Northern research provides insight into why young people become homeless

Two faculty at Laurentian University are participating in a northeastern Ontario-based research project called 'On the Move.'

The study takes a look at homeless youth as part of a bigger project called 'Making the Shift' in which researchers across the country are documenting youth homelessness as a way to prevent and end homelessness in Canada.

A total of 120 youth between the ages of 13 and 30 based out of Sudbury, Timmins, and Cochrane will be part of the study. Researchers said the goal is to interview 60 Indigenous and 60 non-Indigenous people.

"We’re going time be interviewing them over three years and about six times," said Kevin Fitzmaurice, On the Move researcher.

"The intention is to build a relationship and to really listen and then to really carefully document their experience -- and to best inform program and policy development to ending youth homelessness."

Researcher Carol Kauppi has been studying homelessness in northeastern Ontario for the past 20 years.

Kauppi said it’s important to understand who each individual is, and what needs to be done to end youth homelessness.

"We need to recognize that they are vulnerable when they fall into homelessness," she said.

"So implementing measures to resolve the issues that they are facing, and get them off the streets is vital. We need to do this as soon as possible."

Kauppi said homeless rates are very high, and many people are migrating to Sudbury from other communities.

"But migration isn’t a major factor in homelessness," she said. "It’s the structural aspect of our society that are causing people to become homeless."

Researchers said some trends are already emerging in the study. One of those being that the majority of youth become homeless when they age out of foster care.

"Unfortunately, involvement with the foster care system, and this Children’s Aid Society in general, is linked to homelessness for far too many young people," said Kauppi.

"There’s an expression used in this area that, 'the foster care system graduates young people to the streets,' because so many become homeless after aging out of foster care at 18."

Another finding is the high level of disability among homeless youth.

"Both in terms of learning disabilities (and) also physical disabilities, which are being made worse by the hardships that are experienced by homelessness," said Fitzmaurice.

"I think it’s really, really important to understand that youth need individualized and very personalized relationship building with social workers and outreach workers in order to be able to best respond to their unique needs."