A program designed to stem youth homelessness in Powell River with a creative solution is looking to expand its scope as part of the federal government’s housing first initiative.
Powell River is one of 61 communities across Canada that has been selected to receive money from the Housing First Rural and Remote Communities Fund, money from the federal government earmarked to provide housing first assistance. The housing first approach involves giving people who are homeless a place to live first, then providing the necessary supports to help stabilize their lives and recover as best as possible.
Powell River Education Support Society (PRESS), an education and social non-profit organization affiliated with School District 47, was granted the funding to run a seven-month program which would specifically provide assistance for youth, aged 16 to 24.
Youth Across the Threshold (YAT), the name of the local initiative, aims to provide emergency short-term housing, damage deposits and the first month’s rent, as well as added support in locating long-term housing and help finding employment as well as other personal supports.
Kathleen O’Neil works for PRESS and administers YAT. O’Neil said in her presentation to Powell River Board of Education trustees at February’s public meeting that the housing first approach is a more effective way to approach the issue of homelessness than street outreach only. She explained that Housing First released a report on rural homelessness last year which has been important for better understanding the issues some youth face in Powell River.
“The way it looks, the way people perceive it and the kinds of solutions in rural communities are quite different,” O’Neil said.
O’Neil’s first challenge was to find the youth who were homeless—a challenge because rural youth homelessness is largely hidden.
“It takes this character of couch surfing or camping,” she said. “It doesn’t look the same way and we’re a small community.”
That public invisibility makes it a much more difficult problem to address. When people don’t see it, it is easier to deny it exists and it is easier to push it to the bottom of a community’s agenda.
She said there could be as many as 60 youth in the community who could be helped by the program, many more adults and even some seniors.
With the help of her staff, O’Neil organized a youth focus group to try to understand local circumstances better, which identified rental availability and expense as key issues in Powell River. She estimates that the rental market is down 60 per cent this past year with few apartments or other lower cost housing available. It is a trend she characterized as “a gentrification of sorts,” that has in part been driven by an influx of young families who are willing to pay higher rents.
“It’s a simple idea,” she said. “We provide supports to bridge them into housing.” She explained those supports could include providing money for a damage deposit, or helping youth locate appropriate housing they can afford.
O’Neil explained that while YAT initially had seven months worth of funding, the next funding window opens up in April and she expects to receive 22 months worth of funding as well as an expanded scope to include adults. O’Neil also said that YAT is collaborating with a number of other Powell River organizations so that the community is working together on the issue.
“We’ve helped people sleeping in the woods, in unheated basements, we had lots of kids who are just couch surfing and young people fleeing domestic violence with children,” she said. “There’s an incredible need for this.”
For more information about YAT readers can visit its Facebook page, Youth Across the Threshold, or email [email protected].
