Key to reducing youth homelessness? Ask them what they need, researcher says

Melanie Doucet remembers being in the foster care system in New Brunswick the 1990s, in need of social support, only to find little help once she turned 19 and aged out of the system.

She understands the need to listen to youth in care who face similar struggles, and often end up homeless.

Doucet is an adjunct professor at Montreal based McGill University's School of Social Work.

Presenting the results of her study, Finding Our Way Home, at a recent forum on youth homelessness in Saint John, she said young people who "age out" of foster care or group homes, with no social support readily available to help them, need to be invited into the conversation.

"Whether you're working with them at the front-line level or you're a decision-maker, a politician, listen to what youth are saying that they need," Doucet said.

"Invite them at the tables that you're sitting at and treat them as experts," she said, speaking to an audience of front-line organizations and city residents. 

Doucet's report says homeless youth are 200 times more likely to have been previously involved in the child welfare system, compared to the general population, and that over one-third of youth experienced homelessness within a few years of aging out of care. 

"Youth exiting care tend to begin their adulthood living below the poverty line, and they have a much higher reliance on social assistance than their peers," she said.

Her study used what is called the "photovoice" method, where she had Halifax youth who have experienced homelessness tell their stories using photography and their own words.

"I think a lot of the findings that came out of that study can be applied here in Saint John as well. I think youth just want to be heard and they want to be treated with urgency and priority." Doucet said.

Failed by the system

Doucet's results offer stark commentary by young people, who say they have been failed by systems meant to support them. Their images and words expressed feeling "dropped" by social services and being passed from worker to worker, while struggling with mental health and addiction. 

In a 2023 "point in time" snapshot in Saint John, the Human Development Council said that roughly 30 per cent of individuals surveyed over a two-day period in the province's three major cities lived in foster care before experiencing homelessness. 

Doucet's own foster-care experiences were on the Acadian Peninsula and have informed her research.

"I went into care as a teenager and aged out at the age of majority. So my lived experience really informs the work that I do," she says. 

"I wish my social worker would have heard me. I had no idea what was awaiting me as I was moving out on my own to start university. I had no idea how to budget, what the cost of anything was going to be, I didn't even know what a credit score was. I didn't know how to file taxes."

She says while much has changed since her time in the system in the 90s, these are common experiences for youth in care. 

A seat at the table

The Centre for Youth Care is a Saint John non-profit that offers support services for youth, including a shelter called Beacon Cove for individuals aged 16 to 19. It's funded by the Department of Social Development.

Karen Cummings, the executive director, said she sees the importance of listening to youth in her work.

"You don't magically have a birthday and turn 19 and suddenly have the supports," she said. 

Her centre has built a formal structure that offers case management, beyond the age of 19, that helps connect youth with services and advocates for their needs.

"The youth that we worked with, they did not stop reaching out to us, contacting us, asking for guidance, asking for support, asking for resources," she said.

"When they left our agency, they continued to come back."

The centre is also working to build supportive housing for those between the ages of 19 and 25. 

"The youth are the primary voice in this … we need to ask them to take a seat at the table and helping creating these solutions," she said.