Homeless kids should be housed in poor accommodations

Some thoughts from two of Saskatoon’s city councilors

The total cost of the two homes, including landscaping and furnishings, is about $869,000. Most of that has been covered by the federal and provincial governments under various health, social services and homelessness initiatives.

That’s too much to spend on high-risk youth, the homeowners told the committee.
“How do we know we’re getting value for our money?” asked Heidt, whose son Trent is one of the homeowners opposed to the two care homes.
“These homes are top-drawer. I believe it’s too much money to put in for this type of program,” Neault said.
Heidt and Neault are not members of the planning and operations committee, but they attended Tuesday’s meeting and took part in the discussion anyway, along with Mayor Don Atchison. Both councillors have argued in the past that the concentration of care homes in their wards is too high, though civic officials say the homes are spread evenly throughout the city.

A rebuttal from Egadz Don Meikle.

A key purpose of the My Homes is to give at-risk youth “an opportunity to live in a neighbourhood where it’s normal, where they’re middle-class people,” Meikle said.
“We are trying to show them that, yeah, people care about you and people want you. What kind of message are these homeowners sending back to them - that poor people can’t live in a nice neighbourhood? That they don’t deserve to live there?”

Sadly I think that is the message that is being sent. I have seen the MyHome’s and they are not “top drawer” but basic housing for kids who are overcoming a tough situation. The two councilors are modeling the “We believe in it but not in our backyard” world view.

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04/30/2008 | poverty | Comments

5 Responses to “Homeless kids should be housed in poor accommodations”

Posted by: DavidW - 04/30/2008

that’s really frustrating
Posted by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci - 05/01/2008

That is really frustrating.
Posted by: Brenda - 05/01/2008

As a Youth Care Provider in the past, I enjoyed that I could give exposure to teens of a middle class home. I have had many report to me later that they appreciated being in our home. One young woman from the Hood told me she often closed her eyes and dreamed she was back in the pretty pink room in our house.
Why shouldn’t homeless kids be given the same opportunity to live in “nice” secure homes? If not just to have somewhere to “dream” of, but also to aspire to and acheive for their future.
Brenda E.
Posted by: Jordon Cooper - 05/01/2008

Well said Brenda. I totally agree. We house quite a few teens, two at a time at the Centre. While some were out of control, I would feel comfortable keeping some in my home (if we had any space right now). Egadz is doing a good thing.
Posted by: Mike O - 05/02/2008

I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, and actually lived across the street from the “Poor Farm”. This was a building that housed people in need, and was no longer a working farm, but still had the barn, chicken coop, etc.

Most of the people living there were those who had a fire in their home, and lived there while their home was being rebuilt. Back then, houses had fires all the time - everybody smoked, put pennies in the fuse box, fried up food in two inches of (flammable) oil, etc. So, a couple of times a year, a new family came for a month, or so.

Surprisingly, many neighbor kids weren’t allowed to play with Poor Farm Kids - despite the demographic that my neighborhood was one of the three worst in the town. Statistically, and in reality, the kids in the Poor Farm were better than the neighbor kids.

Kids are smart - they know these middle class group homes are a much better deal than the ‘Hood. Once they get there, they’ll do everything to stay - they usually don’t mess up a good deal.