Family conflict often underlies youth homelessness, and many homeless youth are fleeing abuse or leaving the care of child welfare services
Many different terms are used to describe young people who are homeless, including including street youth, street kids, runaways, homeless youth, etc. According to The Homeless Hub, youth homelessness refers to young people between the ages of 13 and 24 who are living independently of parents and/or caregivers, and importantly, lack many of the social supports deemed necessary for the transition from childhood to adulthood.
In such circumstances, they do not have a stable or consistent residence or source of income, nor do they necessarily have adequate access to the support networks necessary to foster a safe and nurturing transition into the responsibilities of adulthood.
While the category of homeless youth is marked by incredible diversity, what unites this population is its youthful age and lack of experience of independent living. This is important to consider because any response to homelessness – if it is to be effective – must address the causes and the conditions of homelessness. While there are some commonalities that frame the experience of homelessness for young people and adults – lack of affordable housing, systems failures in health care and corrections, for instance – there are important differences, including physical, mental, social and emotional development.
Canada is failing homeless youth
Canada falls short of meeting the needs of homeless youth by treating them as adults and expecting shelter care to solve the problem, according to a report issued by The Homeless Hub. Coming of Age: Reimagining the Response to Youth Homelessness in Canada [opens to PDF] examines Canada’s responses to youth homelessness — and how Canada is lagging behind by creating “homelessness junior” services.
Unlike the United Kingdom, Australia and even the United States, which look at youth homelessness as an issue separate and distinct from adult homelessness, Canada is lagging behind and tends to create “homelessness junior” services.
It is worth asking, is this the best we can do? Are young people who become homeless destined to spend years in the shelter system mired in the street youth lifestyle, languishing in poverty and vulnerable of exploitation? Are there other ways of thinking about these options? The good news is that there are real, practical solutions to youth homelessness and these can be applied in communities across the country.
Stephen Gaetz is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and is the Director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and the Homeless Hub. He is committed to a research agenda that foregrounds social justice and attempts to make research on homelessness relevant to policy and program development. His research on homeless youth has focused on their economic strategies, health, education and legal and justice issues, and more recently, he has focused his attention on policy and in particular the Canadian Response to homelessness.
We speak with Stephen Gaetz, director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and an associate professor at York University in Toronto, in an interview from early 2014.
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RELATED | Video: The Real Cost of Homelessness | Read the research report in PDF format | The Globe and Mail: Housing homeless cheaper, more effective than status quo: study | Metronews: B.C. could learn from Alberta how to save on costs of homelessness: expert | Toronto Star: Giving the homeless a place to live costs less than providing shelters and emergency services |