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London is currently in a homeless crisis. More shelters are having to be made, including the new youth shelter that was just opened last summer. Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) worked on planning this shelter for three years, and a few days after it opened, it has reached full occupancy ever since. Roughly 35,000 to 40,000 Canadian youth are homeless, with only 7000 seeking a safe place for shelter.
60% of homelessness in London were under the age of 30 when they first experienced it. 26% of people looking for shelters in London are under the age of 25. Steve Cordes is the CEO of YOU. He says that the first step to help local youth is developing a plan and supporting those individuals.
“For some people, it’s a very straightforward plan where they may come in looking for that first career job,” Cordes stated. “Sometimes for some people, we’re starting with on the other extreme end of the case is I don’t have a safe place to sleep tonight. You’re also helping young people through some addictions supports, mental health supports, some other lifestyle supports all around and helping overcome the trauma, that they’ve experienced along with the homelessness.”
When asked how can we get youth off the streets, Cordes refers to the shortage of affordable housing in Canada. “Sometimes for young families and individuals, they need beyond some sort of income support but it doesn’t generate enough income to pay for an apartment,” Cordes said. “It’s options to help them find a safe place to be. So permanent, affordable housing is the ultimate solution.”
When it comes to what he thinks political leaders can do to help the cause, Cordes says just like the COVID-19 pandemic and how governments invested money into helping that crisis, Youth Homelessness needs something similar.
“I think we have to be prepared to spend, not needlessly and not large for the sake of spending large, but we have to be prepared to invest the money it’s going to take to bring it into it,” Cordes stated. “I think we have to take that same approach around youth homelessness, we have to accept the fact that it takes significant investments to create enough affordable housing.”
The concept for the Joan’s Place project/ Youth Opportunities Unlimited
When it comes to affordable housing units, YOU is trying to build more affordable housing units. YOU already have 3 other buildings used for affordable housing. Cordes however says there working on a project called Joan’s Place. The project would add an additional 35 housing units, targetting youth with children on the way or who have infants and need a safe place. Cordes explains why they targetted this group.
“Intergenerationally we know that we can help not only the young people but also by providing safe and affordable housing for them,” Cordes stated. “In cases where they have children, we’re also helping the next generation coming in after them. They’re not starting their lives behind the eight ball whereas a child, they have income insecurity, food insecurity, housing insecurity. So that’s a significant footprint for our community by helping that population.”
Cordes also said that the community support for this project has been amazing. So far, YOU has raised $8 million dollars. However, Cordes says that more needs to be donated in order to build this project. For more information and how you can donate to the project, go to you.ca/joans-place.
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