Forum at UPEI tackles youth homelessness
Seven per cent of homeless people in Charlottetown and Summerside between ages of 16 and 18, study suggests
A youth and mental-health forum at UPEI this week is stressing early intervention as a way to stop youth homelessness before it happens.
Melanie Redman, president and CEO of A Way Home, a national coalition working to prevent homelessness, said a study done in Charlottetown and Summerside in 2018 found 118 people who met the definition of homeless.
Seven per cent of those people were between the ages of 16 and 18, but she suspects the numbers are actually higher.
"That's not even looking at the under 16s because we don't tend to think about those young people or where they might be hiding when they're experiencing homelessness," she said.
"The numbers don't account for the hidden homeless and that's the area where young people tend to fall."
Redman's group doesn't believe the answer is shelters, where they could be easily found and lured into prostitution or the drug trade.
Role to play
She said her group focuses on earlier interventions. She said teachers, coaches, pastors, police officers and other members of society all have a role to play to prevent young people from becoming homeless.
"There are so many strategies that communities are using around host homes, youth reconnect, school-based early intervention strategies that are supporting young people and their families when there is first a crisis so they don't make that journey down."
The youth and mental-health forum is being hosted by the Atlantic Summer Institute at UPEI this week.