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ENLARGE
Casa de Belen resident Kevin Vales, 18, left, pours cake batter into a dish to bake it, as fellow residents Michael Morris, 17, right, and Justin Skinner, 19, look on, at the transitional housing complex for teens and families in Roseburg last week.
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ENLARGE
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Casa de Belen resident Zack Sullivan-Haggans, 14, left, gets help with his homework from fellow residents Kevin Vales, middle, and Michael Morris at Casa last week. Zack, who is a freshman at Roseburg High School, lives at the home with his mother. Vales and Morris try to help the younger kids with their homework.
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A year ago 18-year-old Kevin Vales slept in parks and under bridges.
Nothing mattered more than staying high.
Now a four-month resident of Casa de Belen -- he turned 18 after entering -- Vales focuses on sobriety and completing his GED.
Anywhere else, he would be on the streets again. But anywhere else is not like Casa de Belen.
Not outside lockup.
Modeled for homeless teenage boys, the Roseburg transitional housing complex is a community pillared by residents' shared love and support for one another, which at first overwhelmed Vales.
Now sporting a close-cropped mohawk with khakis and a hoodie that drapes from his rail-thin frame, Vales has learned to adapt quickly.
"There's a better way of living, and it's called 'being sober,'" he said.
Vales might not have found a better way to live without Casa de Belen.
In Roseburg, the Samaritan Inn women's shelter on Northeast Jackson Street doesn't allow boys over 12. And the Roseburg Rescue Mission is not the ideal shelter for a teenager.
Nothing mattered more than staying high.
Now a four-month resident of Casa de Belen -- he turned 18 after entering -- Vales focuses on sobriety and completing his GED.
Anywhere else, he would be on the streets again. But anywhere else is not like Casa de Belen.
Not outside lockup.
Modeled for homeless teenage boys, the Roseburg transitional housing complex is a community pillared by residents' shared love and support for one another, which at first overwhelmed Vales.
Now sporting a close-cropped mohawk with khakis and a hoodie that drapes from his rail-thin frame, Vales has learned to adapt quickly.
"There's a better way of living, and it's called 'being sober,'" he said.
Vales might not have found a better way to live without Casa de Belen.
In Roseburg, the Samaritan Inn women's shelter on Northeast Jackson Street doesn't allow boys over 12. And the Roseburg Rescue Mission is not the ideal shelter for a teenager.
Vales never slept at the mission, but he has slept in others where he feared for his life.
<b>A NEW OPTION</b>
A few years ago, a couple of Roseburg men, Father Juniper Schneider and Gary Galbick, discovered many homeless male teenagers sharing the same fears.
A teenager had pointed out about 20 homeless teens sleeping under a Roseburg bridge to the St. Joseph Catholic Church priest and parishioner.
The teens said they had no other place to stay.
Schneider and Galbick decided the community needed a change.
To the surprise of many, Galbick purchased an old nursing home off Northeast Stephens Street, the Grandview Care Center.
Renovating the nursing home was not easy. It had sat rotting for five years.
"I remember before all this was re-done, taking people on a tour here like four years ago and people looking at me like 'This guy's nuts,'" Schneider said.
In March 2008, Casa de Belen -- Spanish for "Bethlehem house" -- will celebrate its third anniversary. Since opening, it has housed 135 residents, many of them recovering drug addicts.
But it's not a treatment center. Casa de Belen is a home for homeless teens, specifically teenage boys, as well as homeless families with a teen.
Most nonprofit housing complexes are reluctant to take on teenage boys.
Casa de Belen takes them on "with the goal of helping them to finish school, helping them to get some kind of job training, helping them to go to college -- helping them put together a productive life and move toward some kind of independent living," said Schneider, who is also a priest at the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Sutherlin.
<b>FULFILLING A LEGACY</b>
Vales said he smoked pot for the first time at the age of 6 and he said he snorted his first line of meth at 9.
It took only a few years for his drug use to become rampant.
His father, who'd had enough, kicked him out of their Stockton, Calif., home.
Vales has only recently come to know his mother.
Living on the streets, Vales steeled himself with a never-ending pharmaceutical cornucopia -- ecstasy, prescription pills, methamphetamine, pot, opium, embalming fluid, PCP.
"I was a garbage can," he said.
He sold drugs to buy drugs and he shoplifted food when he was broke.
He drifted in and out of detention centers.
On a whim, he traveled to Yoncalla 11 months ago to visit an uncle and score a couple pounds of marijuana. He had barely arrived when he landed back in jail after letting a party at his uncle's get out of control while he was away.
The revelers damaged $18,000 worth of property.
As he neared seven months of institutionalized sobriety, Vales never considered kicking drugs. But a friend he met in detention convinced him he could be happy, clean and sober. His friend persuaded him to apply to Casa de Belen.
Vales figured he could get away with using drugs while living there.
Casa de Belen has an open-door policy.
Instead Vales stayed sober. But he relapsed four weeks later.
No one at Casa would give up on him.
"The people here showed me so much love and caring, now I've got three months clean and sober," he said last week. "It's probably the best support I've had in my entire whole life."
Narcotics anonymous and alcoholics anonymous meetings are part of Vales' everyday ritual.
