On Friday afternoon I sat down to write a story about a serious, but little known issue in this country – homeless children.

I found out about the issue by accident about a year ago and have been trying to nail down a story since. Confidentiality issues, rightly, stood between me and the kids I needed to bring the story home so I kept putting it off.

Around the time I was trying to figure out a way to give a numbers story heart, I finally caught a break.

A woman from an organization called “Youth Count” had reached out to the paper and asked us to consider writing a story to highlight the issue.

I immediately emailed her and we began about a two-month correspondence that culminated last week when I sat down to interview two teenagers.

Read the story »

The day that I interviewed Ben and Teresa, I walked into the interview tired. It had already been a long day and I was fighting a headache.

I forgot all about that the moment Ben began to speak.

He was clearly uncomfortable talking about his situation – I don’t think he ever met my eyes – but he didn’t shy away from answering my questions.

His insight was surprising, and painful, to hear from someone so young. It was highlighted, for me at least, the moment I asked him to describe what being homeless was like and he responded with the Dante’s Inferno comparison.

Teresa, who I interviewed after Ben, emitted a completely different vibe when she entered the room. She wasn’t pleased about sitting there and talking to me about her situation, so she kept her answers short.

Her stance changed completely when I asked her what it was like to watch her mother struggle. It started with a single tear and then she turned away from me and covered her face while she tried to regain composure.

Part of me wanted to take the question back after seeing her reaction, but the other part of me waited, curious to see what she would say.

It was worth wait.

Her response was raw with emotion and really brought home how important the story I was about to write was.

A few days later when I sat down to put the words on the page, I struggled for a good hour with where to begin. Both had shared powerful stories and I didn’t know which would be more compelling to my readers.

In the end, I chose Ben, not because his story was a better than Teresa’s, but because I wanted my readers to have that shocked moment I did when he compared his life to a dark piece of famous literature.

It showed not only were these extremely intelligent children, but they had an understanding of just how harsh reality can be.

When all is said and done, I hope that my article with Ben and Teresa’s stories helped shed some light on an issue that is far too often only a footnote in these hard economic times we are facing.

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