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Publication Date: 2021
The Housing First for Youth (HF4Y) program model – a youth-focused adaption of the successful Housing First intervention – is a promising example of how to do this work effectively. The THIS is Housing First for Youth: Program Model Guide provides a detailed account of the model, its origins, global adaptions, philosophy, and core principles. It is a must read for those who are new to the HF4Y approach or who would like to learn more about its co...
Publication Date: 2021
Housing First for Youth (HF4Y) is an adaptation of the well-established Housing First approach used to address homelessness. Housing First programs – including the Pathways model and the At Home/Chez Soi project – have shown great success in addressing the needs of adults who experience homelessness, particularly for chronically homeless individuals with significant mental health and addictions issues.
HF4Y is an adaption of the adult Housing Fir...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; A Way Home Canada; Making the Shift
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press
Publication Date: 2021
The needs of young people, particularly young people with lived and living expertise of homelessness, are distinct from adults. And so, the supports and interventions that are made available to young people must reflect these realities.
Imagine for a moment, the pressures a young person who, for the first time, finds themselves with no place to go: “How will I pay rent?” “Where do I start?” “Who can I rely on for advice?” All the while you are ju...
Publication Date: 2021
Objective:
This study examined the scope of common mental health problems and perceived impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic among direct service providers working with people experiencing homelessness in Canada.
Method:
This cross-sectional study used an online survey that was disseminated to homeless service, supportive housing, and harm reduction organizations and networks. Data were collected on depression, anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress,...
Publication Date: 2021
This systematic review of reviews was conducted to examine housing precarity and homelessness in relation to climate change and weather extremes internationally. In a thematic analysis of 15 reviews (5 systematic and 10 non-systematic), the following themes emerged: risk factors for homelessness/housing precarity, temperature extremes, health concerns, structural factors, natural disasters, and housing. First, an increased risk of homelessness ha...
Upstream Canada: An Early Intervention Strategy to Prevent Youth Homelessness & School Disengagement
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press
Publication Date: 2020
Upstream Canada is a response to this challenge and the staggering reality that 35,000 – 45,000 youth in Canada experience homelessness each year (Gaetz, 2016). This initiative is a preventive approach to the problem that works to offer supports to youth ages 12-18 who are identified as at risk of homelessness and school disengagement through a universal screening tool called the Student Needs Assessment (SNA). This universal approach sets Upstre...
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...
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...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; A Way Home Canada; Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Demonstration Lab
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press
Publication Date: 2020
This framework introduces and provides an overview of Family and Natural Supports (FNS), a preventive approach to addressing youth homelessness. FNS is a key component of a larger systemic shift in responses to homelessness, away from emergency service provision and instead toward the prevention of youth homelessness. This framework explains FNS, its core principles and guiding philosophy, presents considerations for implementing FNS in communiti...
Publication Date: 2020
Mass homelessness emerged in Canada in the wake of neoliberal policies that reduced government production of housing and other supportive measures. Efforts to reduce homelessness have occurred in three stages: 1) an emergency response in the 1990s that consisted mostly of investment in shelters, soup kitchens, and day programs, 2) the implementation of community plans to end homelessness, combined with the adoption of Housing First as a strategy...
Organization: Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab
Publication Date: 2020
Youth Reconnect (YR) is a community-based early intervention program that is designed to help young people (ages 13–24) who are at risk of or in the early stages of homelessness. The goal of YR is to help young people stay connected to their family, community and school, and to strengthen connections to natural supports in order to prevent and/or reduce the risk of homelessness. It builds on the practices of Family and Natural Supports (FNS) and...
Publication Date: 2020
While some progress has been made in addressing chronic homelessness through supportive models, a comprehensive solution for housing loss must include prevention. The purpose of this article is twofold: to conduct a review of the literature on the domains of the Framework for Homelessness Prevention; and to use literature on the concept of quaternary prevention, preventing the harms of service provision, to theorise an additional domain. The Fram...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2020
Being homeless means you are more vulnerable to the spread of infectious disease than are people with housing. Building on his research concerning pandemics and homelessness during the H1N1 influenza outbreak, Dr. Stephen Gaetz was asked to contribute recommendations for addressing homelessness considerations for UN-ECE Member States as they confront COVID-19. Download the fact sheet for his recommendations.
Publication Date: 2020
Homelessness has negative implications for mental well-being and quality of life. This paper identifies the quality of life variables that contribute to positive or negative wellbeing, reporting on a regression analysis from 343 individuals experiencing homelessness in Canada. Results indicate that a lack of sleep duration and quality reduced mental well-being for both genders, not having access to food and/or hygiene facilities decreased men’s w...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; A Way Home Canada
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
It is time for a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to youth homelessness. The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness is designed to help service providers, policy makers, communities, advocates, researchers, and all people in Canada better understand the meaning of youth homelessness prevention. It provides a clear definition of youth homelessness prevention, a prevention typology, and a common language for policy and practice,...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2017
Prevention makes sense. To prevent disease, we vaccinate. To prevent traffic deaths, we install seat belts. While we recognize intuitively that preventing homelessness is a good idea, there has been little movement in Canada to make that happen on a national scale. A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention sets out to provide the language and clarity to begin that conversation.
Since mass homelessness emerged in the mid-1980s, we...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2017
In recent years, policy-makers and service providers have expressed concerns about whether and how Housing First can be applied to the population of young people who experience homelessness. In response, A Safe and Decent Place to Live was developed to provide a workable framework for Housing First for Youth (HF4Y). It is important to note that the development of this framework was the result of a collaboration between the Canadian Observatory on...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; A Way Home Canada; National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness
Publication Date: 2016
Youth homelessness continues to be a seemingly intractable problem in Canada. We believe there are solutions, and that means leveraging the best knowledge we have to do things differently.
The Without a Home study is the first pan-Canadian study of young people who experience homelessness. With 1,103 respondents from 47 different communities across 10 provinces and territories, this study’s sample size has enabled us to conduct detailed analyses...
Organization: The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
Are we making significant headway on youth homelessness in Canada? Are we stopping young people from becoming homeless? Are we ensuring that young people transition out of homelessness quickly, and that they do not become homeless again?
It is time that we started taking a good, hard look at these questions. In our efforts to end homelessness, we have primarily focused on providing emergency services and supports to young people while they are...
Publication Date: 2018
Purpose: People experiencing homelessness are high-users of hospital care in Canada. To better understand the scope of the issue, and how these patients are discharged from hospital, a national survey of key stakeholders was conducted in 2017. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach: The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness distributed an online survey to their network of members through e-mail and social media. A sample...