Transcript Slide 1
Who we are:
It’s Complicated. There are Lots of Tensions.
There is what I want versus what other people want for me - wanting people
around but being forced to live alone or wanting to be alone but having to
share space. Getting the place to live, getting the job all feels very middle
class – like society’s plan for us. What happens if we question this as the plan
we want for ourselves?
More Than One Street
We are a diverse group of young adults who have teamed up with UVic
researchers to share our experiences and knowledge of street life. We work
together to build understanding of the complex circumstances shaping the lives
of youth on the street. The information in this poster is drawn from our own life
experiences.
Expectations. More Than We Can Handle
On the street we’re in limbo. All we focus on are our basic needs like food and
where to sleep. Then there are expectations once we get housing…we have to get
a job, deal with mental health, face addictions, go to appointments, repair or build
new relationships. These expectations glom onto you and it feels like more than we
can handle. The stakes are higher for us. Can’t we just ease into this?
We’ve lived the difficulties of finding safe and affordable housing in Victoria, BC.
• Living Wage (necessary income to meet basic needs in Victoria): $18.50 /hr
• Minimum Wage: $9.50 /hr - $10.25 /hr
• Youth Unemployment Rate: 10.9% (vs. 5.5% for adults)
• Income Assistance: $663 /month
• Average Rent Bachelor Apt : $695 /month
• Vacancy Rate Bachelor Under $700: 0.9%
Pulling Back & Staying Loose
On the street there is constant stimulation with people: being in a group,
with friends that listen and talk to you, sharing resources and doing
things. When you are housed, there may be a tug back to this life and
these relationships: to what I can handle and what I know. Staying loose
keeps our options open.
(Youth Vital Signs 2013; GVCEH Facing Homelessness 2013)
Getting housing is especially challenging for youth when we don’t have
references, we may not know our rights as workers and tenants, and when the
only jobs we can get are part-time entry level and at minimum wage.
Getting onto the streets is easy. Getting off the
streets is complicated. Going back to housed life is
like climbing a mountain. It is not just about getting
housing.
“I want a roof and then I want another roof”
What we got:
Eventually we did find housing and
transitioned away from the streets. We were
told that living on the streets was bad, and that
to be successful adults we must find houses
and get jobs. Once we actually did get
housing, it did not always feel like the
housing we found was better than being on
the streets.
Sometimes the only way for us to afford
decent places was to pitch in with friends.
Plenty of times this did not work out; bad
roommates is a problem most anyone could
relate to. Stolen food, missing stuff and
unclean common areas were the least of our
concerns.
If we were fortunate enough to make it into
housing we could afford on our own, there
were different sorts of roommates to worry
about. Rats and mice, bedbugs and
cockroaches ran rampant through the spaces
that were supposed to be our own. With
uncaring slum-lords who could not be
bothered to care about pest problems, the
streets looked pretty good in comparison.
Then there was isolation, anxiety,
depression and other mental health problems
we had to deal with.
Some of us went the route of supported
housing. We wanted control and freedom to
make our own choices, a quiet and safe place
where we could feel secure for a change. We
Worrying about our roommates’ and
got smothered and felt tension instead of
neighbours’ drug addictions, our places
support. We were under surveillance and felt
becoming party houses or squats for all of our trapped by our housing - unable to move to
other friends weighed heavily on us. These
another place. We had to hide people who
were the people we called our family on the wanted to visit or we were not allowed to
streets, the ones who stood by us when we
share our new home with our partners or pets.
had no one else and protected us, but now we
had to say “No sorry man. You can’t stay
They pressured us to have a plan
here.”
immediately about what we were going to do
with our lives. For us, just getting housing at
What we need:
all was a big step, and we needed a little
time to ease into it.
They expected and assumed that because we
were ready to leave the streets behind that we
could automatically get our shit together. We
felt like we were being set up for failure or
that we were children again, unable to make
decisions for ourselves when we had been on
our own for what seemed like a life time. No,
they might not have always been the best
decisions, but at least we were making them
for ourselves. We got our lives invaded by
strangers who “knew best for us”.
As street youth, we lived through more, and
dealt with more problems than the average
kids our age. While they were busy worrying
about what dress to wear to the school dance,
or their parents not buying them the latest
video games, we worried about our safety,
where we were going to sleep at night, and the
uncertainty of where our next meal was
coming from. We managed to survive, and
came through it stronger people. People who
may have different stakes than others, but
capable none the less.
Created by Amber Flett-Daniels, Meagan Gabriel, A. Meghan Ignatescue, Isha Matous-Gibbs, Michaela H. Roos, Marion Selfridge, Thayne Werdal, and Lisa M. Mitchell.
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
What would have been beneficial when we were
transitioning:
• Affordable options
• Freedom and support to shape our own routines
• Housing where young parents can be together
• Safe places to raise our kids
• Support without consequences or judgment
• To not feel constantly monitored or under the microscope
• Respect for the skills and wisdom we have from managing
ourselves
• Support people being as accountable to us as we are
expected to be to them
• Shorter term leases so we have more chance of completing
them
• Emergency rent subsidies if we get sick, injured or must attend
a funeral
• Some trust
• Safe personal space
• Ability to make the place our own - paint, hang art, plants,
animals
• Flexibility around references and credit history; to be able to
use teachers, social workers, friends or whomever we have
• To feel welcomed in the neighbourhood