Left stranded after a landlord stole his money, Steve struggled to support himself.

“I was sent to an adult shelter where I stayed for one night. In the morning they told me I wasn’t supposed to be there and I had been brought in by accident. After that they sent me here to Eva’s Place.”

Youth need unique services and safe spaces designed for them to really succeed.

“It’s a lot less aggressive environment in the youth shelter,” says Stephen.

Stephen had been renting a place with three friends when the landlord took their money and left the country, leaving him stranded and in debt. Having to pay people back caused him to lose housing.

“I’ve really just been stuck between this period of trying to find housing again and finding a job and going back to school. I need to just take one step at a time and do one thing at a time and I think I can get back to where I was and back to school.”

Stephen says being homeless during the winter months is a lot more difficult. “You have to constantly find shelter and sometimes the shelter might be closed [during the day] so you have to go out. So usually you just sit in the library or find a place they will let you sit until you’re able to go back to the shelter. During that time I’m thinking, ‘I don’t want to be in this situation anymore if I had my own place I would have never had to leave like this’.”

Stephen wants to go back to school, get his diploma and get a good job. He also makes music.

“I make blues, funk, rap, reggae. I do it on the computer and can play piano and harmonica.”