Without A Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey

of mental health challenges for all youth – regardless of the degree and type
of adversity faced before homelessness. For example, young people who have
been physically or sexually assaulted while homeless are, over three times as
likely to be in the high mental health risk group.
• Lower rates of school participation – Prolonged experiences of
homelessness undermine young people’s ability to go to school and achieve
success. While the drop out rate in Canada now sits below 9%, for homeless
youth the rate is 53.2%. Failure to complete high school is connected with
lower levels of labour force participation, worse health outcomes, greater
use of government benefits, and more involvement with the criminal justice
system over the lifetime. The good news is that three quarters of those who
have dropped out (73.9%) would like to return to school.
• Higher unemployment - Obtaining and maintaining employment
is also a challenge when you are homeless. At the time of the survey, the
unemployment rate amongst youth in the general population in Canada was
13.3%. Amongst the homeless youth surveyed as part of this study, three
quarters (75.7%) were unemployed, and only 19.7% currently had jobs. In
looking at the NEET indicator (meaning Not in Employment, Education, or
Training), 50.5% of youth study participants fit this category.
• Greater risk of criminal victimization – Being homeless puts young
people at incredible risk of becoming a victim of crime. While on average 19% of
Canadians report being a victim of crime in any given year, 68.7% of our sample
had been victims of a crime. Only 7.6% of Canadians report being the victim of
a violent crime, compared with 59.6% of homeless youth who report violent
victimization, including high rates of sexual assault. Young women (37.4%) and
transgender/gender non-binary youth (41.3%) reported higher levels of sexual
assault in the past year. Such experiences can induce trauma that impairs young
people’s ability to move forward with their lives.
• High levels of chronicity - The term ‘chronicity’ is used to describe
the length and enduring nature of homelessness. Almost one third of the
young people surveyed (31.4%) were chronically homeless, meaning they were
continuously homeless for more than one year, and 21.8% were episodically
homeless, reporting multiple experiences of homelessness over the past three
years. Of those who are identified as chronically homeless, 60% reported
being homeless for three years or more.
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WITHOUT A HOME: THE NATIONAL YOUTH HOMELESSNESS SURVEY