VANCOUVER
Federal cash infusion to Covenant House a boost for street kids
An infusion of federal cash for the expansion of a downtown youth shelter will give more street kids in the city the opportunity to rest their weary heads.
The one-time grant of $800,000 goes to the crisis shelter program at Covenant House, a privately run shelter that supports homeless youth from 16 to 24 years old, encouraging them to get off the street and into a pattern of independent living. The funding will be used to expand the shelter at 326 West Pender, providing 32 more beds for a total of 54. The money will also go to renovate a second Covenant House shelter, at 575 Drake, to make more space for drop-in and outreach services.
The grant was announced Wednesday by federal Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. It's coming from the federal government's Homelessness Partnering Strategy.
At Victory Square, just a block away from the West Pender announcement, Hadar Alexandre Schott, 21, opened a sports bag containing everything he owns. He pulled out a ripped green shirt purchased for $2 at a Prince George thrift shop, and the shredded remnants of what was once a wine-bottle holder made of woven straw, similar to those used at picnics.
Veering in and out of focus as he talked about his hitchhiking adventures from Toronto to Vancouver, Schott claimed to have met various shamans, a Buddha, and other spiritual healers along the way. In Ontario, he lost both his skateboard and his girlfriend, who dumped him and hitchhiked on her own after she learned Schott had drunk whiskey for breakfast.
He says he survived due to the kindness of strangers, and subsisted on a few groceries, "magic mushrooms" and marijuana. A few nights this week, Schott slept in Nelson Park. "I slept on a bush once. It was like a mattress," he said. Fiercely independent, he claimed to have used youth shelters across the country. But he said he was dead set against visiting Covenant House that night. "I know a lot of people who live the way they are living [on the streets] because of the crutch of a shelter," he said.
Homelessness is inextricably linked with mental illness and substance abuse, according to a report by Simon Fraser University's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction.
The study, Housing and Support for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness, released last February, cited other reports that people dealing with substance abuse and mental illness "have generally been homeless for longer periods of time, have less contact with family and friends, experience more barriers to employment, are in poorer physical health, and have more contact with the criminal justice system."
Since 2005, Covenant House has had to turn away 2,000 young people, said executive director Krista Thompson. The common sight of young, poverty-stricken people on the streets of downtown Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside can't help but strike an emotional chord with the public, Thompson said.
In the last two years, the Homeless Partnership Strategy has granted $269.6 million to combat homelessness.
Mary Frances Hill
24 July 2008
