Imagine being a high school student and waking up on your 18th birthday with no place to call home and few resources to find one.

Maricopa City Councilmember Amber Liermann said it’s a scenario she has encountered far too often. As a Maricopa High School counselor, she’s seen firsthand youth in foster care or domestic violence situations struggle with homelessness while still enrolled in high school.

“I’ve worked with a lot of students in foster care who came to school and said, ‘I’m 18 now and my foster parents kicked me out of the house,’” Liermann recalled. “I’ve had students come to school with a big trash bag of all their belongings after their foster parents literally kicked them out of the house that morning.”

Preventing more of those scenarios from happening is why the Maricopa City Council last night unanimously approved a land lease for a new vocational living facility.

Liermann and Councilmember Vincent Manfredi serve on the board of directors for Open Arms Vocational Living Center and recused themselves from the vote.

Open Arms Vocational Living Center will offer housing, vocational training and other support to men aged 18 to 25 who are homeless, leaving an unsafe home environment or have aged out of foster care.

Manfredi said the center’s directors want to ensure these teens don’t fall between the cracks while transitioning to adulthood.

“We want to give them the ability to finish school, to continue on with their education and to get vocational training in different industries that will help them become productive members of the Maricopa community,” Manfredi said.

Filling a gap

Young women experiencing homelessness have more available resources than their male counterparts. Liermann said she and other counselors can easily refer them to local centers like Against Abuse or Hope Women’s Shelter for housing and support.

For young men over age 18, the closest help is in other cities, miles away from what little support systems they may have.

“These kids who grew up here now have to be shifted outside the city for help and it doesn’t make sense,” Manfredi said. “They want to graduate from the school they’ve been attending; they want to stay around their friends and the folks they know, and they want the stability they’ve had over those few years [in Maricopa]. Unfortunately, once they turn 18, we have to uproot them and move them away.”

Those teens who don’t want to move away often find themselves without a home and with few resources. Liermann said often they will attempt to couch surf with friends while struggling to balance school, work and figuring out their next step.

Others attempt to find refuge in public places.

“I have met many young men that have been unhoused,” Liermann said. “I’ve had many students tell me they’re sleeping at Copper Sky, Pacana Park. We had one student who was sleeping on the roof of the school … he said that’s where he felt safe.”

What happens next?

The agreement approved by the city council last night shows the 1,500-square-foot center will be built on an empty city-owned lot in the Heritage District near Mercado and Main Streets.

The center will pay $1 in rent per month for 10 years to the city. It will be responsible for paying all utilities, insurance, construction, taxes, assessments and other costs.

Maricopa leasing land or buildings at a low cost isn’t a new concept. The city once leased a prime space for just $200 per month to the Maricopa Chamber of Commerce.

For now, the focus at Open Arms is on designing the center. Construction is expected to begin within the next two years. Liermann said the board visited other centers around the state, such as Thrive Arizona and Phoenix Rescue Mission for ideas.

“We’re still … deciding on the design and what type of structure it’s going to be,” Liermann said.

Board members said they are looking forward to bringing hope to students who would otherwise have few options.

“These kids need to know there’s a place for them. Right now, there isn’t, and they will go back to sleeping under the bridge or to the park,” Liermann said. “If we don’t help them, it’s very likely something bad is going to happen.”

Vincent Manfredi is an owner of InMaricopa.