New Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness social enterprise model aims to alleviate youth homelessness
Photo provided.
In late January, the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness (GVCEH) formally announced the launch of a new social enterprise model that will provide housing, services, and job opportunities for up to 30 unhoused youth living in Greater Victoria. The project is youth-led and represents the culmination of over three years of planning, first by the City of Victoria, and then by GVCEH in partnership with BC Housing.
GVCEH Research Project Manager Jarvis Neglia says that the ball really started rolling in 2016 when Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps saw the significant overrepresentation of youth in the latest Greater Victoria Homelessness Point-In-Time Count. The survey also showed that many of the adult members of the city’s unhoused community had been on and off the streets since they were youth or young adults.
The initiative is a partnership between the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness and B.C. Housing, which will provide operating funding for the project. According to a 2020 Point in Time Count, an annual count of homelessness in the Capital Regional District, of the 1,523 people identifying as homeless in March, 84 were ages 15 to 24. According to the report, the top three reasons youth gave for losing housing were a conflict with or abuse by a parent or guardian, substance abuse and not having enough income for housing. One of the key findings from the Point in Time count was that more than 51 per cent of respondents first experienced homelessness as a youth, and close to 38 per cent were under 18. Those who lack shelter at a younger age are more likely to experience greater adversity once on the streets.