Homeless Youth

Who are the Homeless Youth?

There are tens of thousands of people sleeping on Canadian streets on a given night. Unfortunately, many of them are youth. Homeless youth usually leave home around the age of 15. Youth living on the street tend to be older, between the ages of 19-24. The street youth are predominantly male. In Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, the proportion of males to females living on the street are 70%-30%. Youth homelessness is an issue that affects all classes of society. However, the majority of street youth are from lower income families. Generally, the youth living on the streets have a lower education level. A 56% of male street youth have less than a grade 11 education. For female street youth, 60% have less than a grade 11 education. Homeless youth become homeless adults once they reach the age of 25 because after 24 years of age, people are no longer eligible for adolescent social service in Canada.

What are the causes of homelessness?

Youth homelessness is present in Canada for many reasons. Some of the risk factors for youth homelessness are having a poor relationship with parents, being from single parent homes, having a differed sexual orientation from the mainstream youth, and being involved with child welfare system. The number one reason youth become homeless is due to family breakdown. Occasionally, youth are thrown out of their house by their parents and the youth ends up on the street or at a friend’s house. If parents or youth lose employment and can no longer afford housing, the street is often wear they end up. Additional causes of youth homelessness are mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction. Almost 70% of street youth have experienced some form of abuse and 15% report being sexually assaulted by a family member. The number of street youth who were physically assaulted by a family member is as high as 47%. Abuse is a reason youth run away from homes, so is neglect. Finally, a shortage of affordable housing in British Columbia is contributing cause to the increase in homelessness.

References

Covenant House Toronto. (2004). Facts and stats about youth homelessness. Retrieved on February 12, 2006 from http://www.covenanthouse.on.ca/web/facts_and_stats. html.

Fifth Estate, The. (2004). No way home. Retrieved on February 12, 2006 from http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_nowayhome_who.html

Maser, Elana. (2003). Youth fact sheet. Retrieved on February 12, 2006 from http://www.med.uottawa.ca/homeless/ youth/youth_factsheet_e.html.

McCreary Center Society. (2002). Between the cracks: homeless youth in vancouver. Retrieved on February 12,2006 from http://www.hvl.ihpr. ubc .ca/pdf/mccreary2002.pdf.

Pictures retrieved April 7, 2006, from www.google.com/images. Keywords "homeless" and "homeless youth".