Walsh pushes to end youth homelessness

Boston Mayor Martin Walsh announced Wednesday that a group of advisors will work to end youth homelessness in Boston. The group will be led by Matthew Aronson, former member of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Aronson and his team will gather to explore data and create an action plan for the City to implement in future years, according to the City of Boston’s press release. The proposal will speak to issues of inequality, apply data to inform decisions regarding the program, and be owned and created in partnership with youth and young adults.

Katie Omberg, director of community engagement at City Mission Boston, a social program focused on homelessness prevention, said there are currently over 4,000 homeless students attending Boston Public Schools.

“If you don’t get off on firm footing, it’s really hard to make this work,” said Omberg. “What is it like to start from a childhood of trauma? Homelessness is a traumatizing event, and how are we then going to support those people in their lives forthcoming? How is it that we let tiny children experience this trauma that is caused by commercialism, capitalism, gentrification, racism?”

Omberg said homeless youth can be found anywhere, and in a variety of situations.

“[Homeless youth is] both children who are with their guardians or parents who are in motels, shelters, scatter site shelters — which are apartments — people who are doubling up with family, sleeping on folks’ couches … that also includes unaccompanied youth,” Omberg said.

Joanne Moore, 64, of East Boston, said Boston’s homelessness problem concerns her, especially when compared with that of other cities.

“I traveled and lived in many places throughout my life,” Moore said. “Boston, by far, has the worst homeless problem that I’ve seen. Youth need to be cared for just as much as those who are older — and that’s just a fact.”

The average price of housing in Massachusetts has increased by 700 percent from 1980 to 2015, Omberg said. The median pay increased only six percent during the same time period.

Russell Linden, 54, of South Boston, said he’s glad the City of Boston is doing something to address the issue of homelessness throughout the city.

“I’ve definitely seen certain youth on the streets and it always scares me,” Linden said. “I hate seeing that in a beautiful place like Boston.”

Aronson previously worked for seven years for the HUD as a subject matter expert concerning youth and young adult homelessness. He worked with the City of New York, Cincinnati and Santa Cruz to advance community plans to end youth homelessness in those areas.

Vernon Walker, a case manager at Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a social service organization, wrote in an email that it is vital for those who hold public office to be concerned about the needs of the homeless youth.

“I believe if we can reach a young person in the early stages of homelessness, we can help them turn their life around and avoid a life of dependency on social service agencies,” Walker wrote. “It is difficult for a homeless youth to excel in school when they have to worry about shelter, food and safety,”

Walker wrote that young people often feel uncomfortable residing in the same quarters as older residents.

“For young people, it is a culture shock to reside in a shelter because they often sleep in the same room as the older population of homeless folks,” Walker wrote. “This is an additional level of stress for young people as young people have told me they feel isolated in the shelter because of the lack of common ground between other residents of the shelter.”

Elijah Franklin, 33, of East Boston, said though the issue of homeless youth is prominent in the city, he wasn’t aware of sheer size of the dilemma.

“I didn’t know that the youth were struggling so much in Boston, but that makes sense to me based on how bad it is in the city here,” Franklin said. “Something can be done.”

Jordan Kimmel contributed to the reporting of this article.