North Shore youth safe house could close due to funding changes
'It's difficult for youth to be able to afford housing,' says youth house executive director
The only youth safe house on Vancouver's North Shore's may have to close because officials say changes to the federal homeless strategy leaves them short of funding.
Changes to federal funding focus on helping Canadians who are chronically homeless, meaning they've been on the street for six straight months or for 180 days within the past year, Nanette Taylor, executive director of Hollyburn Family Services told CBC's On the Coast.
Youth halfway homes, which aim to keep young people off the streets in the first place, don't meet that funding criteria.
"Essentially what [Housing First] means is you take a homeless person, you get them into a permanent housing situation and then you add the support services around them that you need to help keep them there," Taylor said.
"In our part of the world, we don't have a lot of affordable housing. In particular, it's difficult for youth to be able to afford housing."
Essential services for youth
The youth safe house is a six-bed facility for homeless teens and runaways, staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by family support workers and parent-teen mediation workers.
They cater to youth age 13 to 19, and the biggest challenge is intercepting these at-risk teens before they become entrenched in the street culture, Taylor said.
"They can go to the Ministry of Children and Families and look to try and get placed in foster homes and things like that, but the first entry point where they can literally knock on the door themselves is the safe house," said Taylor.
Referrals to medical and mental health support, along with educational and vocational counselling are also provided by the staff at the safe house.
Jonathan Wilkinson, MP for North Vancouver said he plans to address the issue when in Ottawa this September and hopes the minister responsible will investigate whether it's necessary to "change the architecture" of the program.
While the North Shore's MPs have been receptive to Hollyburn's concerns, correspondence with Minister of Social Development, Jean-Yves Duclos, has resulted in "very unsatisfactory responses," according to Taylor.
Asked council for funding help
"They're still holding to the chronic criteria, homelessness does not include youth or people living in places… where they might be trading sex for housing or where they're couch surfing, that's not considered homeless.
"You actually have to be on the sidewalk," she said.
Recently, Hollyburn asked the City of North Vancouver for $30,000 in core funding, but council rejected the request.
"I think we're already going above and beyond," said North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto at the July 18 meeting of council, referring to numerous grants Hollyburn Family Services has already received from the city.
"The other levels of government need to step up," Mussatto said.
Taylor said Hollyburn has been soliciting funding from the North Shore's municipal governments and collecting philanthropic donations to shore up the $400,000 annual operating costs.
"We'll certainly be able to carry on for a period of time but it's not sustainable without the federal funding."