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Haven of hope
$594,000 agreement paves way for youth homeless shelter

Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 9, 2015

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Homeless youth in Yellowknife don't have many places to turn for support. With the seven couches inside a makeshift emergency shelter at the SideDoor Youth Centre regularly filled, some are lucky if they have somewhere warm to sleep at night.

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SideDoor Youth Ministries board chair Doug Doak, left, and executive director Iris Hamlyn, sign an agreement with Mayor Mark Heyck to allocate federal funding toward developing a youth homeless shelter in Yellowknife. - Elaine Anselmi/NNSL photo

"Last night we had six - we generally average six to eight youth. We only have seven couches, so there is sometimes a mat," said Iris Hamlyn, SideDoor Youth Ministries executive director.

"Sometimes if there's no room at SideDoor we make arrangements for them to stay at even a board member's house ... we realize emergency shelter is just that, it's not necessarily stabilized housing."

The luck of youth living on the street should soon change after the city signed an agreement allocating $594,000 worth of federal funding to SideDoor to open a full-time housing facility for homeless youth in Yellowknife.

SideDoor plans to open Hope's Haven on June 1, offering shelter and support services to youth aged 16 to 24, with a focus on those transitioning out of the foster care system.

"We're finding the majority of youth coming into the emergency shelter have been touched by some degree by the foster system and so they've aged out of foster care," said Hamlyn.

"We have attempted in our emergency shelter to bridge that gap but realizing we're open at 10 p.m. and close at 8 a.m. everyday. At 8 a.m. everyday we discharge youth back into homelessness."

Hope's Haven will offer 11 private rooms, though Hamlyn said extra beds could be added to those rooms in the future. An additional 10 beds will be transferred from the current emergency shelter at SideDoor.

Although a building has been identified for the new housing facility Hamlyn said its location could not yet be announced as official documents still need to be signed.

The facility will be modeled on a "housing first" philosophy of providing the necessity of housing and safety, and then working with clients to overcome personal challenges, such as addiction.

"This new building will allow youth who are homeless to have a place to stay, but not only a place to stay but something that's sustainable," said Hamlyn.

"It's not conditional, you don't have to be clean and sober to get in. We'll provide the housing first and all of the supports that wrap around their needs to transition into adulthood within the building."

In April, a Community Advisory Board on Homelessness (CAB) was developed through the city. As part of its mandate, the CAB wrote a community plan which was adopted by council, then submitted to the federal government in order to access Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) funding.

"In the community plan, one of the initiatives was youth homelessness," said Coun. Linda Bussey, CAB chair.

"We had to build a (request for proposal) and put it out there and SideDoor was the winning proponent."

SideDoor's proposal was a good fit and already months in the making when the plan was written up, said Hamlyn, who is also a CAB board member.

With youth homelessness being one of the CAB's three priorities, Mayor Mark Heyck was happy to see the issue being addressed just months after the board's formation.

"There are a lot of youth between the ages of 16 and 19 in particular that fall through the cracks of the system. To see a facility that's focusing on youth between the ages of 16 and 24 is great," said Heyck.

"It's not only the physical infrastructure and roof over heads, it's all of the support services that address those things that result in homelessness, like mental health issues and addictions."

Dayle Hernblad, homelessness co-ordinator for the city, said the agreement between the city and SideDoor marked an important step forward for the city's homelessness strategy.

"We recognize the growing homeless youth population and we also recognize the need for a different approach to youth and their issues versus adults," said Hernblad.

"Also, the fact that if we can actually affect change at an early stage with youth, we are probably making a huge difference in the rest of their lives."

The residual effects of youth homelessness were echoed by Hamlyn, who added that Hope's Haven was just one part of SideDoor's plans to address the issue, both in Yellowknife and across the territory.

"We are the only youth-serving emergency shelter in the Northwest Territories, so we get youth from all over the territories coming to our shelter," said Hamlyn.

"It's not a Yellowknife problem; its a Northwest Territories problem."

While operation of the 24-hour-day shelter will require more than the allotted funding, Hamlyn said it was an important start to the process.

"We need a lot more money. This will be not necessarily half, but close to half, of what we need," she said. "We needed this infusion in order to go after other funders and really make this work."

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