Why Keela Keeping is Sleeping Outside

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A decade ago I was working on the Downtown Eastside, in a fabulous job, for a wonderful organization. I was well-taken care of and really happy for the privilege of making a meaningful difference.

But when you see people every day, struggling after decades of chronic homelessness and addiction, with so few accepting true help, relatively speaking, you get curious: How did these people get here? What is their origin story?

It was my very job to interview those beautiful people. In my work, I started to see themes. I was shocked by how many started on alcohol at age 9, and how broken some of family homes were.

It doesn’t take rocket science to understand that issues started in childhood, and carried on in the teens. I started asking some who had been to hell and back and succeeded in recovery: “Had you had a consistent caring adult in your life when you were a youth, do you think it would have made a difference in the trajectory of your life?” The answer was almost always most certainly.

It began to weigh on me that the world’s attention was on the Downtown Eastside with a massive amount of funding, could not funds be funneled into prevention? Into youth? It’s infinity times cheaper, and not only better for the community (trading a drain for a contributor), it’s of course infinity better for the youth!

I knew, all over Greater Vancouver were tens of thousands of youth, who could easily been those future homeless and addicted tragic stories, but their stories were not yet written. In fact, there was an organization, Youth Unlimited, quietly, without much fanfare (and without much comparatively for funds), with a host of urban missionaries, giving their lives to help and support youth who often did have even one healthy and consistent adult in their life – and making and INCREDIBLE difference. But as it was explained to me, “prevention is the hardest thing to fund.” It’s not visible like tragedy is. Unless you look closer.

Yet Youth Unlimited was absolutely and unequivocally preventing many many youth from ending up on the Downtown Eastside. And beyond that, preventing youth from joining gangs, dying from an overdose, ending up with a criminal record or being sexually trafficked. They were also preventing youth from spending their lives in crippling anxiety, living without hope, becoming a fierce bully, and so much more.

Youth Unlimited didn’t have any marketing campaigns, just may urban missionaries getting into the cracks with the youth who where falling in, and supporting them to find a way out. And they do it all in the name of Jesus.

So when asked to come join, to step into that side of things, I joined (after a short wrestle). It is not easy to be constantly stretched, but it is good. I love these youth and love these staff and I am honoured to serve alongside.

So here I am, in the trenches with work family, sleeping outside in solidarity and to raise support for this life-saving and life-changing work. My hope is that you will catch the vision as well, and add your support.

Your investment is transformational and eternal. Bless you for reading all this