Aged out of foster care, a young Winnipegger struggles to find safe place to live

For many Winnipeggers, getting through the winter is all about survival.

The financial math is tough for many people. Add the rising cost of food and essentials to highrents and it can be difficult to make ends meet.

For Cheyanne McKay, 23, finding safe, affordable housing in the face of gender and age discrimination is also part of the troubling equation.

"All I ever really wanted is a stable place to live," said McKay, who uses they/them pronouns.

All I ever wanted is a stable place to stay.- Cheyanne McKay

McKay's personal story is the final episode of Unsafe Spaces, a three-part video series highlighting housing challenges facing young people. (You can see Part 1 here and Part2 here.)

McKay lived in foster care from ages 13 to 16, and then moved out on their own. For McKay, they would just like to live in an apartment without cockroaches or bedbugs.

"That would be nice," they laughed. But that's not their reality.

McKay says odds aren't in their favour if you are low income.Rental companies also often pass over potential tenants with anyconnections to Child and Family Services, they said.

McKay's current apartment building hosts drug dealers, usersand partiers, who aren't ideal neighbours, they say.

But it's just a situation that McKay has learned to accept, and for now, it'll have to do.

"It's no different than the last place I was living," they say with a shrug.

This three-part video seriesby filmmakers Sidney Phommarath and Melvin Daligdigexplores housingchallenges faced by threeyoung Winnipeggersand the advice they have for their peers.

Watch Tamika Krush reveal how being queer and black led to housing discrimination inPart 1of Unsafe Spaces. RenterHayley Toewsreveals how her gender and age effect renting opportunitiesin Part 2 of Unsafe Spaces.

Thisfilm is part of Unlocked: Housing stories by young Canadians, a national storytelling series by the CBC Creator Network. These personal stories, produced primarily by gen Zers and millennials, reveal the challenges young Canadians face finding affordable housing, their creative solutions and their hopes for the future. You can read more storieshere.