Homeless Youth in Canada

There are many different terms that can be used when describing youth that experience homelessness. These terms include street youth, street kids, and runaways. Youth homelessness refers to individuals between ages 13 to 24 who do not live with their parents or caregivers, and rely on support when entering adulthood. According to Without a Home’s National Youth Homelessness Survey, 20% of the total homeless population in Canada is youth between the ages of 13-24. This means that in any given year, there are at least 35,000 - 40,000 youth who experience homelessness (Homeless Hub., n.d).

Homeless youth are particularly vulnerable to psychological distress, substance use and mental disorders. Rates of the overall homeless population have increased rapidly from 1980, which includes a huge increase in youth homelessness as well. Homelessness is a consequence of and is a contributing factor to mental health problems among youth in Canada. “Over 85% of homeless youth report high levels of psychological distress” (Baki, Iyer., 2019) 42% of youth have attempted suicide once in their lives due to homeless lives they were leading.

Homelessness is usually a result of some kind of loss, whether it is employment, permanent address, relationships, or schooling. A Canadian study found that many homeless people describe their past identities positively as a way to deal with the stigma associated with their living conditions (Grady, Kidd, Gaetz., 2020). Many people placed special emphasis on their previous jobs, and are optimistic about their future, hoping that they will be able to identify themselves as non-homeless individuals.

Data from the study of the National Canadian Homeless Youth survey has established that it is impossible to find sample population surveys on homelessness, because of two reasons; one being there isn’t any constitutional definition on what a homeless youth is. Secondly, “there are no available lists of homeless youth in Canada , or, for that matter, in any other country that can be used to randomly select a representative sample.” (Grady, Kidd, Gaetz., 2020)

“There are no available lists of homeless youth in Canada, or, for that matter, in any other country that can be used to randomly select a representative sample” (Grady, Kidd, Gaetz., 2020). There are many myths to homeless youth, such as “they wanted to be homeless”, “they are to blame for being homeless”, “most live on the street”, and many more. Contrary to this stigma, there are less than 6% of individuals who are homeless by choice (Youth without shelter., n.d).

There are many reasons why the numbers of homelessness are so high among youth. Some of these reasons include having a conflict with their parents/guardians, an unsafe housing condition, and/or inability to pay rent. It is unfair to blame these people for their living circumstances, since a majority of them are victims who have suffered from abuse in their housing environment. Furthermore, most homeless people do not live on the streets. “More than 80% of Canada’s homeless are improperly housed or on the verge of eviction” (Youth without shelter., n.d).

There is a large population of homeless individuals in Canada who need the support of the government and other citizens. Homelessness is a primary social issue that needs to be addressed and reduced due to the increasing number of individuals that have been facing it. Without a national commitment to address youth homelessness, the numbers of street-involved youth will continue to accelerate, and associated health care, criminal justice, social services and emergency shelter costs will continue to grow.

Citations:

N.d. (2021). What is Homelessness. https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/population-specific/youth

Abdel‐Baki, A., Aubin, D., Iyer, S., Gioia, M., Bauco, P., Dupont, M. E., & Malla, A. (2018). Access to mental health services for homeless youth: ACCESS‐open minds‐RIPAJ, Montreal, Canada. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 12, 227–227.

Youth without shelter. (N.d). Youth homelessness. https://yws.on.ca/who-we-are/youth-homelessness/

O’Grady, Bill, et al. “Youth Homelessness and Self Identity: A View from Canada.” Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 23, no. 4, Apr. 2020, pp. 499–510, doi:10.1080/13676261.2019.1621997.

Doré-Gauthier, Virginie, et al. “How to Help Homeless Youth Suffering from First Episode Psychosis and Substance Use Disorders? The Creation of a New Intensive Outreach Intervention Team.” Psychiatry Research, vol. 273, no. Complete, Mar. 2019, pp. 603–612, doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2019.01.076.