Story Opens; Steve Amen

The following is a front street weekly special report. Wards of the street, this program contains language that may be objectionable. Viewer discretion is advised. I guess I'm what you call a throwaway of society, I mean my parents really don't care. In Multnomah County, there just are probably as many as 500 kids that are going without shelter. And when you're on the streets, you basically do what you have to do to survive. They're surviving situations that most of us would fall apart in. And I don't think people know what it's like out there on the streets, you know. It is not a healthy place and it is not a safe place. And if you're going to live on the streets and survive, then you have to learn how to be tough. I'm carrying a gun, motherfuckers. A lot of what you see in these kids is a front, sure they'll appear talking or look tough. And part of that is protection and part of that is also because inside they are scared

to death. Because you get hassles from not only pimps but drugs and guys that are on drugs and pretty much everything. It's like you're having a little war, you know, like against. Good people and bad people is like a fight. Despite those dangers, the street is home to a growing number of children who have either run away or been abandoned by their families. Tonight we take you to the streets to meet these kids, find out who they are, why they're here and how they survive on their own. It all started on a night like any other, I was busy wrapping up a big story when the call came in. Hey, man. How many missing? Okay, I'm on it. This was it, Pulitzer Time, an exclusive story about four people missing, a kind of story

and investigative reporter lives for it. So I took to the streets to check with my contacts. Oh, they wanted to help, but someone had obviously told them to put a lid on it. We don't want it. I needed a different approach, so I headed to my favorite night spot. Sometimes familiar surroundings helped me sort things out and this story had more curves than my last contact. Usual, Joe? I know it's not Joe, it's Harry. What do you want? The usual Harry. I know my ingredients. What do you want? Coffee. Coffee. There's nothing like a cup of Joe to get the juices flowing, but there was more acid in this coffee than my ex-wife's tongue, so I decided to head out and that's when I saw it, my first clue, 15th in Yamhill, as good a place as any to investigate the macabre. I wasn't familiar with the area, but I would be, and soon. This is where the disappearances were perpetrated, well, sort of.

Turns out it's some kind of theater. Children, Herbert Hoover once called them our most valuable natural resource, but that was a long time ago, before there were so many of them. And whatever happened to the addies that the little darling should be seen and not heard. Here's an all-too-common scene, friends getting together, only to form a circle and spend the next six hours watching the children play. The only thing encouraging about a display like this is that the ruffians may wear themselves out. Now this is a pretty picture, and so is this, a deserted sofa in a quiet room. It gives one the opportunity to reflect on the single life and its many advantages. It's show time!

Thanks to modern technology, little cherubs don't even have to be around and monopolize our attention. We can now see them preserve forever in living color, and unlike film, videotape is cheap. Why you can get two whole hours of action like this for only a couple of dollars. At least this keeps the proud parents glued to the tube, so people like me can slip away and pretend to be interested in, oh, say, a collection of time life books. Steve! There you are. I've got a few pictures for you to see. Sit down. Look at these. Here's Nick when he was just a little guy, isn't he cute? And here he is. He took his first airplane ride with his three months old.

Can you believe it? It was great. Here he is at the... Baby pictures. A growing problem of international proportions. They're cheap, portable, and parents don't need any fancy equipment to show them off, and show them off they do, to anyone, any place at any time. Now tell me the truth. Only a parent would keep a picture like this, right? Or this. You know, I really wouldn't mind looking at the pictures if I could just figure out what or who it is I'm looking at. Hi there, Mr. Beak. And that's where Rebecca Phoenix comes in. She's considered one of the nation's best children's portrait specialists. I was looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love. Hi, is this the discreet Philanderis? I've just been reading about you in the paper and thought we should get together. Tonight? Sure. It's been about two hours, hoping to find a friend. We can't try to understand, and they all times are fake on me.

But you're the real right dear, about to you stay in a line. Stay in a line. You'll see if they can hear everybody shaking them, we'll stay in a line. Stay in a line. Hi, hi, hi. Stay in a line. Stay in a line. Stay in a line. Hi, hi. Stay in a line. Hi, hi.