Colorado’s Youth Shelters Are Using Trauma-Informed Design and Low-Barrier Entry to Provide Safe, Supportive Environments for Teens
Youth shelters in Colorado are responding to the recent rise in the state’s homeless youth population by providing supportive, safe, and social shelter environments for teens and young adults. These shelters have been built to cater to the unique needs of homeless teens, including the incorporation of trauma-informed architecture techniques that naturally put people more at ease in the space.
Youth Homelessness on the Rise
Unfortunately, like many other forms of homelessness, youth homelessness is currently on the rise. Numbers from the Denver area alone show a 10 to 25 percent increase during the time period of 2017 to 2021.
Of course, these are only the numbers of homeless youth that were able to be identified. It is likely many times more are going unnoticed or intentionally flying under the radar. Some researchers estimate that the number of teens in the Denver area aged 14 to 17 experiencing homelessness at one time or another during the course of a single year could be as high as 1 in 4. It’s difficult to know for sure, but what is known is that the need is currently greater than the available support.
Causes of Youth Homelessness
The root causes behind youth homelessness are many and varied, but always sad. It could be a situation where an entire family is displaced by eviction, poverty, a house fire, or another natural disaster that destroys their family home. Other times, youth are neglected, abused, or abandoned by those who were supposed to take care of them.
Up to 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ+, an extremely disproportionate share given that less than 10% of youth in America as a whole are LGBTQ+. That means that LGBTQ+ kids have a 120% greater risk of experiencing homelessness than their non-LGBTQ+ peers.
With anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment on the rise in America and abroad, these numbers are likely to rise as a consequence of the broader villainization and scapegoating of LGBTQ+ people. Ironically, this is often done under the banner of “protecting the children,” without a thought toward the many children whom this rhetoric harms.
Urban Peak Mothership
Urban Peak has been providing shelter for homeless youth for the past 35 years, and recently expanded its capacity by constructing a new shelter building known as the Mothership.
The Mothership was thoughtfully designed in collaboration with the staff, the community, and Shopworks Architecture to make it a supportive shelter through trauma-informed design. The building looks much like the luxury apartments going up in other areas of the city. Inside rooms are arranged “dorm style” with a couple of bedrooms arranged around a shared living space.
Details such as eliminating dark corners and closed-off spaces naturally put guests at ease, knowing that there is nowhere someone could be hidden, waiting to jump out at them.
The approach is working since critical incidents at the shelter are down by 60 percent, even though the shelter is now housing three times as many students as it once did.
The Landing
The Landing has the distinction of being the only new homeless youth shelter to open in the state of Colorado in the past 18 years, as well as being the only homeless shelter of any kind operating in northern Colorado. As such, it plays a crucial role in keeping people in their communities, rather than sending everyone to Denver to access services.
Shopworks Architecture also worked on The Landing to incorporate the trauma-informed architecture practices that worked so well for Urban Peak. The shelter is themed around the mountains for which the area is so well known, and the rooms are each named after one of the Colorado 14ers- or mountain peaks that exceed 14,000 feet in elevation, of which the state has 58.
The Landing also provides the freedom that homeless teens need to start trusting again. They are free to come and go from the shelter without being locked in. Barriers to entry are kept low, and supplies and clothing are available for the taking. Additionally, meals and laundry facilities are available on site.
There are even storage cubbies for personal belongings where knives and other items needed for protection outside of the shelter (excluding guns) can be kept on a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Guests are not required to give up or stash these items, as they might be stolen, in order to access the shelter’s services.
Youth and young adult director Aaron Brown describes The Landing’s current approach, saying, “The first time they are here, we just want them to have a safe space, but if we see them regularly, we may start to do case management. Right now, priority number one is to be that trusted space.”
Trust is no small thing when it comes to homeless youth shelters. Right now, The Landing has 28 beds to offer, but can’t fill them all, not because there are fewer than 28 people in need of shelter in the area, but because homeless youth often feel safer staying with friends, sleeping in their cars, or finding a cheap hotel room than putting their trust in another institution that is supposed to protect them.
After what many of these kids have been through at such a young age, it’s understandable that they would feel that way. Right now, The Landing is new enough that it’s still working on building a reputation in the community. Once word gets out that it’s a safe and respectful place to stay, those beds will unfortunately be full in no time.
Interrupting a Cycle
The teenage and young adult years are a formative time for everyone, and even more so for youth who are experiencing homelessness during this time.
Many people who are chronically homeless as adults were also homeless as youth. Early intervention during this critical life stage can be transformative, taking people off the path of chronic homelessness and allowing them to have a completely different life trajectory than they otherwise would.
Youth-specific homeless shelters like Urban Peak and The Landing are making a huge difference in many people’s lives by offering teens and young adults the stability that they may have never experienced in their lives. Sometimes that’s just what they needed to turn their fortunes around completely.