Archive for October, 2009

The New York Times ran a two-part article this week about the recession and how it is causing an increase in homeless and runaway youth in America.  They reported from Oregon, New York, and several other states. The general theme was that as more families fall into poverty due to the worsening economy, and stressors increase within families, more teenagers and young adults are becoming homeless. 

The author of the article did not report on Vermont, but I can tell you that this article absolutely rang true for those of us at Spectrum.  For years we would go through periods of time when our shelter was full, but within a few weeks the numbers would go back down.  Our transitional living residence, the SRO, has never had all 9 apartment units full.

But for the last 12 months, our shelter has been full virtually every day, particularly on the male side.  And the SRO, which always had an occupancy of 7 or 8 youth at a time, now runs full regularly.  The result?  We have to turn homeless kids away due to lack of beds – something I absolutely hate to do. 

The two articles are linked below, please read them and also watch the videos associated with each.  The reporter did a great job on this very sad spectacle, and remember that what is true for Oregon and New York is absolutely true for Vermont as well.

 Part I of the article http://bit.ly/PartOne

Part II of the article: http://bit.ly/PartTwo

Spectrum’s shelter program – a look inside the bedrooms

Originally uploaded by SpectrumVT

We need your help, as the cold weather moves in, our shelter is almost always full. We need you to buy new warm comforters and blankets for shelter beds. This is a bunk in their girl’s side of the shelter – keep these kids warm as we all know how cold winter can be.