First year Jace Vendelin smiles at the camera calling Pepperdine home in August 2021. Vendelin finished high school homeless in Missouri. Photo Courtesy of Jace Vendelin
At 18 years old, first-year Jace Vendelin’s parents gave him two options: Go to a drug rehabilitation facility or a psychiatric ward.
Vendelin opted for homelessness instead.
He found shelter on friends’ couches, sleeping in cars and occasionally on the streets. Now, as a Vocal Performance major at Pepperdine, Vendelin lives independently from his parents.
“I am not only living for myself anymore,” Vendelin said. “I have people to prove wrong but also, more importantly, I have to prove those who saw something in me right.”
Vendelin’s story of homelessness is one many youths share. These adolescents’ experiences with homelessness will affect them for the rest of their lives, impacting their physical and emotional health, as well as their future success. Organizations like the Covenant House and Ventura County Rescue Mission work to support these youth.
Youth Homelessness and Its Effects
Approximately 4,673 youth were homeless throughout LA County in 2020, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. There were six homeless youths out of 154 homeless individuals total in Malibu in 2019; youths make up almost 4% of the homeless population in the coastal city. The statistics for Malibu may seem small, but the impact is large.
Graphic by Melissa Auchard
“Homelessness will lead to a lot of adverse health outcomes, mental health and physical health and substance use outcomes,” said William Lehman, associate director of system implementation and improvement with the LA Homeless Services Authority.
Some 57% of homeless youth will spend at least one day a month without food, causing negative effects on their physical, social and emotional development, according to the Covenant House, an organization that provides support to homeless youth.
Half of school-age homeless youth experience depression and anxiety, according to a 2009 American Psychological Association report.
Homeless children are twice as likely to have a learning disability, repeat a grade or be suspended from school, according to the APA report.
Vendelin’s Experience with Homelessness
Vendelin said he became homeless because he felt his household was toxic. He said he believed his parents, especially his dad, didn’t see him as an individual but rather, as an extension of themselves.
“He [my dad] didn’t want me to have a girlfriend because he didn’t have a girlfriend in high school,” Vendelin said. “He didn’t want me to have a car because he didn’t have a car.”
Vendelin’s father did not respond to requests seeking comment on his relationship with his son. Vendelin’s mother declined to comment.
Tristan Pettorss met Vendelin his freshman year of high school in Missouri. Vendelin was a junior at the time. Pettorss said the two clicked and are now like brothers.
Pettorss was a witness to Vendelin’s rocky relationship with his parents. “[Their relationship was] not fantastic,” he said. “They kicked him out and I know his parents are really, really strict and Jace’s personality, he’s a very free spirit, and they kind of collided in that sense.”
Vendelin said emotional abuse and pressure at home made him turn to drugs and alcohol at a young age.
“I was not a good kid; I was definitely a troublemaker,” Vendelin said. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I accept that, and I’m trying to grow from that.”
When his parents issued their ultimatum, Vendelin said, he at first agreed to go to a rehab facility for a month despite his counselors’ and other professionals’ beliefs that he was not addicted to drugs or alcohol.
While he was in rehab, Vendelin said he realized he couldn’t live in an environment surrounded by addicts only to go back to the same toxic household.
On his 18th birthday in March, Vendelin left his parents, younger sister and home behind in search of a better life with three months of high school ahead of him.
“I broke down; I didn’t know what I was gonna do,” Vendelin said. “I truly realized the people who were supposed to love me completely, unconditionally, just had a really skewed and messed-up version of what love was.”
Over the next five months, he stayed in multiple houses. Friends, teachers and voice coaches took him in, Vendelin said.
On occasion, Vendelin said he slept in cars or on the streets — though never more than a couple of days.
Reasons Youth End Up Homeless
Several factors contribute to youth homelessness, Lehman said.
“Foster youth are simply more likely to be exposed to those risk factors,” Lehman said. “Things like family conflict, mental health and substance use in the home, being rejected for one’s gender identity and sexual orientation, exposure to violence in childhood. All of those things have been identified through our research as contributing factors to homelessness.”
Clayton Coates, chief ministry officer at the Ventura County Rescue Mission, who works with homeless men, women and children, said he has seen the effects of these risk factors.
The Rescue Mission has locations all over California, including the high desert. In the high desert for work, Coates spoke to four homeless youth who said government officials — county, state and federal — didn’t believe there was any reason for them to be homeless.
“Homelessness was, in essence, their fault,” Coates said.
There were no homeless services those individuals qualified for.