Besides sobriety, Vales is attempting another personal milestone: In a couple of months he'll complete his GED at Umpqua Training & Employment, where he walks to and from everyday.
"I never thought I could get a diploma, but now I'm doing it," he said.
<b>ONE OF DOZENS</b>
Vales' story may be extreme. But he's one of at least 160 homeless teens who lived in the Roseburg area in the past year.
"It's all over the scale," said Juliana Marez, a homeless and runaway youth services liaison for grades K-12 in the Roseburg School District.
Each school year, Marez surveys shelters and receives referrals for homeless teens.
Though many live in "doubled-up housing," they can end up there for a number of reasons -- a household fire, a parent suffering from a debilitating illness, escapement from a drug environment, a parent not able to make ends meet with a low-paying job -- Marez said.
And then there are the incorrigible. Those who defy authority, points out Sgt. Dave Marshall with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
In her 13 years working with Roseburg's homeless teens, Marez has seen drug education prevent many teens from becoming substance abusers. Emphasizing that meth should be avoided at all costs has really worked, she said.
But it's also had another effect. Some teens, engulfed by a drug-fueled environment, strike out on their own and sleep on friends' couches or anywhere to dodge the fallout of methamphetamine abuse.
"It's no fun living with an addict," Marez said.
It's quite common for a student to approach Marez and ask for help.
"They've seen the devastation and they don't want that for themselves," she said.
Teens also run away to escape violence. Yet the Battered Persons Advocacy on Southeast Douglas Avenue in Roseburg doesn't have the resources to take in teens younger than 18, unless they're pregnant.
"We're constantly seeking other resources out of town, Eugene or Portland," because there are no resources for teens in Douglas County, Dawn Hammer, director of the Battered Persons Advocacy, said.
Casa de Belen, which is limited at 34 resident rooms, is the only option.
"Before, we had absolutely nothing for boys," Marez said.
<b>TRANSITION</b>
Not every teen who enters Casa de Belen is suited for a long stay, Schneider said. Some move out quickly while others are in need of prolonged drug treatment. But their stay at Casa provides visible support, often for the first time.
If a teen can admit to himself "'I don't have to relive my family's legacy,'" then he's on his way to recovery from drugs, Schneider said. "If you don't have a before and after, it's hard to see what you need to change."
Casa de Belen does not "push" religion on teenagers or drag them to church. It does, however, encourage residents to find a "faith family" and has a chapel open to residents at all hours, Schneider said. "The object is not to push religion as much as it is to help people discover the love that God has for them. Where they go with that is sort of up to them.
"I think the goal, really, is to convince them that they're loved by God, they've been blessed with many gifts and God has great hopes for them," he said.
<b>DISCOVERING STRENGTHS</b>
"Life ain't nothing without dreams," reads Mike Morris' T-shirt.
By day, the 17-year-old attends Roseburg High School. At night he spreads the sauce and sprinkles cheese at Pizza Hut.
A seven-month resident of Casa, the Grants Pass native is applying for financial aid and is dead-set on attending a musical technical college in Orlando, Fla., rather than cloud his vision with pot, pills and alcohol.
"It's exciting because I can get on with my life," Morris said.
Transforming troubled teens into building blocks of the community is part of the ongoing vision at Casa de Belen, Schneider said.
"Education is the great equalizer," Marez said.
Schneider champions the educational pursuits of his residents and is considered a cornerstone of the house.
"He's probably one of those people that if you take him out of Casa, the whole place will crumble," Vales said. "He's the first person I could talk to and really trust."
Vales hopes to stay at Casa de Belen for about a year, until he's comfortable enough with moving his life forward from drugs on his own.
He's sure to have plenty of support from Casa's staff and residents.
"They hold me responsible," Morris said.
* You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.
<b>A NEW OPTION</b>
A few years ago, a couple of Roseburg men, Father Juniper Schneider and Gary Galbick, discovered many homeless male teenagers sharing the same fears.
A teenager had pointed out about 20 homeless teens sleeping under a Roseburg bridge to the St. Joseph Catholic Church priest and parishioner.
The teens said they had no other place to stay.
Schneider and Galbick decided the community needed a change.
To the surprise of many, Galbick purchased an old nursing home off Northeast Stephens Street, the Grandview Care Center.
Renovating the nursing home was not easy. It had sat rotting for five years.
"I remember before all this was re-done, taking people on a tour here like four years ago and people looking at me like 'This guy's nuts,'" Schneider said.
In March 2008, Casa de Belen -- Spanish for "Bethlehem house" -- will celebrate its third anniversary. Since opening, it has housed 135 residents, many of them recovering drug addicts.
But it's not a treatment center. Casa de Belen is a home for homeless teens, specifically teenage boys, as well as homeless families with a teen.
Most nonprofit housing complexes are reluctant to take on teenage boys.
Casa de Belen takes them on "with the goal of helping them to finish school, helping them to get some kind of job training, helping them to go to college -- helping them put together a productive life and move toward some kind of independent living," said Schneider, who is also a priest at the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Sutherlin.
