Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is the largest national research institute devoted to homelessness in Canada. The COH is the curator of the Homeless Hub.
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Author(s): Courtney Cronley
Publication Date: 2021
This study applies an intersectional analysis to explore racial and gender differences in a widely used measure of vulnerability while homeless, the VI-SPDAT, among a large community sample. The study is particularly important given that vulnerability assessments are used to triage housing decisions for individuals experiencing homelessness. Based on the high risk for trauma among women lacking permanent shelter, and the fact that persons who are...
Author(s): Kaitlin Schwan, Erin Dej, Alicia Versteegh
Publication Date: 2020
Equitable access to adequate housing has increasingly been recognized as a matter of life and death during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, there has been limited gendered analysis of how COVID-19 has shaped girls’ access to housing. In this article we analyze how the socio-economic exclusion of girls who are homeless is likely to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. We suggest that three structural inequities will deepen this exc...
Author(s): Ivis García, Keuntae Kim
Publication Date: 2020
This study is concerned with homeless families that returned to the shelter and qualified to participate in the Rapid Rehousing Program (RRHP) again. Because RRH is a short-term voucher where families rent in the private market, one of the main barriers to finding housing is having an eviction record. Focus groups with tenants and case managers/service providers, as well as interviews with landlords participating in The Road Home’s RRHP in Salt L...
Author(s): Courtney Cronley
Publication Date: 2020
This study applies an intersectional analysis to explore racial and gender differences in a widely used measure of vulnerability while homeless, the VI-SPDAT, among a large community sample. The study is particularly important given that vulnerability assessments are used to triage housing decisions for individuals experiencing homelessness. Based on the high risk for trauma among women lacking permanent shelter, and the fact that persons who are...
Author(s): European Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2020
The full open-access issue of the European Journal of Homelessness Vol.14, Issue 2 is now available! The issue features articles, research notes, and book reviews from leading thinkers on addressing homelessness across Europe.
Author(s): Earl J. Edwards
Publication Date: 2020
More than 1.5 million students experienced homelessness in the 2017-18 school year, but teachers receive little guidance on how to support them. Earl Edwards provides K-12 (particularly high school) teachers with an overview of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and concrete recommendations for how to better support youth experiencing homelessness in their pursuit to graduate high school. The recommendations are derived from a study that...
Author(s): Susanna R.Curry, Arturo Baiocchia, Brenda A.Tully, Nathan Garst, Samantha Bielz, Shannon Kugley, Matthew Morton
Publication Date: 2020
Background
Evidence on the effectiveness of programs serving unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness remains limited and mixed, and we know little about the factors that contribute to participant engagement and program implementation across contexts.
Objective
In this meta-synthesis of current findings on youth interventions, we explore the following research questions: 1) What are common programmatic or contextual factors that researchers...
Author(s): Ali Jadidzadeh, Ron Kneebone
Publication Date: 2020
A large administrative data set allows us to examine shelter use by single adults, youth, and families in Toronto. We find important differences in shelter use by single adults, youth, and families. We introduce an approach that allows us to identify a noticeable increase in the percentage of shelter clients whom we define as chronic users of the shelter system—people for whom each episode of shelter use is typically very long. This should be a c...
Author(s): Ali Jadidzadeh, Ron Kneebone
Publication Date: 2020
Social distancing and self-isolation are two of the key responses asked of citizens during a pandemic. For people without a home, this advice is rather more difficult to follow. In this article, we use daily data describing the movements of 36,855 unique individuals who used emergency homeless shelters in Calgary over the period 1 January 2014–31 December 2019. We show that the use of emergency shelters is characterized by large flows from and in...
Author(s): Elaine Toombs, Christopher J. Mushquash, Jessie Lund, Victoria A. Pitura, Kaitlyn Toneguzzi, Scott Leon, Tina Bobinski, Nina Vitopoulos, Tyler Frederick, Sean Kidd
Publication Date: 2020
There is a high prevalence of Indigenous youth experiencing either precarious housing or homelessness in northwestern Ontario. Given that Indigenous pathways to homelessness can differ from non-Indigenous youth, interventions that address homelessness must also adapt to meet diverse needs. The Housing Outreach Program Collaborative (HOP-C) is a tertiary prevention intervention designed to provide congruent housing and peer and mental health suppo...
Author(s): Michelle Norris, Aideen Quilty
Publication Date: 2020
There is significant research evidence which demonstrates that LGBTQI+ young people experience higher rates of homelessness than their straight and cis peers. However, estimates of the scale of their over representation in homelessness vary significantly. This partially reflects difficulties in identifying and researching LGBTQI+ homeless youth due to their invisibility within homeless services. Drawing on in-depth interviews with homeless LGBTQI...
