It’s no surprise that the Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) hosted a youth homelessness discussion on Monday to inaugurate the nation’s first statewide youth homelessness awareness campaign.
Under Executive Director Charles J. Gaeta’s leadership, LHAND has launched a succession of programs with goals extending far beyond providing housing for people. Its self-sufficiency counseling program educated public-housing residents in how to manage finances and build equity in order to eventually buy a home.
Its first-time homebuyer classes helped people who are ready to buy a home navigate the real-estate market and mortgage-acquisition process.
LHAND built programs to reach out to veterans and address the needs specific to people who have served in the military. The agency targeted a half-dozen Lynn neighborhoods for renewal, including Herbert Street, Shepard Street and Smith Street, creating homeownership opportunities for Lynn residents.
State officials picked LHAND as the kickoff site for the state’s “Path to Help” program because of the Lynn agency’s track record of supporting youth homelessness prevention programs.
Monday’s roundtable discussion coincided with Youth Homelessness Awareness Month. The discussion included young people talking about their experiences and underscored statistics every Massachusetts resident should be ashamed to read: Approximately 3,800 youth between the ages of 18 and 24 years old are homeless annually in Massachusetts; some survive by exchanging sex for money.
Homelessness is triggered, said youth participating in Monday’s discussion, by a number of factors, including abuse at home or because teens are not accepted by their parents for their sexuality.
Homelessness puts people trying to break out of it in a bind: Job applicants who don’t have an address can’t get work, and paying for housing without a job isn’t feasible.
The goal of “Path to Help” is to direct homeless youth to services through a public-awareness campaign and to encourage them to ask for help.
LHAND has always embraced new missions to serve those in need and no challenge seems beyond the agency’s capacity to meet. We are excited to see how Gaeta and his team bring their talents to bear on reducing and, hopefully, helping to eradicate youth homelessness.
