WASILLA -- David Estrada dishes up lasagna soup, cinnamon rolls and coffee at the counter of Gathering Grounds coffee house near downtown Wasilla.
The affable, dark-haired 18-year-old isn't just working for video game money.
The cafe is one of several businesses affiliated with MyHouse, a nonprofit drop-in center for homeless youths celebrating its first year of operation with a public event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday featuring coffee and food, speakers and music.
Estrada moved out of his mother's house on Easter this year to escape what he described as constant fights with a relative that cast a pall of tension over his home life.
Since then, he has stayed in school as he lived with different friends. At one point, he and two buddies shared a 2000 Ford camper.
Homelessness gave Estrada the peace he needed. MyHouse gave him independence.
"Since I started this job, I've been able to support myself," he said.
Hand up
Estrada is one of 174 young people on whom MyHouse has opened case files in its first year of operation.
MyHouse is not a shelter, though that's a goal. Instead, the nonprofit provides job assistance, access to health care, clothing, food, showers and laundry for people from ages 16 to 24, with limited services available to teens from 14 to 16.
Founder and director Michelle Overstreet says it over and over: "We're a hand up, not a hand out."
Co-founder Michael Carson points out that the first step up from homelessness is employment. He references a report that it takes $15 an hour -- with a third going toward housing -- to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market value in the Mat-Su area.
To get help, young people have to meet with a case worker and establish goals. That system also helps the center track demographics.
A little less than a third are under 18, according to Jenn Martin, MyHouse case manager and data coordinator.
The top reason given for leaving home revolved around issues with parents, other than fights: Parents moved and left them; parents lost their jobs or went to jail; parents had substance abuse or mental health problems; or there was emotional, physical or sexual abuse in the home.
Seventeen young people said they lived in a tent. Sixteen said they lived outside without a tent or even a box, Martin said.
"In winter, we had kids coming in saying they find places," she said. "They go to apartment buildings where there's stairs on the inside and they crash on the stairs until someone catches them. I know the police kick kids out of the post office at night."
Camping in the city
Wasilla police say they see increasing numbers of young people sleeping in camps scattered around Wasilla. The camps spring up on wooded lots, behind Iditarod Elementary School or on a big vacant parcel off Knik-Goose Bay Road, before police clear the campers and they turn up somewhere else.
Occupants tend to run from 15 to 28 years old, Wasilla police spokesman Officer Rick Manrique said. Police see patterns of theft crop up when camps move, Manrique said, though he didn't want to paint all the camp occupants as thieves.
The presence of a drop-in center near downtown sparked concern when MyHouse opened last year, he said, but he hasn't seen major problems materialize.
"I think they've been a responsible neighbor for the immediate area," Manrique said. "They're very diligent about expressing that to the young people that use their services."
Overstreet says one neighbor still isn't a fan, but other nearby businesses actually report less homeless traffic since the center opened.
"We're not going to help all the homeless kids because a lot of them don't want help," she said. "But we're here for the ones that do."
Support but no shelter
Despite growing numbers of homeless youths, there is no shelter in the Valley. But there are several sources of support for homeless young people.
Local food banks also don't ask for ID or age, according to Dave Rose, director of the Mat-Su Coalition on Housing and Homelessness. Wasilla's Turn A Leaf thrift store can help with rent if someone's old enough to sign a contract.
The Mat-Su Borough School District offers help with food, clothing, transportation and health care to students who qualify under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act.
The school district's tally of students considered homeless this month is 382 kindergartners through 12th-graders, according to Amy Dorsey, the district's Families in Transition liaison. Last year at this time, the count was a little over 300, but by year's end it increased to 865 preschoolers to 12th-graders.
Of the 17,000 students in the district, 4 percent to 5 percent are considered homeless, Dorsey said. That's comparable to Anchorage.
"And we don't have a shelter," she said.
Job ready
What sets MyHouse apart is the center's primary mission of workforce development, supporters say.
"We're really training kids that to this point have been unemployable," Overstreet said.
The center offers help with resumes and job searches, but it also offers jobs. MyHouse operates two businesses -- Gathering Grounds and a new steampunk-themed boutique called Steamdriven -- and partners with two others: CarDeets auto detailing and Nine Star Enterprises, a longtime employment services company.
As of this week, there were 10 youths training at various positions. They learn essential job skills such as showing up on time, customer service, working as a team, listening to managers.
"They get training skills here and then they go to better jobs," Martin said. "That's the whole idea. We want high turnover rates."
Built on community
MyHouse also tries to give homeless kids a place to get grounded and fed.
Every day at 3 p.m., one group of volunteers prepares food and another sits down to eat with whatever teens materialize for dinner. Overstreet says she came up with idea with staffer Alice Renfro based on something she heard years ago: the one experience shared by most Rhodes Scholars was sitting down to at least one family meal a day.
Overstreet, who estimated the center's start-up annual budget at $250,000, credits its first-year success to that passionate, energetic corps of volunteers and community support.
The center raised more than $100,000, including $25,000 from an anonymous donor who has promised another $25,000 if somebody else will match it. Wells Fargo also recently announced a $25,000 award.
MyHouse also got funding from sources including the Mat-Su Borough, United Way, community councils, Walmart, Rotary and the Colony High School leadership organization, which raised $17,000 alone, Overstreet said.
"The community has been imperative," she said.
Contact Zaz Hollander at zhollander@alaskadispatch.com.