When Laura arrived at art group, she was excited to share her good news–she got her own apartment!
After a year or so of couch hopping, she finally had her own space. It was a small room in a rooming house, but she didn’t mind. She was just excited to have a space to call her own.
This excitement faded quickly the day she moved in when she saw that the repairs the landlord had promised to do before she moved in had not been completed….or even started. In fact, the room had not even been cleaned. She took pictures of her room on the day she moved in, and I was horrified by what I saw: holes in the wall, garbage and dirt on the floor, a hole where there should be a door handle, tape holding the door together….Certainly not a place where anyone would feel SAFE.
But the worst was yet to come…..bed bugs.
Laura arrived at art group with welts all over her body. She says her room and mattress are completely infested with bed bugs and the constant biting makes it hard to sleep.
This is the reality of housing in Ottawa. There is just simply not enough affordable housing in this city. And youth like Laura are forced to take what they can get.
How do we expect these youth to thrive when they do not even have somewhere safe to sleep?
The beautiful thing about Laura, is that she continues to look at her future optimistically. She is not letting this experience hold her back.
Check out the beautiful painting she was working on last night.
I’m constantly amazed by the strength and the resilience youth like Laura show.