Youth homelessness

La version française de ce billet se trouve ici.

I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness and have just released Chapter 9, focusing on youth homelessness. The PDF version of the full chapter is available here.

Here are 10 things to know:

1. Specific subgroups of youth are particularly vulnerable to homelessness. They include racialized youth, young parents, and LGBTQ2S youth. Many youth who become homeless have had involvement with child protection and have also experienced challenges in the education system—including learning disabilities, ADHD, physical disabilities, and bullying.

2. The role of child protection is a major consideration in youth homelessness. Most wealthy countries have child protection authorities that monitor for children deemed to be living in unsafe situations. When a child or youth is found to be in such an unsafe situation, they are often removed from the family unit and taken into care. Unfortunately, as youth begin to ‘age out’ of child protection, planning arrangements for ‘life after child protection’ are often lacking.

3. Youth-serving organizations and school officials can work collaboratively. Youth-serving organizations that offer programs and supports to youth at risk of homelessness can work with school officials to identify youth who show early warning signs. There is potential for teachers, guidance counsellors and administrators to be the ‘eyes and ears’ and connect these young people to agencies that can provide supports and remove barriers to accessing help.

4. Specifically, schools offer an opportunity to identify early warning signs. School officials can work with local youth-serving organizations to identify: students with learning disabilities; those with ADHD; students with physical disabilities; and students who have been victims of bullying. In the case of students who are ultimately identified as being at serious risk of homelessness, early intervention supports should be offered.

5. Once youth begin to experience homelessness, they are further victimized. While homeless, they may experience: declining mental health; exposure to sexual and physical violence; reduced school participation; unemployment; criminal victimization; and human trafficking (this may include being pressured into drug dealing and sex work, being tricked or being manipulated).

6. It can be advantageous to extend the age at which youth leave foster care. Extended foster care has been found to be associated with “improved educational attainment, increased financial assets, reduced receipt of need-based public aid, and decreased homelessness, economic hardship, and criminal justice system involvement…” It has also been found to reduce the likelihood of teenage pregnancy.

7. Extending services for youth ‘aging out’ of child protection is also sensible. Transitions out of child protection need to be well-supported. Post-pandemic, British Columbia (Canada) increased age limits for accessing transition supports, and increased the age that youth can stay in their care placement.

8. Australia offers an example of good school-based risk assessment. The Geelong Project is an example of the use of assessment tools to target youth who are at risk of experiencing homelessness. High school students complete a survey and are scored into three tiers based on results. Those deemed to be at the highest risk are targeted for immediate services and supports.

9. Specialized supportive housing for youth is crucial. Supportive housing—sometimes known as Housing First—involves a subsidy to help a low-income household afford rent, as well as various forms of professional staff support to help a household to function and remain housed. In the case of youth, such supports might pertain to: education and job-training skills; income assistance and financial literacy; parenting support; assistance in reconnecting with family; legal support; cultural reconnection; human trafficking support; health care; harm reduction; and food security.

10. Youth-specific emergency shelters can play an important role. Such facilities can offer specialized services, including many of those discussed in the preceding paragraph. It is important to be mindful that youth can be victims of exploitation and they risk prolonged homelessness if exposed to older persons who have experienced homelessness for longer (e.g., older adults with high chronicity).

In sum. This is a summary of Chapter 9 of a sole-authored, open access interdisciplinary textbook intended to provide an introduction to homelessness for students, service providers, researchers, policy-makers and advocates. All material for this book is available free of charge here. Newly completed chapters will be uploaded throughout the year.

I wish to thank Jenny Morrow and Annick Torfs for assistance with this blog post.