Book excerpt

The Portland Tribune, Jan 26, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (5 Reader comments)

The following is an excerpt from “All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families” by Rene Denfeld.

©2007. Reprinted by arrangement with Public Affairs (www.publicaffairsbooks.com), a member of the Perseus Books Group. All rights reserved.

While the detectives spent a long day interviewing most of the accused, the Outside In youth agency held a memorial for Jessica Williams, as well as other “homeless” youth who die on the streets.

A year before, the agency had commissioned an artist to make a metal tree sculpture for the courtyard after another young street woman was murdered. The tree was now ready for dedication. The copper-colored leaves on the tree were blank. Every time a street youth died, his or her name would be inscribed on a leaf. The tree was expectant. There were at least a dozen leaves waiting for names. Jessica’s was one of the first names inscribed.

The service was held in the courtyard of the agency’s large building. Street kids and agency staff gathered around the death tree. It was exactly the sort of dramatic gesture that appealed to the street kids. For them, Jessica was now immortalized as a tragic symbol of how tough and dangerous their lifestyle was.

The Williams were not invited to the service. Becky says they were not asked for permission to have Jessica’s death used in a shrine to murdered homeless youth. She felt it was their daughter they had lost, and yet the youth agencies had claimed her as one of their own, another Portland “street kid” thrown cruelly to the wolves.

“The streets are not a safe place for homeless youth, but, by far, the majority of homeless youth are good kids,” Outside In Director Kathy Oliver told a reporter. “This is a tragedy and shouldn’t be reflective of the homeless youth.” She went on to claim such violence is “very rare.”

It was a perspective repeated by other service providers. They all appeared to believe the murder of Jessica Williams was an aberration. In truth, they seemed more concerned with protecting the image of homeless youth than addressing the reality of street family violence, though the street families prey on the genuinely homeless youth time and again.

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