Editor’s note: Mark Redmond is executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services.
On March 29, I will be sleeping outside. Almost 50 other business and community leaders from around Vermont will be out there with me, on the lawn of the Unitarian Universalist church in downtown Burlington. We are sleeping out in solidarity with the teenagers and young adults in Vermont and elsewhere who are homeless.
We’re doing it voluntarily, knowing that after the night is over, we each have a safe and warm house to which we can return. This is not true for many young people in America.
Young adult homelessness has increased drastically since the economy hit the skids several years ago. According to the Vermont Coalition of Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs, of which Spectrum Youth and Family Services is a member, the 13 nonprofit organizations in the coalition reported a 57 percent increase in the number of “nights of housing provided” from 2008 to 2011. We’ve certainly seen this at Spectrum, in fact it is one of the principal reasons we are presently constructing a new residence containing eight beds, which will open this June. Our Maple Street residence has had a permanent waiting list for over two years, and our Pearl Street shelter is almost always full. That is unacceptable. We need to help homeless youth now.
There are many reasons why young adults become homeless. Many grew up in homes in which domestic violence, sexual violence and child abuse were prevalent. There are also more 17- and 18-year-olds who are being asked to leave because of poverty, because their families simply cannot afford to care for them any longer. When you combine that with the dismal employment statistics for young adults, it is no wonder so many are ending up homeless. Mental illness is another factor; we encounter many teenagers who were in the children’s mental health system, turned 18, and then do not qualify for admission into the adult mental health system because their level of mental illness is not severe enough or their I.Q. is too high. They become homeless. And then there is drug abuse. There are young adults who become so addicted to drugs that their families ask them to leave the house. It can be heartwrenching for a parent to finally reach this point, but it happens.
Our belief at Spectrum is that all these factors need to be addressed if we are to successfully intervene with those young adults who are homeless, as well as to prevent others from becoming homeless. It’s why we have an outpatient treatment program at Spectrum, with licensed mental health and substance abuse counselors on staff. They counseled over 400 Vermont young adults and their families last year. Other staff use evidence-based approaches to teach young people independent living skills; we help teenagers to stay in school and then proceed to college or a trade school; we work with young people to help them secure employment, start a bank account, save their money, and move on to an apartment. We are convinced that the better job we do in all these areas, the fewer young people we will find living on the streets both now and later on.
So if you are driving or walking past the Unitarian church on Pearl Street on March 29, and you see us sleeping out there, keep us in mind and remember why we are doing this. My peers and I are fortunate enough to have good options in life. We’re out there for the kids who do not.