Near the end of June, a pair of teens was found camping in a tent near Anita Place Tent City.
They were homeless. They were too young to be in the tent city, so they set up camp just outside the blue fence that surrounds the homeless camp on 223rd Street in Maple Ridge.
It’s just one of the disturbing anecdotal facts the Social Justice 12 class at Riverside Centre Adult Education found, as they studied the impact of closing the Iron Horse Safe House in Maple Ridge.
The Iron Horse facility opened in 2005, offering five bedrooms where homeless youth could stay for up to 30 days, and a 24-hour emergency bed. Staff members would try to get them reconnected with their loved ones if it was safe to do so, or a more permanent living situation. Before it closed in 2014, as the federal government pulled its funding of $375,000 per year, it had helped 1,200 homeless teens in its time.
The loss is a big hole in the city’s social safety net, and some of the most vulnerable people are falling through.
Over a six-week period, teacher Dale Hardy’s Riverside students interviewed outreach workers, Aboriginal education support workers, liaison workers with the high schools, and former local students who had been sheltered outside the community.
One outreach worker alone substantiated the worst fears of those who fought for Iron Horse.
“Within months of Iron Horse Safe House’s closure, she came across youth as young as 12 and 13 living in a homeless camp on Cliff Avenue in Maple Ridge. Further follow-up by her team revealed that these children were being exploited by adults living in the camp,” said the report by Hardy’s students.
They also found situations where teens were disconnected from their hometown, with disastrous results. In a January 2018 interview, a Canadian Mental Health outreach worker told the students “two of our former students who had been placed at Covenant House in Vancouver had been recruited and groomed as sex-trade workers in an area hideously designated as the Kiddie Stroll.”
Their research showed 30 to 40 at-risk transient teens attending high school in the district.
“Most drift from couch to couch; some live in cars. When they fail to meet the guidelines of the Ministry of Children and Family Services, they find money through other means. This group, especially females, is subject to exploitation. Irregular access to food is common,” said the report.
Being an adult education facility, Hardy’s students had their own life experience to draw on. Five of his students were in recovery. They came up with three conclusions:
• According to eight out of 12 students interviewed, a local safe-house could have offered the resources needed to keep many of our kids connected to their community and their schools.
• Many of the youth interviewed were in “survival mode” in which trust issues were huge. We recommend a safe- house model with resident placements of between three to six months with a minimal staff turnover and the ability to remain on the premises 24/7 to avoid exploitation.
• Like Iron Horse, an undisclosed location is necessary to protect youth from exploitation.
Tony Cotroneo, the community services manager for the city, said the Riverside class has done its homework, but its findings are no surprise to him.
“The safe house shut down… and there’s a gap. There’s a clear gap,” said Cotroneo.
It’s an issue he has dealt with first-hand. Resourceful homeless teens find their way to the Greg Moore Youth Centre where they know they can hang out and take part in recreational services. Then, when it’s time to close, the staff look for a place for them to go. Generally, he said, the safe houses they can find are all in Vancouver.
Some have a designated clientele they serve – girls, boys or aboriginal.
The Greg Moore staff can often find a place for them, but sometimes, when the weather is bad, they wind up sleeping on a couch in a common area.
Then, they wake up among strangers, and have to find their own way back to Maple Ridge, or find their way around in Vancouver.
“To be homeless is one thing. To be homeless in a community they are unfamiliar with is totally another.”
Cotroneo agrees with all of the Riverside recommendations – especially having a place where there are staff available 24/7, and with staff who stay for a long time, who kids can get to know.
“No matter what program you run, trust issues are huge.”
Teesha Sharma of the CEED Centre confirmed the story about youth camping just outside Anita Place. She works for the Blue Door program that supports and advocates youth who are homeless, at risk, or suffering from mental health issues.
She reached out to the kids in the tent, and brought them in.
It wasn’t the first time she has seen that, and with minors, she must always contact the Ministry of Children and Family Services.
Right now, she said, the Blue Door is open for some 18 teens, aged 13-18, who are homeless – living rough on the streets of Maple Ridge. She is also working with another 10-15 young people aged 19-24 who have accessed the Blue Door, because it runs out of the building right next door to Anita Place.
About 10 clients go to the Blue Door each night, and they get fed, clothed, cleaned up and given some basics such as hygiene products.
For that older group, things could improve dramatically, as Sharma is in the process of helping those clients get through interviews for modular housing. The change in their lives will be huge, she said.
But for the younger group, there is no safe house in Maple Ridge, and she and CEED Centre executive director Christian Cowley are still “majorly advocating” for one.
In fact, they will be presenting at the Canadian Mental Health Association national conference in Montreal about the need for a national safe house system for homeless youth.
She points out there is a difference between a youth shelter and a youth safe house.
In the latter case, the facilities are in an undisclosed location, and youth are allowed to stay inside all the time, as opposed to shelters where they must leave during the day.
“With a safe house, they have the opportunity to escape exploitation,” she said.
The only barrier to a youth safe house in Maple Ridge is money, she said, which is absurd because “in the long run, you’re saving so much money.”
And there is an obvious human cost.
“Our homeless youth are traumatized.
“And every night they are traumatized again.”
Hardy and some of the students have scheduled a meeting with MLAs Lisa Beare (Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows) and Bob D’Eith (Maple Ridge-Mission) for July 16 to discuss a new youth safe house in the city.
“I’d like to get a commitment,” said Hardy, but allowed that he doesn’t expect it to happen overnight.
“I want people to be aware there’s a community problem here.”