Youth Homelessness

As a short-term resident, I resided at the Cyrus Centre in Chilliwack for three days. This shelter is community funded, through donations and fundraising, and provides beds for up to five young residents at a time. However, the Cyrus Centre is always running at full capacity. Youth homeless rates in Chilliwack have spiked and became more than double the regional average due to more youth becoming homeless (Les). Without a clear definition of youth homelessness, the Chilliwack community is unable to grasp the severity of the increasing issue. By raising awareness about the vague definition, Chilliwack citizens would be able to donate to create an additional emergency shelter within our community.
A key issue among the definition of unsheltered
Therefore, when we compare youth to adults, we are unable to clearly grasp the adolescence vulnerabilities, which rendered them different from the adult homeless population (Saddicha, Linden, and Krausz 1). Without clearly understanding the difference between the two populations, the Chilliwack community begins to turn a blind eye to the increasing issue. In addition, when defining youth homelessness, we need to broaden our definition. Recent research reaffirms the nuances of defining the issues of youth homelessness (Robson, Gibson, and Blakeborough 2). However due to the lack of policy, research is beginning to spread awareness to the issue but no concrete plan to change the definition of youth homelessness has been implemented. Also, when a community is creating a definition of vagrants, we need to recognize individuals living in temporary situations. Another key point to remember is individuals assume that an individual of no fixed address, is unsheltered. Youth homelessness includes numerous types of
By attracting consequential attention to the issue with numerous fundraising events, the Chilliwack community would be sponsoring the ability to create “no-barrier” housing (Kathryn). This type of housing ensures that nothing will get in the way of keeping a roof over someone’s head. What’s more, this isn’t the only evidence that supports this hypothesis. Recent studies supported that housing is essential, regardless of youth vulnerabilities (Van Wyk and Van Wyk 8). Furthermore, the reasoning housing is essential is that providing a roof over youth’s head and ongoing support based on empathic therapeutic relationships proved that it will prevent adolescence from going back to the streets again or ending up in housing settings that will cause them to flee back to the streets. However, the Chilliwack community would still be in need for additional emergency shelters as “no-barrier” housing is being created. Chilliwack has only one emergency shelter, known as the Cyrus Centre. The current situation of the Cyrus Centre, who only support youth, is that only five shelter beds are available, four of which are first-come basis. The other is a transitional bed, by referral only. Per the director of the Cyrus Centre, the Centre is always running at full compacity, and no sooner does a bed become