Polygamy's 'Lost Boys' make their own group home
 
The Associated Press
Times Record News - Wichita Falls, Texas
 
ST. GEORGE, Utah — With hammers, saws, drills and determination, about 15 young males displaced from their homes in a polygamous enclave are helping renovate a group house where they hope to live while going to school or work until they can transition into their own places.

"All the (remodeling) work is being done by the boys," said Michelle Benward, clinical director of New Frontiers for Families, based in Tropic, Utah. "They do excellent work."

The "Lost Boys," as the young males are known, voluntarily leave or are asked to move out of the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., because they violated rules of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Their plight has attracted national media attention -- which led to potential jurors for Warren S. Jeffs' trial, under way in St. George, being asked what they had seen in the media about the "Lost Boys."

Jeffs is on trial on two counts of being an accomplice to rape related to a marriage he conducted in 2001.

Jeffs became president of the FLDS church in 2002 and has held members to a strict behavior code based on early Mormon teachings. But just how many teens have left or been asked to leave the community because of that code is unclear.

Advocates and government authorities have used figures ranging from 400 to 2,000 over a time frame that ranges from six to 10 years or longer.

"This is not just starting with Warren Jeffs," said ex-FLDS member Isaac Wyler, 41, who still lives in the community. "Warren may have taken it to a new level but it was going on when I was a kid."

The acts that get teens in trouble include watching R-rated movies, listening to modern music and flirting with girls. Wyler said his younger brother was kicked out in 2001 by former FLDS President Rulon T. Jeffs because he kissed a girl.

"He was done forever on that," Wyler said.

Some teenage boys and young men leave the twin towns, which is the church's home base, because they do not want to follow the faith or fear being assigned marriage to a girl they don't like. Advocates say they also are driven off to reduce competition for wives.

New Frontiers for Families is working with the Diversity Foundation, another nonprofit focused on the FLDS teens, to set up the home, which was given to the advocates by an anonymous donor.

Benward said when finished, the eight-bedroom home will be able to take up to 15 boys. It also will serve as a drop-in center.

But before anyone can live there, the nonprofit has to clear a hurdle with the city.

The commercially zoned area where the home is located allows for treatment but not transitional housing, said Linda Brooks, deputy city recorder for the city's planning commission.

Brooks said that the group has to get a zone change from the city before the home can open.

Among the challenges: There is no current zone that fits the home's planned use, some neighbors have complained and a city ordinance prohibits more than four unrelated people living in a residence.

Brooks said that Benward is working with the city attorney's office on the zone change -- and has her own reason for hoping it gets approved.

About a year ago, Brooks and her husband opened their home to a displaced young man from the twin towns.

The 21-year-old was told to leave home by his older brothers in 2004 after he spoke out when Jeffs exiled their father. One of his younger brothers voluntarily left the community later, Brooks said.

Her husband met the young man while volunteering in a court-related program. Today, the young man is thriving in college.

During a tour of the house, Benward said that when the boys leave the FLDS community they migrate to other towns, where they are forced to fend for themselves.

That often means getting a construction job while staying in communal apartments, with up to 15 sleeping on the floors, or in their cars.
 
TimesRecordNews.com
Originally published Monday, September 17, 2007
 
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