Has anything changed since last year for homeless youth in the city?
We doubt it. In fact, things have probably gotten harder for kids out on the streets.
A year ago, on the heels of a provincial report titled, “Our communities, our youth: The health of homeless and street-involved youth in B.C.” local service providers said Burnaby had a youth homelessness problem that simply wasn’t being adequately addressed.
Part of the problem was that there was, and continues to be, a false assumption that homeless youth all go to Vancouver. But that’s simply not true. Burnaby young people are using services in Burnaby and are connected to community in this city, much as some political leaders would prefer they weren’t.
Since there are safe houses in Vancouver and Surrey, one might expect homeless youth to go there for shelter. But one only has to look in city parks, on some city corners, and, at night in warehouse districts, to see that homeless youth in the city end up staying here and not going to Vancouver. Many of these young people are escaping from abusive homes and/or have mental health problems.
In a 2015 survey of homeless youth, 68 per cent of youth (62 per cent of males, 72 per cent of females) reported having at least one mental health condition, while 42 per cent had seriously considered suicide in the past year, and almost a third (31 per cent) had attempted suicide.
For a caring society this is simply unacceptable.
We seem to have become enured to seeing homeless adults, but are we also becoming numb to seeing homeless teens as well?
We hope not.
On page three of today’s paper we have a story of one city mom who is working to raise awareness and funds for a great organization that helps homeless youth. Covenant House deserves kudos for all it does on a very small budget.
As well, the Burnaby Task Force on Homelessness continues to do all it can to help homeless folks in the city. On May 14 they are holding a clothing drive and we urge you to pitch in and help them in any way you can.
We may not all believe we are our brothers’ keepers, but we can certainly be a youth helper.
