Daily Real Estate News  |  October 24, 2007  |   Oregon Practitioner Reaches Out to Homeless Youth
With its damp, temperate climate, Portland, Ore., is known as the city of roses. But Portland has another, less desirable distinction: It has one of the largest populations of homeless youth in the nation, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Fortunately, it also has Bert Waugh Jr., 64, founder of Transitional Youth, a nonprofit organization that provides housing, outreach, and support to young people who otherwise would be living on the streets. Waugh is one of 10 finalists for REALTORŪ Magazine's Good Neighbor Awards, a grant program recognizing REALTORSŪ who make exceptional volunteer contributions to their communities.

“I’ve had a heart for kids as far back as I can remember,” says Waugh who, with his wife, Susy, began taking street youth into their home in the 1970s. “We’d get a call telling us about a child who’d been abandoned, and we couldn’t say no.”

In 1991, Waugh founded Transitional Youth. Initially, the organization raised funds to support other local agencies helping homeless youth. Today, Transitional Youth helps kids directly through an outreach center and two group homes in Portland and one in Vancouver, Wash.

The organization also has a “Home on the Range” program in which youngsters from the outreach center spend time at a working ranch near Battleground, Wash.

“A lot of these kids have had really horrific lives filled with sexual abuse, drugs, and violence. We find that after they spend some time at the ranch working outdoors and helping with the horses, it really changes their attitude and helps them look past some of the things that have happened to them. Then we can bring them back to the houses, and they can start the rest of their lives,” Waugh says.

One young man says that the group facility in Portland was his first real home in seven years. “Before I came to Transitional Youth, I was doing a lot of drugs. I lived where I could, and sometimes that meant under a bridge,” says Dane, now 26, who asked that his full name not be used. “When I found Transitional Youth, I found safety, and I also found friendship. It saved my life.”

Today, Transitional Youth operates on an annual budget of $475,000 raised entirely from private contributions. It has helped an estimated 600 youngsters.

“Our commitment to these kids is to get them off the street, job-trained or educated, and able to function as successful adults,” says Waugh.

Of the 10 Good Neighbor finalists, five winners — which will be announced on Friday — will receive $10,000 grants for their community projects and will be honored at the REALTORSŪ Conference & Expo in Las Vegas on Nov. 14. The remaining five finalists will receive $2,500 grants for their cause.

— By Jim Hatfield for REALTORŪ Magazine Online