'Not just bricks and mortar': Group calls on N.S. to adopt strategy on homeless youth

A group that helps homeless youth navigate support services in Nova Scotia is calling on the province to adopt a comprehensive strategy for young people dealing with homelessness.

Russ Sanche, director of the Portal Youth Centre in Kentville, said that homeless youth need a co-ordinated response that includes not only a roof over their heads, but help from agencies like the school system, mental health and addictions supports, and community services. 

"It's not just bricks and mortar," Sanche told CBC's Information Morning. "If we have more apartments or homes available, there's got to be personnel support."

Turning to couch-surfing

Canada's national affordable housing strategy, announced by Ottawa last week, will allocate $40 billion over the next 10 years on measures that include building and repairing social housing units, reducing chronic homelessness, and providing a $2,500 housing benefit.

While the federal strategy allocates funding to increase the number of shelter places, Sanche said such emergency shelter is less pressing in small or rural communities, like Kentville. 

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"For us in the Annapolis Valley, [homelessness] looks more like couch-surfing — kids going from place to place and borrowing a couch for the night." 

Sanche estimated 50 youth across Kings County are in this position, with another 100 at risk of becoming homeless. 

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Helping these young people, he said, involves developing a response to the intersecting challenges they experience once they're without a home. 

"The biggest challenge and the biggest amount of time we spend right now is on two things: navigating youth through the various systems and supports that are out there, but also co-ordinating things."

Money needed for co-ordination

Sanche said the federal government's investment could make a difference to the situation facing youth in the Annapolis Valley, but his organization is also calling on the province to adopt a 10-year strategy specifically on youth homelessness in Nova Scotia.

Sanche said he'd like to see the strategy involve:

• Prevention. 
• Rapid rehousing, which would place youths in a supported housing situation, like a supervised apartment or room in a home. 
• A zero-eviction policy, where support workers mediate between landlords and young people to prevent evictions from happening.
• Development of broad-based community support. 

Executing much of this strategy wouldn't require additional services, he said. "The amount of money that's needed now is really for the co-ordination of what exists."

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At the federal level, Sanche said he's hopeful that the national housing strategy will help move the province toward better support for youth. 

"As long as it's not a lot of rigmarole to get the funds filtered out to the smaller places," he said. "And you've got to ask for it, you've got to pursue it — and that takes some time and effort, too."