40 Years of Drugged Teens and Abandoned Kids Brings Painful Memories, Overdue Recognition

Glenn Waugh, at 73, has collected a lot of memories.

He remembers the young man whose mother kept him handcuffed and forced to sleep in a closet until he was 14, and he remembers the 21-year-old man who came for help after having been abandoned by his mother on the streets of Portland as an 8-year-old.

He'll never forget the 14-year-old boy who had been running a prostitution ring for his family.

In the world of now, not many people actually sign up to help these people.

That is at least partly why Waugh was just honored with the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award. Specifically, the honor was for more than 40 years of helping at-risk and homeless youth,.

"There are so many unbelievable stories,” says Waugh, who will be honored at a second ceremony at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. next spring. “Kids who have seen things no one should see. Ever.”

Waugh was a kid in Beaverton traveling in to Portland when he first became aware of the homeless.

“Even back then, you could see them on Burnside,” he says. “Adults mostly but also kids. And that really stuck with me.”

Waugh grew up, went to Linfield College. He met and married Susy. They started a family. He went into real estate. He never let go of the images of the homeless.

“I knew I had to do something,” he says. “I had a friend who had a coffee shop in McMinnville. I would go for walks. I was looking for someone.”

It was a December day in 1977 or 1978 when Waugh found that person - a young man sleeping among rose bushes.

“I took him home,” Waugh says. “He was the first. Real estate had been - is - my passion. Helping at-risk youth is my purpose. I was now working on my passion and my purpose.”

The first person he and Susy took in led to another. And another.

“After a while, it reached the point that if there was an at-risk youth who needed help, the county would come to us,” he says. “And we would find a bed, find some room.”

Waugh says his family - particularly Susy - never questioned, never objected.

“She was always smiling, always accepting, always accommodating,” he says. “She has really made all this possible, and I have to say I’m pretty sure for a long time, I really had no idea what I was putting her through.

“But she has always been there for me,” he says. “Her love has helped carry me. She has never wavered. She never asked who was coming home with me or where they were from. She was always smiling.

“Susy and I didn’t know what we were doing, but we seemed to get it done. We never had any problems.”

In 1991, Waugh took it to another level. He started Transitional Youth, which provides outreach, support and housing for homeless and at-risk youth.

“We have a five-step plan,” Waugh says. “Get kids off the street, start a ranch, get kids into houses, teach them independent living, and then get people to buy their own homes.”

Over the past 25 years, the group has opened a ranch in Yacolt, homes in Beaverton and Vancouver and a facility in Portland that serves meals. They’ve provided hope, life skills, mentoring and job training at these homes to more than 500 youth, and the they feed more than 11,000 people every year in downtown Portland, setting up on Monday nights at Lownsdale Park and Thursdays at First Presbyterian Church.

“We’re getting kids off the street, we’re teaching them to work, to be able to care for themselves.”

They’ve helped more kids than Waugh can keep track of.

“I’ve lost contact with a lot of the kids from early on,” he says, ruefully. “This was the day before Twitter, Facebook, social media. Now, it’s much easier.”

Waugh gets emotional talking about all the kids he’s seen come and go over the years, pausing, taking deep breaths as he speaks about what he’s learned, what he wishes others could see.

“People don’t see them as individuals,” he says. “They see the homeless problem but not the people that they are. They see a group of people they don’t like the look of, the smell of, how they act. You build relationships, get to know people and you suddenly start the see the transformations.

“There is so much power in seeing those transformations. If only once I had a mom come up to me saying, 'I never thought I’d have my son back…'” he says, his voice getting quiet.

"It would have been worth it."

There has actually been more than one mom over the years. Many more.

Waugh says that moving forward the organization has two major projects underway.

One - that he hopes to have in 2017 - is a home just for women.

“There is still such a need,” he says, remembering the young blonde who looked like she was 10. Things have not changed. “The number of women among the homeless has grown from 20 percent to 40 percent.”

The other project is a combination coffee shop/bicycle repair shop.

“Having a social enterprise is the next logical step,” he says. “It will give us an opportunity to provide more job training, to give people a chance to work. It will provide opportunity for people to learn about two businesses that are important parts of Portland - coffee and bicycles.”

Waugh says perhaps one of the most important parts of the business - which will be at 33rd and Powell - will be the floor, which will be covered with pennies.

“We had a kid up at the farm walking with a staffer,” he says. “And the staffer bent down to pick up a penny and the kid compared himself and others like him to pennies, saying people looked at both as dirty and having no value, something to be thrown away.

“I don’t want any kid - or anyone - to ever feel like that. The pennies will be a reminder that everyone has value.”

Photo courtesy FBI-Portland