“It’s part of a view that says if you’re young, and if you don’t have children, you should be able to find a job, earn a wage, support yourself and then become upwardly mobile in society,” Coates said.
The Fluidity of Youth Homelessness
Youth homelessness is often more fluid than adult homelessness, Lehman said. With social networks, it’s easier for young people to find places to stay.
“Oftentimes, young people might be couch-surfing a couple of nights, then out on the street a couple of nights and then they find a place to stay for a couple of weeks,” Lehman said. “It’s much less common for a young person to be on the streets chronically for nine months.”
This also contributes to why youth homelessness seems less apparent than adult homelessness. In fact, any youth ages 18-24 is just as likely to become homeless as an adult, Lehman said.
Often during his homelessness, Vendelin said he didn’t know what his future would look like, forcing him to grow up quickly as he was put into adult circumstances.
“People need to understand what it’s like being this young and having to mature yourself so rapidly,” Vendelin said. “I felt like I lost a huge part of innocence and youth.”
As a guest wherever he went, Vendelin felt like he couldn’t act like himself. He felt as though he had to constantly be positive to ensure he had a place to sleep and eat at night.
“If these people had any kind of distaste for me, I could be on the street the next day,” Vendelin said. “It’s just like having to wake up and be like, ‘You can’t be yourself — you’ve got to present, you’ve got to put on a mask here.’”
Youth Homelessness Affects Future Success
The longer children are homeless, the less likely they are to achieve stability in the long run, Lehman said. Homelessness puts other priorities like education on the back burner; when a child is trying to survive, their math homework isn’t as important to them as shelter.
“We really need to focus on housing young people as quickly as possible,” Lehman said.
Only 33% of homeless students in the 2018-19 school year met the standards on a California state-mandated test, while 52% of non-homeless students achieved such standards, according to the California Department of Education.
Additionally, homeless students graduate from high school at a 15% lower rate than non-homeless students — 70% compared to 85% — according to the California Department of Education.
Vendelin said that while he was homeless, he was failing most of his classes.
“Having to figure out your college stuff — it’s already a stressful time,” Vendelin said, “But in having to add homelessness on top of that, I became extremely apathetic toward my academics.”
Long-term Effects of Youth Homelessness
While Vendelin’s bout with homelessness was short, youth homelessness can lead others to a lifetime of instability.
Josephine Lino, a resident of the Ventura County Rescue Mission’s Lighthouse for Women and Children, became homeless at 16.
Lino said she grew up in an impoverished household with a mom who was a heroin addict, a hardworking dad and seven siblings.
Constant physical abuse from her mother was the catalyst for her homelessness, Lino said.
“She would beat me with belts and hangers, and I was just like man, ‘What’s it gonna take for this to stop?’” Lino said. “That’s when I just left.”
Lino’s mother was unavailable for comment.
When she became homeless, Lino was pregnant with her first child.
“It wasn’t easy,” Lino said.
Over the next 21 years, Lino had 10 more children. Her youngest was born in 2010.
From the ages of 20 to 32, Lino was homeless, raising kids in motels, cars and on the streets. Over the years, she said she struggled with an addiction to crystal meth, which caused her to lose custody of most of her children. In 2012, her oldest children came back into her life.
Lino said she found God in 2006 and has continued to rely on her faith throughout her recovery. At the Lighthouse for Women and Children, Lino plans to work with the organization to help other women like her.
The Fight to End Youth Homelessness
Lehman said he works with LA Homeless Services Authority to improve the organization’s ability to capture data on youth homelessness, provide housing for as many homeless youth as possible, ensure they’re properly communicating with other youth programs across the county and advocate for an end to youth homelessness.
“We just received a $15-million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to augment efforts around the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program,” Lehman said.
Lehman said it’s a cliche, but young people do represent the future.
“An investment in addressing youth homelessness is a long-term investment in our society,” Lehman said.
Youth Homelessness Influenced Vendelin’s Success
Vendelin applied to colleges in fall 2020, his senior year of high school, when he was still living at home with his parents. He said he chose Pepperdine because he said he felt most at home here.
As a result of his homelessness and consequential financial circumstances from separating from his parents, he said he received large federal grants that have helped him afford Pepperdine.
“I probably would have had to go to a much cheaper school if it weren’t for the fact I got those federal grants,” Vendelin said. “So for a really horrible situation, God had my back.”
While Vendelin’s experience with homelessness was not an easy feat, he is grateful for it, Vendelin said.
“I found out who really had my back,” Vendelin said. “Who really loved me when I was at my lowest.”
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Email Melissa Auchard: melissa.auchard@pepperdine.edu
