica’s 20-year odyssey of invisible homelessness say they know her, even though they have never met her. “There are elements of her story that resonate with almost everyone we see,” said Erin Ryan, senior vice president at The Night Ministry. “The theme in all of them is the disconnectedness from a network of support, fed by a mistrust.” Angelica was put out of her home at age 12 after her mother read her diary entry that she wanted to crumble her mother’s medicine into her food – which would have been fatal. Earlier, Angelica had been diagnosed with a behavioral disorder. After a few years in the child welfare system of her state, she was medicated for borderline personality disorder and depression.
Mental health is all too often an issue that is ignored, says Cheron Massonburg of Breakthrough Ministries. The family attributes being shut out to teenage blues and only considers untreated mental health around age 22. Massonburg saw a case similar to Angelica’s, where the young woman was closer to her father than to her mother. The father died and the young woman was overwhelmed by stress. She became homeless because she couldn’t contribute to household income like her brother – who was closer to their mother. Thinking her family didn’t care about her, she couldn’t even reach the bus stop on the way to work before returning home. But there are usually issues that show themselves earlier, Massonburg said, like getting bad grades or not getting along with other students. “Especially if it’s a single parent home and they are working and trying to maintain a household and the kid is not acting out, sometimes things will be missed.” She noted that mental health issues can be multigenerational: something the parents have also faced. “More functional families have a difficult time understanding that youth are not always runaways and/or the youth don't have to be ‘bad’ to get kicked out,” said A. Anne Holcomb of Unity Parenting. When her father was being abusive to her mother, the 14-year-old Holcomb couch surfed with friends from alternating cliques or slept in the school restroom. Only a couple of her teachers had a clue. Near the end of high school, her father took her out of school in an RV to the Navajo Indian reservation, where he was so incapacitated he would not get out of bed and she had to change his diaper. As he spiraled down, he became violent and suicidal. Then, in college, he would call her on the dorm pay phone at 2, 3 and 4 a.m. She became homeless when he severed his ties with her because she decided to stay in college rather than come “home” to take care of him. As a result, he was hospitalized against his will, diagnosed with major depression and psychotic features. “There’s always a reason youth become homeless, and usually the reason isn’t the youth,” Holcomb said. “It’s usually something that starts long before that. I am a big believer in historical trauma.”
