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): Abe Oudshoorn
Publication Date: 2020
Homelessness is often considered to be an outcome of individual behaviours and shortcomings, or individual conditions. However, research has demonstrated that there are several policy factors that are strong predictors of homelessness at state or national levels. In fact, policies from sectors as various as the justice system, health system, income supports, and housing can all create the context in which people find themselves de-housed. This ch...
Author(s): Jo Axe, Elizabeth Childs, Kathleen Manion
Publication Date: 2020
At a time where homelessness, inequality and poverty plague Canadian society, an organization in Whistler, British Columbia has been working for over 20 years to combat some of the associated issues faced by vulnerable youth. This multi-year research project explored one of the programs offered by the organization with the intent of gaining an understanding of the short- and long-term impact, the future requirements for sustainability and growth,...
Author(s): Amanda M.Griffin, Michael L.Sulkowski, Mayra Y.Bámaca-Colbert, Harrington Cleveland
Publication Date: 2019
Youth spend a significant amount of time in school surrounded by and interacting with teachers and peers. For doubled-up homeless youth (i.e., youth who share housing with a series of friends and/or extended family members), in-school relationships may be important for their emotional functioning. The current study captured dynamic processes by which in-school teacher and peer social support (i.e., baseline assessments of prior support and daily...
Author(s): Peggy Kelly
Publication Date: 2019
Homelessness is a pervasive problem among youth aging out of the foster care system. Many of these youth exit the system without any concrete plans for their future and wind up suffering bouts of homelessness. Although a growing body of literature has begun to look at the factors that contribute to homelessness among this population, less has been written about the factors that guard against homelessness. Furthermore, most of the studies have bee...
Author(s): Jean Zhuo Wang, Sebastian Mott, Olivia Magwood, Christine Mathew, Andrew Mclellan, Victoire Kpade, Priya Gaba, Nicole Kozloff, Kevin Pottie, Anne Andermann
Publication Date: 2019
Youth often experience unique pathways into homelessness, such as family conflict, child abuse and neglect. Most research has focused on adult homeless populations, yet youth have specific needs that require adapted interventions. This review aims to synthesize evidence on interventions for youth and assess their impacts on health, social, and equity outcomes.
This review identified a variety of interventions for youth experiencing homelessness....
Author(s): Naveena Karusala, Jennifer Wilson, Phebe Vayano, Eric Rice
Publication Date: 2019
Quantification and standardization of concepts like risk and vulnerability are increasingly being used in high-stakes, client-facing social services, also presenting the potential for data-driven tools for decision-making in this context. These trends necessitate an understanding of the role of quantitative data in the work of street-level decision-makers in social services. We present a qualitative study of existing data practices and perception...
Author(s): Ellen L. Bassuk, Jacqueline A. Hart, Effy Donovan
Publication Date: 2019
Homelessness is a devastating experience for children and their families. Families, the majority of whose members are children, now comprise more than one-third of the overall homeless population. Most of these children are less than six years old. Various assumptions have driven policy and the allocation of resources to programs serving these families. Although decades of research and field experience suggest strategies for preventing and reduci...
Author(s): Joshua Evans, Jeffrey R. Masuda
Publication Date: 2019
The management of homelessness has taken various forms over time. In 2003, the U.S. federal government significantly shifted its approach, ambitiously committing to end homelessness within 10 years by targeting the chronically homeless using the Housing First model. This approach to homelessness has rapidly spread across North America and beyond. This article is concerned with how the mobility of these 10-year plans has been realized. Drawing on ...
Author(s): Denise Lamanna, Yona Lunsky, Sophia Wen, Denise Dubois, Vicky Stergiopoulos
Publication Date: 2019
This column describes the development of a partnership between health care, housing, and intellectual disability services to support efforts by homeless adults with intellectual disabilities to exit homelessness. Applying a Housing First approach and philosophy, the partners launched a pilot intervention, which at its first phase engaged 26 homeless adults with intellectual disabilities in Toronto. This cross-sector service model was acceptable t...
Author(s): Raphaël Morisseau-Guillot, Diane Aubin, Julie-Marguerite Deschênes, Milena Gioia, Ashok Malla, Pasquale Bauco, Marie-Ève Dupont, Amal Abdel-Baki
Publication Date: 2019
Youth homelessness is a complex phenomenon as well as an important public health issue often compounded by mental illness of varying severity, in turn creating numerous deleterious consequences. While emergency health services usage remains high, access to mental health services is arduous and conventional interventions often fall short on providing integrated care and seldom lead to sustained positive outcomes for this group. From this observati...
