Last week at the hub:

Infographic Wednesday got a lot of attention on social media. It is focused on Alex Abramovich's research on LGBTQ youth homelessness in Toronto and Canada. Alex's recent work shows that LGBTQ youth are more likely to face abuse in the shelter system and are more likely to be unaware of the complaint system. Also, LGBTQ youth tend to be represented disproportionately within the homeless population. You can access Alex's chapter in our free Youth Homelessness in Canada ebook here.

One of the big highlights of last week was the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness first National Conference to End Homelessness where four of our staff members, one of our students, and our post-doctoral visiting fellow were able to attend. A cool part of the conference, and a good wrap up, was an ePoster Session where several presenters went up for a few minutes each to share their research, stories, and ideas.

In the spirit of sharing our experiences, our weekly "Ask The Hub" post actually went into some detail on the work our small staff does and how the Homeless Hub operates with the support of our various partners.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Children's Aid Society of Toronto put together a report on homeless newcomer youth in Toronto. Youth under the age of 24 represent the fastest growing part of the homeless population in Canada. In recent surveys done in Toronto 22.3% of youth asked said that they were born outside of Canada. Sadly there is little research done on newcomer youth and the ways they've encountered homelessness along with the services that could help them get out. 

Another interesting report from the National Aboriginal Health Organization details the acute housing shortage experienced by the Inuit people. Access to affordable and quality housing is necessary for a community to be healthy and to develop economically. The Inuit experiences the most crowded and insecure housing conditions in the country. This report goes into some research findings related to housing and health and points to some solutions that policy makers can push for to solve the housing and health crisis.