Without A Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey

2.4 Provincial Ministries of Justice, Corrections, and the
Attorney General should address youth homelessness.
This should be achieved through:
a) Ensuring all young people who exit corrections (either the juvenile
or adult systems) have access to housing and supports to facilitate
reintegration.
b) A community safety strategy to reduce the risk of criminal
victimization for homeless youth.
c) Actively supporting the reduction and elimination of legislation and
policing practices that criminalize young people who are homeless
(including unnecessary ticketing, when young people are not in a
position to repay).
d) Accessible court procedures that allow young people debt
forgiveness for ticketing charges in exchange for community service.
2.5 Provincial Ministries of Education should be mandated
to support early intervention strategies to prevent
youth homelessness.
Schools are key to addressing youth homelessness because every young
person who experiences homelessness was once in school, and likely in
contact with an adult who knew something was wrong. Schools are the
obvious place to focus on youth homelessness prevention. This should
be done through mandating school boards to develop and implement
strategies to work with community organizations on youth homelessness
prevention and early intervention.
2.6 Provincial Ministries of Health should ensure that
young people at-risk and their families have adequate
supports for mental health and addictions challenges.
Coordination of effective care in this area will include the promotion of
strategic partnerships between community service organizations and
tertiary facilities, the creation of rapid care access pathways for those
at greatest risk, and the promotion of capacity building initiatives from
community service direct care levels through to mainstream service
domains (e.g., emergency rooms, first responders, etc).
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