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Publication Date: 2019
In North America, the key performance indicator of success in community strategies to address homelessness is whether a homeless person is housed or not. In this article, we argue that for young people experiencing homelessness, we need to advance a broader consideration of outcomes to include a range of well-being indicators designed to understand the needs of developing adolescents and young adults and contribute to housing stability. We articu...
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,...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
In this report we tackle the critical issue of housing stabilization for youth who have exited homelessness – a key component of any comprehensive approach to youth homelessness prevention. Housing stabilization for youth should include a focus on well-being embedded within each form of housing stabilization:
Housing Supports
Health & Well-being
Access to Income & Education
Complementary Supports
Social Inclusion
This report also conside...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
In this report we tackle the critical issue of evictions prevention – a key component of any comprehensive approach to youth homelessness prevention. This report outlines five key forms of evictions prevention:
Strengthening Laws and Legislation Protecting Tenants
Provision of Information and Advice for Youth and Their Families
Provision of Financial Supports for Tenants
Access to Legal Supports, Advice, and Representation
Targeted and Timely C...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
In this report we tackle the critical issue of early intervention – a key component of any comprehensive approach to youth homelessness prevention. This report outlines a system of care for early intervention, drawing together three key areas of focus: (a) Integrated Services, Integrated Systems; (b) Coordinated Entry; and (c) Case Management. This system of care provides the framework for implementing five early intervention program areas, inclu...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
In this report we tackle the critical issue of systems prevention – a key component of any comprehensive approach to youth homelessness prevention. This report outlines three primary domains of systems prevention:
Transition supports for youth exiting public institutions and systems.
Enhancing youths’ ability to equitably access and benefit from public systems, supports, and entitlements.
Improving youths’ experiences and outcomes in public syst...
Publisher: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
In this report we tackle the critical issue of structural prevention – a key component of any comprehensive approach to youth homelessness prevention.
This report outlines 8 forms of structural youth homelessness prevention:
Poverty Reduction
Increasing the Availability of Affordable Housing
Addressing Inequity and Discrimination
Structural Prevention of Homelessness for Indigenous Youth
Breaking the Link Between Youth Homelessness, Migration, a...
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: York University
Publication Date: 2018
As with the United States, youth homelessness in Canada is a seemingly intractable problem; in the past, Canada has mainly looked to the United States for how to address the system. Moreover, the Canadian response has not been robustly driven by research and evidence. In the last few years, much has changed in terms of how we are responding to youth homelessness in Canada in policy and practice. This change includes an increase in the influence,...
Organization: Wales Center for Public Policy
Publication Date: 2018
Over the summer of 2018, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada conducted an international scan of policies and practices that are contributing to youth homelessness prevention. The Wales Centre for Public Policy commissioned this report for Public Policy, under the direction of the First Minister of Wales. Drawing together a extensive literature review, review of the grey literature, and consultation with international ex...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada
Publication Date: 2018
In recent years there has been a notable shift in policy and scholarship towards preventing youth homelessness. In response to the shortcomings of reactive policy, countries around the world are developing, implementing, and evaluating ways to reduce the likelihood that any young person will become homeless.
In the context of a global shift towards prevention, this international review identifies evidence-based interventions, promising practices,...
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...
Organization: A Way Home Canada; Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2017
In a caring and affluent society like Canada, it is unacceptable that any young person would become entrenched in homelessness as a result of family breakdown and systems failures. Despite little evidence that we are reducing youth homelessness, we continue to rely on crisis responses such as emergency shelters and day programs. Even worse, it is objectionable to simply rely on a crisis response to address the issue, exposing young people to harm...
Organization: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2017
Before us is a significant opportunity to reimagine the federal government’s leadership role in homelessness. After more than 25 years of declining spending on affordable housing, the Government of Canada is launching a National Housing Strategy (NHS) with a 10-year investment in expanding the supply of affordable housing and enhancing sustainable longterm housing outcomes for Canadians. A key pillar of the NHS will be a renewal and redesign of t...
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: A Way Home Canada, The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
Publication Date: 2017
With the release of Without a Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey (2016), we now have robust national data on the links between youth homelessness and child welfare involvement. Without a Home, conducted by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness in partnership with A Way Home Canada, surveyed 1,103 youth experiencing homelessness across Canada. Youth in 42 different communities and nine of the 10 Canadian provinces, as well as Nuna...
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; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Publication Date: 2017
With the release of Without a Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey (2016), we now have national data on youth homelessness for the first time in Canada. The mental health findings of this report are startling:
85.4% of homeless youth were experiencing a mental health crisis
42% of homeless youth reported at least one suicide attempt
35.2% of homeless youth reported having at least one drug overdose requiring hospitalization
Youth experien...
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: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness
Publication Date: 2016
Mass homelessness in Canada emerged in the 1980s, following a massive disinvestment in affordable housing, structural shifts in the economy and reduced spending on social supports. Since then, stakeholders across the country have tried and tested solutions to address the issue. These responses, largely based on the provision of emergency services, have prevented meaningful progress. Fortunately, there are many signs that we are entering a new pha...