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Publication Date: 2021
This report outlines findings from a study which captured narratives from individuals experiencing homelessness throughout the pandemic; and those tasked with developing, supporting, innovating, and funding the disaster responses in two Nova Scotian communities.
Publisher: Wilfred Laurier University Press
Publication Date: 2018
Youth are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Although there has been much research on how youth become homeless and survive on the streets, we know very little about their pathways off the street and the many challenges that present during this process.
This book relates the lived experiences of homeless youth as they negotiate the individual, sociocultural, and economic tensions of transitioning out of homeless and s...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press
Publication Date: 2018
The book contains four sections covering a range of topics that service providers inquire about most often. Part 1: Approaches and Interventions describes specific approaches to addressing the mental health and substance use challenges of youth experiencing homelessness. Topics include the community reinforcement approach and motivational enhancement therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, mindfulness approaches, trauma-informed care, ecologicall...
Publication Date: 2016
Youth without housing experience more regulation and conflict with criminal justice than their housed counterparts. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with fifty-one young people, we focus on how efforts to move away from homelessness towards long-term housing stability are impacted by conflict with law, a term referring to a broad range of experiences with various authorities in the legal system, social services, shelters, etc. Our paper come...
Publication Date: 2016
This paper explores the lives of formerly homeless young people as they transitioned towards housing stability. The study employed a longitudinal design involving 51 street youth in Halifax, N.S. (n = 21) and Toronto, ON (n = 30). This paper sheds light upon the pathways through which young people transitioned away from homelessness using the developmental lens of emerging adulthood: a stage involving numerous developmental struggles (identity, i...
Publication Date: 2015
This paper explores how art can be used to tell stories and actively build safe spaces, and grew out of reflections from a capacity-building and knowledge translation/mobilization project involving 7 young people living on the streets. The paper considers how research can contribute to an examination of anti-oppressive practice and methodology, and an application of it in the field through an arts-based agenda. Conceptually, the paper takes up th...
Publication Date: 2016
This study examined the process of establishing post homeless lives among 51 recently homeless youth in two major urban centers in Canada. A mixed methods strategy was employed to characterize this process. Quantitatively, a range of mental health, community integration, and quality of life measures were employed four times over the course of 1 year to describe how these indicators of wellbeing shifted in this period. It was found that over the c...
Publication Date: 2014
Despite housing stability being a key concept in housing and homelessness policy, research, and service provision, it remains poorly defined and conceptualized, and to date there are no standard measures. We use in-depth qualitative interviews with 51 young people transitioning away homelessness over the course of a year to examine the core dimensions of housing stability. Due to the potential for sudden change, we define housing stability as the...
Publication Date: 2013
While there exists an extensive body of knowledge regarding the risks associated with youth homelessness, very little work has addressed the process of exiting street contexts. This paper reports baseline findings from an ongoing longitudinal study assessing factors associated with a successful transition out of homelessness. Fifty-one formerly homeless youth who obtained stable housing in the past 2 months to 2 years participated in this study wh...
Publication Date: 2002
Youth shelters have emerged as significant resources for homeless and runaway adolescents. Through participant observations of shelter culture, review of agency archival materials, and in-depth interviews with 21 shelter workers (front line staff, middle managers, and upper-level executives), this analysis explores the life stages of two Canadian street youth shelters, highlighting the dramatic transformations in their internal operations and ext...
Publication Date: 2014
Aims: Many people who use drugs (PWUD) have multiple health and social needs, and research suggests that this population is increasingly accessing emergency departments (EDs) and shelters for health care and housing. This qualitative study explored the practices of those working in EDs and shelters when providing services to PWUD, with a particular focus on key challenges in service provision.
Methods: EDs and shelters were conceptualized as ‘mi...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory On Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
This analysis explores the case study of a Nova Scotia supportive housing development (Supportive Housing for Young Mothers – SHYM) designed for young mothers and their children. Based on two rounds of in-depth interviews, conducted six months apart, with 10 tenants, four staff members and five Board members, in addition to tenants’ completion of the World Health Organization Quality of Life survey (WHOQOL-BREF), this research highlights how the...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory On Homelessness
Publication Date: 2013
This paper explores the ways in which young people across Canada attempt to get off the streets. The goal of the research was to identify the strategies that young people use and challenges they face in getting off the street in order to inform service providers and policy makers of the experience of transitioning to housing. Findings suggest that there are several connected dimensions to the process of leaving the streets behind including contem...
Publication Date: 2012
This paper explores the ways in which employment/ labor are situated within the daily lives of Guatemalan street youth. The youth interviewed primarily engaged in informal money-making activities. These activities not only demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and resilience of street-involved young people, but their need to undertake any number of often undesirable tasks to survive. Findings from this study suggest that such work c...
Publication Date: 2007
The vast majority of research concerning street youth has focused upon etiology and street culture. Such investigations have been concerned with how young people enter street life and the myriad of activities associated with street survival. This paper takes a different, yet complimentary, approach and highlights the experiences of 20 Halifax street youth vis-à-vis information-communication technologies (ICTs). This study begins to explo...
Publication Date: 2010
Based upon in-depth interviews with 34 youth in Halifax and seven service providers in St. John's, Montreal, Hamilton, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary, the findings of this study suggest that labour occurs within a particular street context and street culture. Formal and informal work can be inter-related, and despite the hardships they experience, young people who are homeless or who are at-risk of homelessness can respond to their circumstances...
Publication Date: 2010
The animated short entitled Walking Through Wonderland captures a glimpse of youth homelessness in a surreal and edgy manner. Framed around two characters building a friendship on the street, this artistic work highlights the dualisitic nature of youth homeless culture - on one hand there is a sense of community and safety; on the other hand, many of these young people have experienced traumatic family pasts and exploitative street encounters.
T...
Publication Date: 2008
The research objectives of this project were to explore the experiences of tenants at SHYM in terms of the trajectory to being homeless and housed, the experience of being homeless and housed, and the experience of SHYM - on hopes, sense of self, health and social needs (of whom and when); to inform other non-profits of the strengths/limitations in developing supportive models for young mothers; to inform government and community stakeholders reg...
Publication Date: 1999
With the adoption of free market economics and neo-conservative policies by governments around the world, grass-roots organizations are increasingly playing important roles in the lives of marginalized populations. The future of community development rests upon the courage and imagination of local initiatives. This paper explores the implementation and development of one such project: Dans La Rue (On The Street), an emergency street kid shelter s...
Publication Date: 2009
Aims: To explore the influence of social relationships, at the interpersonal and community level, on safer and unsafe drug use practices among injection drug users (IDUs) in Nova Scotia, Canada. Method: Thirty-eight current injection drug users were recruited through two needle exchange programs. Fifteen women and 23 men participated in semi-structured interviews about their daily lives, relationships and safer/unsafe drug use and sexual pract...