By Kristina Roic
The building that housed Icon, a former gay and lesbian dance club on Lisgar Street, will become a young men’s shelter by next March.
The building was bought last November by the Youth Services Bureau (YSB), an organization that provides services to low-income and homeless youth.
Currently, the Salvation Army is the only place in Ottawa that provides shelter for young men, but this hasn’t always been the safest environment.
“There are always drawbacks of having young men with old men in shelters,” says Perry Rowe, director of programs at the Army. “The young men are vulnerable, and get taken advantage of by older men. We need to get them out of the adult men’s building and to a place that’s geared towards their needs.”
Seventeen-year-old Steven Fricker, who has been on the street on and off for about a year, agrees.
He says safety is one of the reasons why he opts to “couch-surf” at friends’ houses and sleep on the street instead of staying at the Army.
“There are a lot of sketchy characters there — you can smell the crack on their breath,” says Fricker while sitting cross-legged on the Rideau Street sidewalk, adjusting the black garbage bag that’s keeping him dry from the rain.
“If you fit in with that kind of crowd you might be safe, but if they think you’re trying to steal their stash they’ll try to kill you.”
He says his friends also advised him against using the shelter after having bad experiences with “bed bugs” and “body lice” from sleeping there.
He considers the YSB initiative a great idea, but says he would probably wait to see what people say about it before using it. “It will probably work if they keep it clean.”
Denise Vallely, programs co-ordinator for YSB, says the bureau has been working with the Salvation Army and other community groups to develop a project plan for the facility since Spring 2002.
In July 2004 the Supporting Community Partnerships Initiative, a federal program, awarded $7.12 million to the YSB to build two 30-unit facilities, one for young men and one for young women, on separate sites in town. The young women’s shelter will be built in the Sandy Hill area.
Vallely says the location for the young men’s shelter is ideal because it’s close to the YSB drop-in centre on Besserer Street.
“This will allow YSB to provide day and night services in its own facility,” she says. “Our people will get to deal with faces they’re used to so kids won’t have to bounce from agency to agency and keep re-telling their story.”
Fricker, who goes to YSB regularly, agrees that combining these services with a shelter would make things a lot easier.
“I already go there for meals, showers, their medical and dental care, to watch movies on Sundays, when I need to use the phone and gum — they always give you gum,” he says.
Vallely says the model for the shelter has two parts: emergency housing for people who need a temporary place to stay, and transitional housing — apartment style units with basic kitchen facilities.
“The reason for both facilities is because we found when young people left the shelter, and even though they’d find a place, many would return because they didn’t have skills necessary for independent living,” says Vallely. “This way the young men will get to develop some life skills in a safe environment so they can integrate into society and live purposeful and independent lives.”
The shelter will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with three staff on at all times. Vallely says the average age of clientele is 17, but they range between 12 and 20.
According to Rowe, an important component of developing these facilities has been input from the affected youth.
“It’s one thing for us as adults to guess what the facility should have, but it’s another to actually hear from the people who will be using these services and benefiting from them.”
Vallely echoes the thought.
“The youth have been very involved in giving their suggestions. One of the philosophies of the bureau is to involve everyone, whether it’s other stakeholders or users at every stage of planning.”