Author(s): Diane Santa Maria, Paula Cuccaro, Kimberly Bender, Stanley Cron, Micki Fine, Erica Sibinga
Publication Date: 2019
Evidence of the acceptability and potential efficacy of mindfulness strategies with at-risk youth is mounting. Yet only a few studies have assessed these strategies among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH).
We conducted a mixed methods feasibility study of an adapted mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) with sheltered YEH. The MBI consisted of five 1.5-h sessions delivered at a youth homeless shelter over 2.5 weeks. A one-group pre/post-test d...
Author(s): Carolyn B. Swope, Diana Hernàndez
Publication Date: 2019
Housing is a major pathway through which health disparities emerge and are sustained over time. However, no existing unified conceptual model has comprehensively elucidated the relationship between housing and health equity with attention to the full range of harmful exposures, their cumulative burden and their historical production. We synthesized literature from a diverse array of disciplines to explore the varied aspects of the relationship be...
Author(s): Amy Van Berkum, Abe Oudshoorn
Organization: Journal of Social Inclusion
Publication Date: 2019
Homelessness is an ongoing social challenge effecting women in unique ways. The purpose of this research study was to understand a network of health and social services accessed by women experiencing homelessness, and how individuals successfully or unsuccessfully navigated these services. Data were collected utilizing a participatory application of the PhotoVoice method, grounded in a critical feminist intersectional perspective. Six women with...
Author(s): Madison Hainstock, Jeffrey R. Masuda
Publication Date: 2019
People experiencing any length of homelessness exhibit resilience and ingenuity in navigating geographies of street-level survival, in which food features prominently. The concept of ‘foodscapes’ has illuminated complex and often contradictory spatial and relational constructions embedded in food procurement routines (Miewald and McCann, 2014). On one hand, places of food provision offer spaces of refuge and socialization that contribute to a pos...
Author(s): Latimer EA, Rabouin D, Cao Z, Ly A, Powell G, Adair CE, Sareen J, Somers JM, Stergiopoulos V, Pinto AD, Moodie EEM, Veldhuizen SR
Publication Date: 2019
A significant proportion of homeless individuals experience mental illness. Housing First (HF), which provides immediate access to subsidized housing together with support services, has proven to be the most effective approach at helping such individuals access and maintain permanent housing. Previous analyses, using mostly before-and-after comparisons or quasi-experimental designs, have reported significant cost offsets associated with the provi...
Struggles, successes, and setbacks: Youth aging out of child welfare in a subsidized housing program
Author(s): Lisa Schelbe
Publication Date: 2019
Youth aging out of the child welfare system report high rates of unstable housing and homelessness which has been associated with problems including employment, education, health and mental health. This study used ethnographic data to examine a program providing subsidized apartments to youth aging out. The study sought to understand youths' and service providers' perceptions and experiences about the program. Receiving services and stable housin...
Author(s): Brittany Bingham, Akm Moniruzzaman, Michelle Patterson, Jitinder Sareen, Jino Distasio, John O’Neil and Julian M. Somers
Publication Date: 2019
Indigenous people are over represented among homeless populations worldwide and the prevalence of Indigenous homelessness appears to be increasing in Canadian cities. Violence against Indigenous women in Canada has been widely publicized but has not informed the planning of housing interventions. Despite historical policies leading to disenfranchisement of Indigenous rights in gender-specific ways, little is known about contemporary differences i...
Author(s): Richard Pereira
Publication Date: 2015
A peer-reviewed paper in the World Economic Review, in which Richard Pereira identifies numerous options for finding or generating the revenue required to support a universal basic income in Canada.
Author(s): Harvey Stevens & Wayne Simpson
Publisher: Journals University of Toronto Press
Publication Date: 2017
In this paper, Wayne Simpson and Harvey Stevens of the University of Manitoba explain how a $51 billion federal basic income program or a $82 billion federal-provincial basic income program could be funded by converting select Non-Refundable Tax Credits (NRTCs) and the Federal Sales Tax Credit (GST) into the revenue base for a partial basic income, with significant positive impact on the incidence and depth of poverty and on income inequality in...
Author(s): Getinet Ayano, Light Tsegay, Mebratu Abraha, Kalkidan Yohannes
Publication Date: 2019
Globally, suicide is a major public health problem among homeless people. Suicidal ideation and attempt are remarkably higher among homeless people as compared to the general population and they are linked with greater risk of complete suicide. However, no systematic review and meta-analysis has been conducted to report the consolidated magnitude of suicidal ideation and attempt among homeless people. We searched PubMed, Embase, and Scopus to ide...