What is it like to be a youth and homeless in Victoria? To find out, read the current edition of Focus magazine (April, 2012). In “A Crisis of Youthful Poverty,” Simon Nattrass talks with several current residents of Threshold’s Holly House and Mitchell House. The article gives poignant voices to voiceless youth who all too often fall through the cracks.
Youth Homelessness is real
As the article summarizes: “Homeless kids don’t want to be on the street, but they do want freedom and independence. Theirs is not a crisis of direction or maturity or lack of discipline, but rather a crisis of maturing under an unsupportive, inflexible and impersonal system. They need the resources to feed, clothe and shelter themselves while establishing their independence. While the broader homeless community suffers with chronic drug abuse and mental illness, the coherent, responsible, intelligent youth who call the streets home see these problems as merely the natural result of being denied a chance at a normal life.”
