Lolah James was 19 when she suddenly had no place to stay. Her parents were experiencing housing insecurity themselves and her mother never came to pick her up after her freshman year at Savannah State University, leaving Lolah “stuck and stranded.” Lolah moved to Baltimore to stay with a cousin, but that only lasted for six months. For the next three years she couch surfed and stayed at shelters. Today, she has her own apartment.
“The one thing I think about youth homelessness is that…everyone says it’s not their responsibility. It’s like ‘It’s not my kid.’ And at what point do we have the compassion and camaraderie to help one another? I have people who did that for me,” she says. “Teenagers—it’s a moment in life when you’re misunderstood. We need to teach people how to communicate with teenagers, and how to listen to them.”
When she came to Baltimore, Lolah was “a complete and utter stranger” to Chanel Herriott, the woman Lolah now calls “godmom.” Through Chanel’s kindness, Lolah gained family—and employment at Chanel’s daycare. Through a range of programs and services, Lolah gained stable housing.
As a member of the Baltimore City Continuum of Care, a collaborative charged with reducing homelessness, Lolah has a couple of messages for others.
For young people who know homelessness first-hand: “Be the person you needed growing up and remember your experiences aren’t just yours. Share them with the world so they can help change others’ lives.”
For everybody else: “Be kind.”
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A City-Led Focus on Youth Homelessness
This next month, Baltimore City and four homeless services provider partners will launch a two-year $3.7 million effort focused specifically on reducing youth homelessness. The federally-funded Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project is being administered by the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services, a Children’s Cabinet partner, and spans four programs that kick off February 1; a fifth will follow in the spring.
With a focus on youth ages 16 to 24, these programs include family-based diversion, shelter diversion, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing for unaccompanied youth and crisis transitional housing for youth. They will be administered by Springboard Community Services, St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, Youth Empowered Society (YES) and Baltimore Safe Haven, also a partner of the Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success last summer in the city’s emergency food distribution work.
To Springboard, St. Vincent de Paul, YES and Baltimore Safe Haven: Our work to lift up Baltimore’s children and youth would be impossible without your deep expertise and commitment—and that of our many dozens of community partners. Thank you.
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