UNB study finds almost 200 at-risk male teens in Fredericton

FREDERICTON – A new study has found almost 200 teenage boys are homeless or at risk of being homeless in Fredericton.

University of New Brunswick professor Dr. Scott Ronis co-authored the study looking to find how common homelessness is among male teens, ages 16 to 19, in the city.

“I was planning on being surprised about not getting to that number but in fact we were able to get to that number,” said Ronis.

They gathered 187 interviews with youth who were either homeless, at risk of becoming homeless or couch surfing.

READ MORE: Fredericton aims to end homelessness in ten years

One of the interesting things about the study was that the interviewers were from the target population themselves.

Ronis said they knew where to look to find teens in the situation, and couldn’t have done the study without them.

“We said, ‘Where are you getting these people?’ And they just shook their heads and said, ‘You have no idea.’ They knew where to go to find kids that fit the criteria for this study,” he said.

Warren Maddox, executive director of Fredericton’s Homeless Shelters, said the study exposed a problem he sees almost everyday.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, bar none, was looking a 17-year-old in the eye when it was 30 below out and saying ‘I’m sorry, I’ve got no room. I’ve got no space for you,'” he said.

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“I have no doubts that their numbers are dead-on accurate.”

Both Ronis and Maddox agreed that many services these teens need exist in the city. But some need to be expanded in order to meet the need.

Ronis said Youth in Transition, a Fredericton group who addresses the needs of at-risk youth, recently added four beds at their youth residence specifically for males.

And many of these services are running off of temporary funding and what they need is a more sustainable funding model.

“The research was exactly right. You may get program funding this year, and you get ramped up to build it, well, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the funding next year, and then it’s done,” said Maddox.

“So you’ve done a whole year of really great work and then it ends.”

The study is published in the Children and Youth Services Review. Over 50 per cent of the teens said they had been or were homeless.