Youth Homelessness: Navigating School Without a Concrete Home and Common Misconceptions

As you read this, there are as many as 7,000 young Canadians who don’t know where they’ll be sleeping tonight (Braun, 2022). It’s a daily reality for the estimated 40,000 youth experiencing homelessness in this country, but one the public often misunderstands. The City of Toronto is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Nonetheless, we have the largest homeless population in Canada. In fact, youth make up the fastest-growing population of homeless people in Canada, and since they are in their crucial developing years, their needs are changing, requiring longer stays and deeper support (YWS, 2022).

Home is security, it is meant to be a safe place where students can return after a long day of school, looking forward to spending time with loved ones and eating a good dinner. When that is no longer a constant in someone’s life, what is left? How can society expect them to live up to the same standards as students who have these privileges, when they are so obviously different? Without a concrete home, how can they be expected to navigate everything else that comes with being a teenager? From struggling to stay on top of school deadlines and lots of other changes, the load often becomes too overbearing for teenagers experiencing homelessness (YWS, 2020).

As a side note - often, the way youth homelessness is talked about can affect perception. For instance, saying “youth experiencing homelessness” instead of “homeless youth” is more than political correctness. It changes how a person is framed. If someone is homeless, then that’s what they are. But if someone is experiencing homelessness, then it’s just one thing that’s happening to them for the moment (FCT, 2022).

Most teenagers, or any homeless individual for that matter, doesn’t choose homelessness - and many who do have their reasons. Corinne Nelson of Woods Homes in Calgary often finds herself correcting the idea that youth run away from home or choose homelessness as a way of acting out. “Some perceive youth homelessness to be opposition or defiance, without thinking about what reasons someone might have to run from their home situation,” she says. “Consider the trauma, or what may have been happening in the home that would cause someone to have such a strong desire to leave and live such a challenging lifestyle” (FCT, 2022).

Homelessness, specifically in youth, is a very complicated issue. In fact, a common misconception is thinking that one can just work hard and lift themself out of homelessness, overlooking all the structural and systemic factors. This is where the government comes into play. Further, there is a significant flaw that has been built into the system, but often overlooked. Despite the financial resources that homeless teenagers can gain access to, they can’t actually gain access to them without a fixed address, so it is a black hole that doesn’t result in any real change - at least on a governmental level. However, even when youth can access resources, they still face barriers.

All in all, the effects of trauma on a young brain can cause significant gaps in social and emotional development. That is out of the control of the individual. As a community in a place of privilege, it is our duty to aid the homeless community in any way possible, especially the youth population because they are often in more need. As mentioned in past articles, there are several ways to get involved, one of them being volunteering your time in the Finer Future Foundation and other organizations that combat homelessness, a main one being Youth Without Shelter.

Works Cited

Braun, Liz. “Youth Homelessness Made Worse by Pandemic | Toronto Sun.” Toronto Sun , 12 May 2022, https://torontosun.com/news/national/youth-homelessness-made-worse-by-pandemic.

Fct. “What You Might Not Know about Youth Homelessness.” FCT, 27 Jan. 2022, https://fct.ca/blog/what-you-might-not-know-about-youth-homelessness/.

YWS. “It's Time for Change!” Youth Without Shelter, 2022. https://yws.on.ca/.