No commitment from province on youth homelessness plan

Crisis is a regular part of Sheldon Pollett’s life, but he chooses to remain optimistic.

Telegram file
Sheldon Pollett is the executive director of Choices for Youth.

As the executive director of Choices For Youth, he’s acutely aware of the factors that drive youth homelessness and the barriers those young people face.

Support grows for Choices for Youth

He chooses to spend most of his time focusing on solutions.

“Ten per cent of my time I also have to be very real about what’s at stake. The lives of young people are absolutely at stake in all of this — either in terms of the risks for unmet needs around mental health and addictions in particular, but also the risk of them getting entrenched in long-term cycles of poverty, incarceration, homelessness, you name it. The longer they live that lifestyle, the harder it is to get out.”

Pollett has long been advocating for more prevention and support instead of relying on crisis response. But he says Choices’ emergency shelter is always full — with many being turned away because all the beds are occupied — and he doesn’t see that going down until a better plan is put in place.

Towards a solution

At a community planning institute in 2014, government officials and community partners had a long look at what Alberta’s been doing. A provincial plan had recently been launched there to get all departments on the same page so at-risk youth would get the supports they need — for example, more help in transitioning from a youth system to an adult system.

That’s the kind of system we need in Newfoundland and Labrador, Pollett said.

“When you look at it in terms of the lives of young people who need support, it’s addictions, it’s mental health, it’s housing, it’s employment all concurrently. So what that speaks to is the need for cross-departmental, cross-community plan that has everyone kind of working toward the same goal,” he said.

“No one community agency, no one government department for example, can address all the issues that young people need addressed concurrently. But if you look at combining all the mandates of the various related departments and combining the efforts of the community under one plan, then you’re actually able to respond in a much more coherent way that actually reflects the lives of young people.”

Province’s response

Since the institute in 2014, Pollett said Choices has had promising discussion with all three of the province’s political parties — but no firm commitment has been made to create a plan.

Pollett recognizes the province has had a lot of fish to fry recently; he notes that along with the transition of a new government coming into power, the province has had to focus on its disastrous financial situation.

He said coming up with a plan wouldn’t necessarily mean spending a lot of money; it could actually benefit the province by making better use of existing resources.

“The reality is regardless of new government or old government, and regardless of the fiscal situation, none of that is changing the consequences for vulnerable young people if we continue on the path of business as usual,” he said.

WEBLINK: www.endyouthhomelessnessnl.com/infographic