Our young people need shelter now
Disconnected youth in Santa Fe don’t have many options for resources. It is clear to individuals who assist young people on a daily basis that there is a gap in services for these young people ages 18-24. Everyone deserves to have support, adequate food, access to showers and stable housing; however, many young people in Santa Fe lack all of those components of healthy human existence. As a result, they often develop other issues such as mental health, trauma and abandonment.
There are extraordinary organizations in Santa Fe who work to meet the needs of these young people with education, food, clothing, case management, housing, hygiene and employment. Unfortunately, there is an unmet need for a developmentally appropriate emergency shelter during the cold months for this age group.
On any given evening, there are young people who sleep on porches, behind dumpsters, in parks or camp in arroyos and in Hyde Park. They avoid the traditional adult shelters because they house visitors who are struggling with the same issues that many of our disconnected youth are running from. Santa Fe’s sober shelters are often filled to capacity during the winter months. Homeless youth are their very own unique population who are working hard to figure out adulthood trying to obtain resources on their own.
While it is wonderful for us to read recently that there is to be an increase in funding for sheltering homeless youth and children in Santa Fe, this problem is still far from being fully addressed. This renewed funding will be for resources that are earmarked to be spent in very specific ways that do not address the needs of young people over 21, needs such as safety, support, food, shelter, comprehensive case management, medical and dental attention. In addition, showers, laundry facilities, clothing, sleeping bags and a storage space for belongings are necessary. There is not an agency or shelter in Santa Fe that can cover all of these highly necessary resources to provide safety and shelter for all the youth in need.
Santa Fe hosts many helping agencies to support disconnected people and connect them with ongoing healthy options. Last year — through private donations; generous seed funding; several faith organizations from the Interfaith Leadership Alliance donating time, lodging space and food; and the work of staff at YouthWorks, Street Outreach and members of the Adelante Youth Homeless Task Force — the disconnected youth of Santa Fe had safe, warm and dependable shelter from January through April. ShelterNow!, as it was named, came together quickly due to the outpouring of support. The dire need has been evident for many years. YouthWorks, with this support, was able to step up immediately when others were unable and create a temporary winter shelter last year with the help of the faith communities and some support from the city. This was an incredible effort, but it didn’t solve the problem. The need still exists.
The weather has started to turn very cold. This year, we hope to protect these vulnerable young adults starting in December. While we continue to work with the city to find a more permanent solution, we need the residents of Santa Fe to once again pay attention to these suffering youngsters who are driven to desperate measures to survive during the cold months. ShelterNow! needs your support — your donations and your assistance — to protect these vulnerable youngsters in the immediate future, and to help create a more permanent solution for the long term.
The ShelterNow! project transforms lives. It takes vulnerable young adults discarded by society and helps them get their lives back together, find employment and more permanent accommodation. We all know that we have a duty to help these vulnerable kids, so please contact YouthWorks now and offer help.