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Persuasive Essay On Homeless At Home

Decent Essays
As a short term resident, I lived at the Cyrus Centre in Chilliwack for three days. This shelter is community funded, through donations and fundraising, and provides beds for up to five residents at a time. However, this help does not cover the growing need for shelter beds. With better government funding, the Centre would be able to give at risk youth a short term option by adding additional beds to their facility.
Despite its fundraiser efforts and donations from the public, the Cyrus Centre has a limited amount of shelter beds. Although Chilliwack is known as being a family oriented community, youth homelessness is more than double the regional average (Bates, Sam). Youth ages 15 to 19 make up 44% of homeless people in Chilliwack (Bates, Sam). Nonetheless, Cyrus Centre turns away approximately 2 youth a night (Andrea). The shelter is regularly running at full capacity. Each time a shelter bed becomes available someone is waiting to fill it. In fact, the Cyrus Centre only has 5 shelter beds available for youth, one of which is by referral only. With such a limit of shelter beds, the Centre is unable to
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In February, staff had to turn away twenty-one youth because they lacked space to house them (Bates, Sam). Although adding beds to the shelter does not solve youth homelessness, it does serve as a short term plan. By advocating to the government for more funding, the Cyrus Centre would be able to use the extra funding to add more shelter beds. Not only would this provide a safe place for youth to stay, but it would expose them to all the resources the Cyrus Centre has to offer. These resources, range from employment assistance to referrals to numerous community supports. With these resources, homeless youth have a new chance at a successful future. Also, this leads to the youth finding permanent residence, thus, reducing the statistic rate of youth
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