My world was expanded a little today as I got a different viewpoint on local resources for homeless youth today. First, my supervisor and Iattended the coaltion to end homelessness. I don't think that they actually believe that they're going to end homelessness though. It should be called the coalition to reduce homelessness but that doesn't sound as ambitious. However, it is more practical as I learned that the budget for housing assistance in Portland is being reduced by more than 50% over the next three years.
On the more practical side of confronting the issue, I went to see the homeless youth shelters today. Since I intern at a transitional housing project, seeing the shelters was very informative. I saw the steps (almost) all of the youth take before entering trans housing. They have some fundamental steps to go through first. There's a lot of youth who aren't able to make those steps. It makes me even more proud of all of the youth I supervise in Trans Housing because they've come so far.
What else?
In between my coalition meeting and my shelter tour, I had an hour and a half to kill downtown. I walked NW 23rd a bit and then headed to Couch Park just to chill out. It's been a gorgeous day weather-wise so it was fabulous for a chance to sit in the sun while little dogs played around me.
I also walked up to the Firefighters Memorial Park for the first time. It's a nice little place to sit in the middle of so much downtown traffic.
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