YES Shelter: A stable, if temporary, home

I can’t help thinking that Christmas/ Hanukkah/Kwanzaa is a time for concentration on the needy among us.

Homeless youth are high among them. For 15 years on Brock Street, the YES Shelter for Youth and Families has stood; now with more pressure on it than ever: its modest accommodation not meeting the need for temporary housing for youth in crisis.

At present YES houses 15 youth, most in small double rooms, and 15 family members, parents/caregivers with children. Peterborough’s vacancy rate for housing is less than one per cent. Housing experts say a healthy rate in a community is three per cent.

So the youth, almost all from our immediate area, ages 16-24, who are homeless because of poverty, abuse, family breakdown, addictions and mental health issues come to YES, and are supported by non-judgmental workers.

The shelter is humble, with narrow halls and a playroom and laundry in the basement. Nonetheless, it has a spirit of calm most days. There are many helpful staff and volunteers. Close links are kept with the police, with Fourcast, and with the schools. Out back at YES, there is the Carriage House, where qualified teachers guide the youth in obtaining high school credits.

YES strives to have youth stay just six weeks, and great effort is made to find housing, either for a group or an individual. But due to the housing crisis, youth require more time in emergency housing. A housing support worker has recently been hired, who will work with willing landlords and youth tenants to solve problems.

Occupancy at YES has increased 64 per cent over five years.

Executive director Meagan La Plante, who succeeded the respected Suzanne Galloway last summer, along with board chair Wendy Love, are quick to point to assistance they receive from the Peterborough community. Red Lobster faithfully delivers food each week. Home Depot on Lansdowne has a highly motivated staff, who come to paint and repair the shelter, and have been cheerfully asking every customer at the store for a donation to YES.

The annual budget at YES is around $750,000, much self-raised.

One dedicated volunteer has been sorting donated clothes at YES for years. YES has a volunteer driver, and students from Fleming College social work studies come to help. It is also the beneficiary of funds from an event organized by the opposite end of the spectrum, the Trent Fashion Society. The Peterborough 360 Clinic, headed by insightful nurse Kathy Hardill, looks to the youth’s health needs. TASS (inspired by teacher Jeff Bergeron), Kenner and St. Peter’s high schools are important donors. (As an further positive aside, I was in St. Peter’s recently and heard a PA announcement asking for donations of feminine hygiene products for Crossroads and YES. Bags and bags came in. They were delivered to the sites by young men students). Megan Hennessy was named volunteer of the year at YES.

Those are Christmas stories to tell my grandchildren

“Most homeless adults,” say Meagan “start out as homeless youth. We try to break the cycle. The youth here are resilient and capable. I work in this field because I know when we support youth they move on to do incredible things.”

Wendy, who grew up in Goderich and worked in the Ontario public service in corrections before retirement, agrees. “It’s hard work” she says, “and one see some awful things at times. Homeless youth sometimes take their own lives. But it is very rewarding.”

Some groups are over-represented in the homeless population: Indigenous youth and LGBTQ2 youth. The public school board in March 2016 reported that 32 students were homeless.

This Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa season, we Canadians are spending $6 billion dollars on gifts and travel. We might also look closely around home, and critically at the expenditure meant to honour these feasts.

The annual report at www.yesshelter.ca.