Causes Of Youth Homelessness In Canada

Homelessness is an unsolved issue occurring day to day, worldwide. What the main focus of this essay will be are the homeless youth in Canada dealing with drug addiction and substance use. Homelessness is a rising problem here in Canada, there are 10,000 homeless youth on the street, a guaranteed 2000 on any given night. There are so many different aspects you have to deal with along being homeless, not only are they living life on the streets without a shelter, food or money, but the challenges they face daily just adds to it. They face physical abuse, verbal abuse, police brutality, weather changes, starvation, stress, addictions, mental illness, and other various problems.

Another stereotype that has established itself in society’s mindset is that all homeless people are criminals. In the online Huffington Post article, “10 Facts About Homelessness,” written by Bill Quigley, the author asserts that “Jerome Murdough, a homeless former Marine, was arrested for trespass in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell.” In all reality, if any homeless individual commits a crime, they are not dangerous crimes rather they are status crimes. Status crimes include trespassing, loitering, or sleeping on public property. Nonetheless, if a criminal had committed serious crimes such as murder or involvement in drug, they would be behind bars, not lurking on the streets.

The most significant disadvantage of homelessness is the damage it does, both physically and psychologically, to a person's health. Those forced to live on the streets or in temporary housing are at a greater risk of being injured by other people or being ill with a contagious disease themselves, both of which can spread to others. Homeless people may have mental health problems due to the stress and trauma of not having a place to call home (Southworth & Brallier,2023). Children, particularly younger children, are especially vulnerable to the effects that can arise due to their family's lack of stable housing. Homeless children usually face difficulties attending school, obtaining the essentials, and dealing with much more anxiety and unpredictability than other children.

Homelessness on Campus “Over 58,000 students identified as homeless on the 2013 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) , a 75 percent increase over the last three years”(Dunning). Homelessness on college campuses is damaging to the individuals who are affected by it. Homelessness is damaging to the individual because it makes graduating from college difficult. To find a way to solve homelessness we need to figure out what the causes of homelessness are.

America’s homeless population is increasing every year. According to the article “Foster Care and Homelessness,” “50% of America's homeless population spent time in foster care.” As children reach their teen years it is less likely that they will be adopted. This creates the possibility of aging out of the system. When a child ages out of the system they have to create a life for themselves.

The vulnerable population of homeless children

The City of Toronto proposed a two pronged approach to address youth homelessness and squeegeeing (Parnaby, 2003). Firstly, a training program called the Squeegee Working Youth Mobilization (SWYM) project was developed with the aim to provide employment skills and alternatives to squeegeeing and panhandling (O 'Grady et al., 2011). City Council approved the $250,000 SWYM project with financial assistance from the Federal government (Parnaby, 2003). Secondly, the City requested that the Ontario government pass new legislation to give police more power over the income-generating practices of these youth (O 'Grady et al., 2011).

It is generally accepted that poverty is a serious social problem in Canada, and one of its most obvious indicators is homelessness (Chappell, 2014). However, the practice of 'squeegeeing ' among entrepreneurial homeless youth in Toronto during the 1990s reveals that social welfare policy development did not address poverty and homelessness sufficiently at that time. In response to concerns about the income-generating practices of youth who are homeless, the Government of Ontario passed the Safe Streets Act (SSA) in 1999. The provincial government designed the SSA to regulate and eliminate indicators of poverty in public places, including squeegeeing and panhandling, rather than address the root causes of this social problem (Esmonde, 2002).

Youth Homelessness in America Every year, millions of people are experiencing some form of homelessness in the United States alone. Of those people who are experiencing homelessness, a large proportion of them is under the age of 24. Data has found that there are over 550,000 youth have experienced homelessness for more than a week over the course of a year (“Youth and Young Adults,” 2018). In many cases, youth homelessness can be prevented, but the lack of resources and services available to youth is limited. As a result, the issue continues to grow and affect more and more youth have to experience homelessness.

During the recent years homelessness has increased eminently. Although homelessness is not a new phenomenon it has become a huge social issue in today’s society. In urban areas homelessness is visible by the masses but ignored by society’s negative perception. Characterized as unstable individuals, alcoholics and criminals by society, these negative stereotypes have only escalate the issue. Homeless can occur at any stage of life for multitude of factors.

The poorest and most unfortunate people make up the majority of the homeless society. Homelessness is most intensive in the more urban areas, mainly in cities with weak safety nets. For example, the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress (DHUD, 2012) stated that “one out of five homeless people live in New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, and Las Vegas” (Enotes.com). Men from ages of 25 to 55 make up about half of Canada’s homeless population (47.5%), according to the Segaert study. The characteristics of this group include a greater occurrence of addictions, mental illness and disability, including brain injury and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).

Homelessness is not a new issue as it has already existed for many years ago and the existence of homeless people is often being ignored. The reasons why they end up sleeping on the streets is largely because of individual factors (Main, 1998), which is contributed by structural factors (Cyndy Baskina, 2007). It is unsure whether homeless people choose to end their lives in this way or are among the victims of situations? Many researchers contribute homelessness to structural factors but advocates of human rights debunk this and highlights that the main reason for homelessness is due to mostly individual

The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S.

making Mental illness the third major cause of homelessness. C. Most people believe it 's their own fault or it is over drug and alcohol abuse or just being lazy period, but according to rock center by Jessica Hopper believe it or not 20% of people that have jobs who are not on any alcohol substance or drug abuse are also homeless, which leads us to the requirement wages in order to afford a place to stay in. Not just in TN but in every state more than minimum wage is needed, Families need to earn a housing wage of 15$ an hour in order to afford a two-bed room apartment. Transition: it is very clear to us that homelessness is a major problem in our society, and that we need to take action, let 's look at some ways we can help to aid these types of situations. II.

In 1999 Ontario implemented a legislation called the Safe Streets Act (SSA). This legislation prohibited “aggressive panhandling”, solicitation of captive audience and unsafe disposal of needles, condoms and broken glass. (O’Grady, Gaetz and Buccieri 2013) In this paper, I argue that the SSA exacerbates the problem of youth homelessness by creating barriers against integration into mainstream society. These barriers are created through economic sanctions and processes of criminalization.