PALMERSTON – Housing insecurity remains a key concern for local youth as visits to the Grove Youth and Wellness Hubs continue to increase in Wellington County and Guelph.
Presenting an update on the Grove Youth and Wellness Hubs in Guelph Wellington to Minto and Mapleton council Tuesday afternoon, team lead at the Grove in Palmerston Tiffany Fagan and Grove executive director Jeff Hoffman said food and housing insecurity remain big concerns for local youth visiting their spaces.
Fagan estimates the lunch program currently feeds a minimum of 50 youth a day at the Palmerston location.
"Grove sites are extremely busy. Year over year our youth visits are up, the number of young people accessing wellness services has increased and more youth who typically wouldn't be accessing services are receiving the help they need," said Fagan during the council meeting.
"Our early evidence shows that when youth can drop into a safer and braver space where they are comfortable, where they know that they are in the driver's seat and that if or when they need more specific, more intense support, they will reach out."
"Over the last year we've seen a real increase in youth reaching out for support around food and housing," said Hoffman, in an interview with GuelphToday, calling the cost of living and availability of housing a constant challenge for youth living in Wellington County and Guelph.
While educational and mental health supports remain consistently popular, Hoffman said the number of youth presenting concerns about housing doubled from 2023 to 2024 across Wellington County and Guelph.
According to Hoffman, a youth's housing concerns can range from "I need a place to sleep tonight" to longer-term problems like "We have to move out of our apartment this week, this month and we don't know where we're going" because of supply or cost of living issues their families are dealing with.
The Grove has also seen more young people accessing services that "wouldn't traditionally" need them.
"Generally speaking, young people are really uncertain about their future and we see that regularly within the spaces from youth who come in for support," said Hoffman.
More complicated than just helping one individual, Hoffman said it can sometimes be a "challenging conversation" for younger youth seeking support especially when they recognize their family's struggles around topics like food or housing and it's important they can access supportive spaces like the Grove to reach out.
Approximately 50 per cent of youths currently accessing support said they wouldn't receive help or wouldn't know where to go if not for the Grove.
Temporary "sub hubs" in Drayton, Mount Forest, and Harriston are currently planned to run throughout the summer to help youth access support outside the school year.
"Part of the work we do is (figure out) how do we support that youth to ensure that they can meet their needs today, that they're safe today and that they've got the support they need for tomorrow as well," said Hoffman.
Between 2023 and 2024, the Grove saw just over 12,500 drop-in visits at their Palmerston location, with the number of clinical support youth visits doubling compared to the previous year.
While all six locations are busy, Palmerston currently sees 40 per cent of the Grove's youth, welcoming between 70 to 100 people daily.
The Grove saw over 32,000 people at their six Wellington County sites in 2023.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
