Finding safe and affordable housing on South Vancouver Island can be hard for anyone, but even harder for at-risk youth in our community. As the SHY program evolves, it will be the only program in the Capital Region District of Victoria to increase the region’s capacity to house dislocated youth.

The SHY program will provide support and supervision of the youth; it aims to build positive rental experience for the youth and the landlord. This support will include consistent visitations with the youth as well as bi-monthly life skills workshops, ready-to-rent training, and community resource access education. Our hope is to create long term tenancies for youth. The program is designed for youth who need minimal supervision, have a plan to move into the future, but need safe, affordable and stable housing to actualize their plans.

Problem

In the 2008 “A Youth Housing Study for BC’s Capital Region” by the Community Social Planning Council, some 600 youths were identified as being without safe, stable housing. As of April 2012, there are only 16 dedicated beds for youth housing in the entire Capital Region District. This number has remained the same for the past fifteen years. Threshold’s own experience is that once a youth finishes an average stay of about 12 months at one of our semi-independent houses, there are few if any safe and affordable housing units for them to transition into. The SHY program will address this need to a point, depending on the willingness of agencies and landlords to participate in the program. As the SHY program evolves, it will be the only program in the CRD to increase the region’s capacity to house dislocated youth.

Solution

The SHY program will provide support and supervision of the youth; it aims to build positive rental experience for the youth and the landlord. This support will include consistent visitations with the youth as well as bi-monthly life skills workshops, ready-to-rent training, and community resource access education. Our hope is to create long term tenancies for youth. The program is designed for youth who need minimal supervision, have a plan to move into the future, but need safe, affordable and stable housing to actualize their plans.

Example

Modelled after programs running in Vancouver, Winnipeg and London, Ontario, the SHY Program is designed to house at least 8 youth over a one year period. The target population will be at-risk youth transitioning into adulthood that have multiple barriers to finding safe housing. This number may not seem like a lot, but there is room for a lot of expansion as more and more safe landlords are identified and are willing to participate.

Marketplace

In the entire Capital Region District of Victoria, there are only two non-profits offering transitional housing situations for at-risk youth, the Threshold Housing Society and the Pandora "Y" Youth Apartments. The total number of beds available has been steady at 16 for the last fifteen years. Other non-profit agencies who offer subsidized housing in the region to adults will not offer housing to youth because of the need for supervision. Owing to poor jobs and other barriers, most at-risk youth cannot afford to enter the market-value rental sector. There are no provincial or municipal plans to provide more housing for at-risk youth. The alternative for many youth are short and often unpleasant stays in youth shelters, some form of couch-surfing or living in over-crowded conditions.