<b>FULFILLING A LEGACY</b>
Vales said he smoked pot for the first time at the age of 6 and he said he snorted his first line of meth at 9.
It took only a few years for his drug use to become rampant.
His father, who'd had enough, kicked him out of their Stockton, Calif., home.
Vales has only recently come to know his mother.
Living on the streets, Vales steeled himself with a never-ending pharmaceutical cornucopia -- ecstasy, prescription pills, methamphetamine, pot, opium, embalming fluid, PCP.
"I was a garbage can," he said.
He sold drugs to buy drugs and he shoplifted food when he was broke.
He drifted in and out of detention centers.
On a whim, he traveled to Yoncalla 11 months ago to visit an uncle and score a couple pounds of marijuana. He had barely arrived when he landed back in jail after letting a party at his uncle's get out of control while he was away.
The revelers damaged $18,000 worth of property.
As he neared seven months of institutionalized sobriety, Vales never considered kicking drugs. But a friend he met in detention convinced him he could be happy, clean and sober. His friend persuaded him to apply to Casa de Belen.
Vales figured he could get away with using drugs while living there.
Casa de Belen has an open-door policy.
Instead Vales stayed sober. But he relapsed four weeks later.
No one at Casa would give up on him.
"The people here showed me so much love and caring, now I've got three months clean and sober," he said last week. "It's probably the best support I've had in my entire whole life."
Narcotics anonymous and alcoholics anonymous meetings are part of Vales' everyday ritual.
Besides sobriety, Vales is attempting another personal milestone: In a couple of months he'll complete his GED at Umpqua Training & Employment, where he walks to and from everyday.
"I never thought I could get a diploma, but now I'm doing it," he said.
<b>ONE OF DOZENS</b>
Vales' story may be extreme. But he's one of at least 160 homeless teens who lived in the Roseburg area in the past year.
"It's all over the scale," said Juliana Marez, a homeless and runaway youth services liaison for grades K-12 in the Roseburg School District.
Each school year, Marez surveys shelters and receives referrals for homeless teens.
Though many live in "doubled-up housing," they can end up there for a number of reasons -- a household fire, a parent suffering from a debilitating illness, escapement from a drug environment, a parent not able to make ends meet with a low-paying job -- Marez said.
And then there are the incorrigible. Those who defy authority, points out Sgt. Dave Marshall with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.
In her 13 years working with Roseburg's homeless teens, Marez has seen drug education prevent many teens from becoming substance abusers. Emphasizing that meth should be avoided at all costs has really worked, she said.
But it's also had another effect. Some teens, engulfed by a drug-fueled environment, strike out on their own and sleep on friends' couches or anywhere to dodge the fallout of methamphetamine abuse.
"It's no fun living with an addict," Marez said.
It's quite common for a student to approach Marez and ask for help.
"They've seen the devastation and they don't want that for themselves," she said.
Teens also run away to escape violence. Yet the Battered Persons Advocacy on Southeast Douglas Avenue in Roseburg doesn't have the resources to take in teens younger than 18, unless they're pregnant.
"We're constantly seeking other resources out of town, Eugene or Portland," because there are no resources for teens in Douglas County, Dawn Hammer, director of the Battered Persons Advocacy, said.
Casa de Belen, which is limited at 34 resident rooms, is the only option.
"Before, we had absolutely nothing for boys," Marez said.
<b>TRANSITION</b>
Not every teen who enters Casa de Belen is suited for a long stay, Schneider said. Some move out quickly while others are in need of prolonged drug treatment. But their stay at Casa provides visible support, often for the first time.
If a teen can admit to himself "'I don't have to relive my family's legacy,'" then he's on his way to recovery from drugs, Schneider said. "If you don't have a before and after, it's hard to see what you need to change."
Casa de Belen does not "push" religion on teenagers or drag them to church. It does, however, encourage residents to find a "faith family" and has a chapel open to residents at all hours, Schneider said. "The object is not to push religion as much as it is to help people discover the love that God has for them. Where they go with that is sort of up to them.
"I think the goal, really, is to convince them that they're loved by God, they've been blessed with many gifts and God has great hopes for them," he said.
<b>DISCOVERING STRENGTHS</b>
"Life ain't nothing without dreams," reads Mike Morris' T-shirt.
By day, the 17-year-old attends Roseburg High School. At night he spreads the sauce and sprinkles cheese at Pizza Hut.
A seven-month resident of Casa, the Grants Pass native is applying for financial aid and is dead-set on attending a musical technical college in Orlando, Fla., rather than cloud his vision with pot, pills and alcohol.
"It's exciting because I can get on with my life," Morris said.
Transforming troubled teens into building blocks of the community is part of the ongoing vision at Casa de Belen, Schneider said.
"Education is the great equalizer," Marez said.
Schneider champions the educational pursuits of his residents and is considered a cornerstone of the house.
"He's probably one of those people that if you take him out of Casa, the whole place will crumble," Vales said. "He's the first person I could talk to and really trust."
Vales hopes to stay at Casa de Belen for about a year, until he's comfortable enough with moving his life forward from drugs on his own.
He's sure to have plenty of support from Casa's staff and residents.
"They hold me responsible," Morris said.
* You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.
