At The Perch in downtown Vancouver, the low-barrier shelter for homeless and at-risk youth has only one requirement: Come as you might be.
The Perch is one in every of Janus Youth Packages’ three shelters throughout Clark County for youth who’re experiencing homelessness or unstable housing. The drop-in day shelter for younger individuals ages 12 to 24 presents a secure area to entry a bathe, laundry services, electronics, and free meals and snacks. Employees members assist join youth with further assets and might start the method of transitioning them into everlasting, secure housing in the event that they select.
“I feel like building trust is about a lot of consistency and transparency,” Outreach Coordinator Miranda Martin mentioned. “I find something that I like about working here is that I don’t get to decide how youth live their life. It’s all about that autonomy they have. That, too, builds a lot of trust.”
In 2024, 159 younger individuals used companies at The Perch. The day shelter is open from 1:30 to five:30 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Janus Youth Packages was based in 1972 as a Multnomah County, Ore., demonstration undertaking offering residential take care of adolescents combating homelessness and dependancy, based on its web site.
Since then, the Portland-based nonprofit has expanded to serve about 4,000 individuals yearly and operates some 20 packages throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Along with The Perch, Janus Youth Packages operates the Oak Bridge Youth Shelter, which is the primary crisis-intervention shelter of its variety in Clark County, based on its web site. The Janus Home in Cowlitz County is one other drop-in day heart positioned on the border of Kelso and Longview. Shelter and Outreach Director Alaire de Salvo oversees the three youth shelters in Washington.
Some days, homeless youth are available for a heat bathe or sizzling meal. Different days, they arrive in to easily be alone and exist in a secure, welcoming surroundings.
De Salvo mentioned she has developed an understanding that many youth who cease by the day shelters have been traumatized, both from life experiences or from dwelling on the streets. She and different members of her crew don’t anticipate youth to vary themselves so as to obtain companies at The Perch.
“The Perch space itself is a low-barrier drop-in center, so people are not required to be clean or sober. All they are required to do to access services is maintain safe and respectful behavior while they are in this space,” de Salvo mentioned. “So, even if they are actively using, as long as they’re not using hate speech or engaging in ways that are violent or threatening, they’re welcome to be here.”
Reaching youth
In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Janus Youth Packages had a tough time discovering and fascinating with younger individuals. However as soon as the world opened up, numbers on the nonprofit spiked, together with many in search of entry to everlasting housing, de Salvo mentioned.
“We can provide an access point to that,” de Salvo mentioned. “When we see the most youth is when we have the most housing resources available that we can help them connect to.”
Case Supervisor Meg Maestretti helps youth transition into everlasting housing. She supplies case administration to individuals who dwell on the low-income housing complexes Caples Terrace and Nam’u qas, that are each owned by the Vancouver Housing Authority.
Nam’u qas, the Cowlitz phrase for “to wish or hope,” supplies housing for youth exiting foster care and youth experiencing homelessness in Clark County.
Youth dwelling at each Caples Terrace and Nam’u qas obtain entry to family administration expertise coaching and help to assist them attain their long-term targets.
“We recognize that they are dealing with significant ongoing major traumas, both historical and current,” de Salvo mentioned. “And for us to expect them to just live some kind of idyllic life that we have decided is the right way to live is unreasonable. They’re doing what they need to do to survive, and we need to respect that.”
Inside Janus Youth Packages’ Yellow Brick Highway program, outreach employees join with younger individuals ages 12 to 24 who’re dwelling on the streets or in different high-risk conditions. This system started in Clark County in 2007.
The main focus of outreach is to construct trusting relationships with younger individuals and attend to their primary wants.
Two employees members, one in every of whom is within the engagement position and the opposite within the security position, carry backpacks full of provides — akin to socks, hygiene merchandise, safe-sex assets and cold-weather gear — to provide to youth in want.
“We have kids who have been reaching chronic levels, and they’re not even 25 yet, but they have been unhoused for three to four years,” Youth Outcomes Supervisor Julisse Hopmann mentioned. “I’ve noticed that the longer they’re on the streets, the more barriers they’ve created. Perhaps now they have a criminal record, but the things they’ve got in trouble for were out of necessity, such as camping illegally or trying to get supplies and getting picked up on petty theft.”
Youth additionally obtain fast entry to data, group useful resource referrals and direct disaster intervention. However there isn’t a one-size-fits-all in relation to outreach. Totally different individuals reply to completely different approaches, Hopmann mentioned.
“Who we are in the community really changes by what the person in front of us needs,” Hopmann mentioned.
Hurt discount performs an enormous position in Janus Youth Packages’ work, too. The nonprofit needs to empower individuals to make the most secure choice for themselves, de Salvo mentioned.
“It’s a significant model we use, particularly around outreach,” de Salvo mentioned. “We give youth 100 percent autonomy over their choices and their decisions.”
Filling the gaps
For years, younger individuals have been asking for a transition-age shelter for individuals ages 18 to 24, which Clark County doesn’t presently provide, de Salvo mentioned.
Janus Youth Packages operates an in a single day transition-age youth shelter in Portland, however oftentimes, homeless youth don’t wish to go away their communities.
“It’s scary for them to go to Portland, even though it’s a neighboring city,” de Salvo mentioned. “An 18-to-24-aged overnight shelter is something that has been asked for for a very long time in the community, but funds and other resources have not been available to institute it.”
De Salvo mentioned Janus Youth Packages can help youth with navigating the accessible grownup shelter choices in Clark County. Whereas youth are technically eligible in the event that they’re 18 or older, lots of these shelters are usually not youth-specific areas, nor have they got packages focused for youth, de Salvo mentioned.
So long as de Salvo has been working with at-risk communities, Clark County has all the time been under-resourced, she mentioned. That’s why there’s such a big deal with leveraging partnerships and never competing for a similar area of interest.
Janus Youth Packages companions with varied Vancouver nonprofits to bridge that hole in assets, together with Akin, Council for the Homeless, YWCA Clark County, and Authorized Counsel for Youth and Youngsters.
“We are here to walk with them wherever they’re at in their journey,” de Salvo mentioned.
