Covenant House Plans Alaska Facility : Runaways May Soon Find Shelter

David, 16, was sleeping on the streets and working as a prostitute. His parents had left him behind when they moved out of Alaska.

Geanne, also 16, got pregnant and ran away from the Athabascan village where she grew up. In Anchorage, she turned to prostitution and was often beaten by her pimp. She died of an overdose.

There are others, enough to give this city of 230,000 residents a disproportionate number of runaways and homeless youths. At least 1,200 runaways are reported each year in Anchorage, more than three times the number in cities of comparable size, a 1986 municipal study found.

“We are not a large city, yet we have a very large problem,” said Marj Hall, director of the Alaska Juvenile Crime Commission, where David’s and Geanne’s cases are on file. (Rules of confidentiality prohibit use of their last names.)

The statistics, and the troubled young faces behind them, grabbed the attention of Covenant House, a nonprofit group that operates shelters in larger cities such as New York and Houston.

40-Bed Home Planned

This summer in Anchorage, Covenant House is turning an old YMCA building into a 40-bed shelter where runaways can sort out their lives and perhaps avoid the pitfalls of living on the street.

Covenant House’s arrival is lauded by local social workers frustrated by a lack of long-term care for runaway youths. Some warn, however, that the shelter, expected to open in October, will be no panacea.

They say the runaways are part of Alaska’s frontier demographics--a young, transient population isolated from stabilizing family and community ties in the Lower 48 states.

“Kids don’t have the extended family network here,” Hall said. “If they get into trouble, they can’t go to Uncle Charlie who they’ve known since they were a pup.”

A boom-bust economy contributes to social instability, as does the cultural upheaval among the Indians who make up 14% of the state’s people.

The result: Alaska consistently ranks at or near the top of the charts in rates of alcoholism, rape, child abuse, divorce, suicide, assault and domestic violence.

Danger on the Street

Trouble at home gives some Alaska youths good reason to run, but once on the street, they face bigger trouble as easy marks for pushers, pimps and other exploiters.

In the early 1980s, when North Slope oil revenues were padding state budgets, funds for social programs were increased, but social workers say little of the money was used to help runaway kids. Today, Anchorage has only 10 beds available for runaways, and now that the oil boom has gone bust, government money is hard to come by.

Enter Covenant House, begun 19 years ago in New York City when Father Bruce Ritter, a Franciscan priest, started letting transient kids sleep on his apartment floor. Today, Covenant House runs shelters in six cities and provides food, clothing, medical care and counseling to more than 20,000 youths a year.

Covenant House officials were asked why they are opening shop in Anchorage when other, larger cities have more visible runaway problems.

“We were invited,” answered Brenda Moscarella, the Alaska project manager. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage raised money to buy the building and told Ritter it was his if Covenant House would open a shelter there. Ritter took the bait.

Homey Plan for Building

Fred Ali, the program’s executive director, said the building will be transformed into a comfortable home with bedrooms upstairs and a dining hall, clinic, lounge and chapel downstairs.

Recruiting has begun for a staff of 40 doctors, child-care attendants, cooks and counselors. Operating costs are expected to top $1 million a year, most of which will come from Covenant House’s nationwide fund-raising efforts.

Though the organization has strong religious ties, runaways are not proselytized, Moscarella said. “God is one more father figure, and they ran away from that,” she said.

Covenant House Alaska may differ a little from the group’s other operations. Ali said he is looking for staffers who are comfortable with native Alaskan culture, and Moscarella said the usual 9:30 p.m. curfew may have to be extended in summer, when even toddlers stay out to play under the late-night sun.

Still, the love and discipline that distinguish other Covenant House shelters will apply here, Moscarella said. No weapons, drugs or violent behavior will be allowed, and the kids will have to do chores and follow progress plans mapped out by their counselors.

Goals for Future Set

The goals may be returning them to their homes, helping them land jobs or sending them to drug counseling. Nationwide, Covenant House claims a 35% success rate in meeting those goals, Moscarella said.

Some dispute that, however, and say that Covenant House actually encourages runaways.

“I don’t think it will help,” said Allen, 17, a runaway and former drug pusher who now helps the Alaska Juvenile Crime Commission counsel youths on the street. “It’s going to make kids more likely to run away because they’ll know they have someplace to stay.”

Police who handle runaway reports say that many Anchorage runaways are not in great danger. Investigator Ronald Emmons said that at least 90% of them fit into the “spoiled brat” or “free spirit” category. They ran away because they were told to take out the garbage or vacuum the carpet.

These manipulators generally return home after they have worn out their welcome at friends’ houses, and Covenant House counseling may not get through to them, Emmons said. “To them, (shelter) might just mean a picnic for 30 days,” he said.

Ali and Moscarella said Covenant House is hard-headed enough to deal with such youths and open-minded enough to take all comers, spoiled or not.

“That kid may start off as a spoiled brat,” Ali said, “but those kids are at risk just like anybody else. There is child prostitution in this town, and there are kids running drugs. The street’s not a safe place to be.”