Author(s): Rachel Caplan, Geoffrey Nelson, Jino Distasio, Corinne Isaak, Betty Edel, Myra Piat, Ph.D., Eric Macnaughton, Maritt Kirst, Michelle Patterson, Tim Aubry, Susan Mulligan, Paula Goering
Publication Date: 2020
The purpose of this study is to examine the parent–child experiences of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous mothers and fathers experiencing homelessness, mental illness, and separation from their children. A qualitative thematic analysis of baseline and 18‐month follow‐up narrative interviews was used to compare 12 mothers (n = 8 Indigenous and n = 4 nonindigenous) with 24 fathers (n = 13 Indigenous and n = 11 non‐Indigenous). First, it was found that...
Author(s): Rebecca Schiff, Kristy Buccieri, Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff, Carol Kauppi, Mylene Riva
Publication Date: 2020
Addressing the vulnerability and unique needs of homeless populations during pandemics has been a major component of the Canadian federal response to the COVID-19 crisis. Rural and remote communities, however, have received little to no funding to aid in their care of homeless people during the pandemic. Similarly, there has been little to no research on rural communities’ pandemic preparedness in the context of homelessness. There are large numb...
Author(s): Sean A. Kidd, Susan Greco & Kwame McKenzie
Publication Date: 2020
Homelessness is a persistent global challenge with significant health impacts on those affected. Homeless people are by definition the most exposed to weather conditions and the social and economic problems caused by extreme weather and climate change and variability. This systematic review was designed to synthesize the academic literature that addresses the health and social implications of global climate change for homelessness. The question e...
Author(s): Jack Tsai, Natalie Jones, Dorota Szymkowiak, Robert A. Rosenheck
Publication Date: 2020
Millions of people are evicted from rental properties in the U.S. annually, but little is known about them and their mental health. This study followed a cohort of eviction court participants over time and assessed their housing and mental health outcomes. One hundred and twenty-one tenants were recruited from an eviction court in New Haven, Connecticut, and their housing, mental health, and psychosocial status were assessed at baseline, 1, 3, 6,...
Author(s): Katrina Milaney, Rosaele Tremblay, Sean Bristowe, Kaylee Ramage
Publication Date: 2020
Although Canada is recognized internationally as a leader in immigration policy, supports are not responsive to the traumatic experiences of many newcomers. Many mothers and children arriving in Canada are at elevated risk of homelessness. (1) Methods: This study utilized a community-engaged design, grounded in a critical analysis of gender and immigration status. We conducted individual and group interviews with a purposive sample of 18 newcomer...
Author(s): Geoffrey Nelson, Tim Aubry, Sam Tsemberis, Eric Macnaughton
Publication Date: 2020
At Home/Chez Soi was a Canadian research demonstration project that tested the impacts of the Pathways Housing First model on people experiencing serious mental illness and homelessness in 5 cities across the country. In this article, we tell the 10-year story of At Home/Chez Soi, its positive outcomes, and how it contributed to transformative change in public policy from “treatment first” to “housing first” to end homelessness for individuals wi...
Author(s): Brittany Barker, Jean Shoveller, Cameron Grant, Thomas Kerr, Kora DeBeck
Publication Date: 2020
Youth aging-out of the child welfare system (CWS) experience numerous vulnerabilities including, elevated rates of substance use and substance use disorders. Calls to improve services to transition youth to independence are common; however, evidence of the long-term impacts associated with transitional service utilization is scarce. Further, existing services frequently lack appropriate supports for substance using youth and it is unknown if yout...
Author(s): Bill O'Grady, Sean Kidd, Stephen Gaetz
Publication Date: 2019
This paper is based on the analysis of data collected from the National Canadian Homeless Youth Survey and addresses the question: why do some youth who received support from social service agencies that cater to the needs of homeless youth self-identify as being homeless while others do not? According to self-report survey data obtained from 1103 young people from over 50 youth homeless service centres from across Canada, findings show that yout...
Author(s): Erin Dej, Stephen Gaetz, Kaitlin Schwan
Publication Date: 2020
As states move beyond simply managing their homelessness crises to looking for ways to reduce and ultimately end homelessness, broad-scale efforts to prevent homelessness are lacking. Experiences of homelessness are often harmful, traumatic, and costly, making a compelling case for why homelessness prevention should be prioritized. In recent years, countries such as Australia, Finland, and Wales have shifted their focus to prevention, but there r...