15-year-old boy in government minister's care sleeps on Saint John streets, family says

A Grand Manan family is worried sick about a boy who is under the care and protection of New Brunswick's minister of social development. 

They say the teen — we're calling him Michael since he can't be identified under the Family Services Act — is sleeping rough in the streets of Saint John or taking shelter with older men. 

Several times in recent months, family members have travelled to the city to try to find Michael. They say he keeps running away from the Douglas Lake Treatment Centre. 

That's a three-bed group home for youth who require treatment and support for their emotional, behavioural and mental health needs. 

Michael's 18-year-old uncle — we'll call him David — has made three trips to Saint John since early March.

David said he always checks the area around Tim Horton's on Waterloo Street. 

Once, he said, he was able to persuade Michael to return to his group home, a 15-minute drive east of the city.  

On another trip, he bought Michael food but couldn't talk him into leaving the streets. Michael told David he sleeps out near a hockey arena and eats at a soup kitchen.

"He told me he was sleeping for a while under that kind of overpass near the skate park, where TD Station is," David said. That's where group home workers found his belongings burned, David said. 

"He told me that they feed him at Romero House and sometimes he sleeps in strangers' apartments." 

On April 2, after Michael had been missing for nearly a week, David found him uptown, reeking  of alcohol and vomit. David was so disturbed he called police.

"I watched as two police talked to him, then let him walk away with what looked to be a 50-year-old man," he said. 

David fears Michael is being exploited and using drugs. He said his nephew's mental deficiencies affect his judgment and his ability to understand danger.  

CBC News reached Michael's mother and his father by phone. They declined to be interviewed.