Without A Home: The National Youth Homelessness Survey

and LGBTQ2S youth were more likely to leave home at an early age. Both of these groups
are much more likely to report parental conflict and childhood physical, sexual, and/or
emotional abuse as contributing factors to their homelessness.
Importantly, the age at which a youth first leaves home shapes the experiences they are likely
to have once homeless. Those who first leave home at an early age are more likely to:
• Experience multiple episodes of
homelessness
• Be involved with child protection
services
• Be tested for ADHD
• Experience bullying
• Be victims of crime once
homeless, including sexual assault
• Have greater mental health and
addictions symptoms
• Experience poorer quality of life
• Attempt suicide
• Become chronically homeless
Our findings show that this group not only experiences severe hardship prior to becoming
homeless, but that they are likely to experience greater adversity than other homeless
youth once they are on the streets. It is very likely that some adults in their lives –
neighbours, teachers, coaches, instructors, or relatives – knew something was wrong but
perhaps didn’t know what to do.
Housing instability
One of the most striking findings of this report is the high degree of housing instability
experienced by young people prior to their current homelessness. In fact, only 24.1%
reported they had been homeless once, meaning that 75.9% had experienced multiple
episodes. Amongst those who had multiple experiences of homelessness, 63% had between
two and five experiences, and more than one third (36.9%) had more than five experiences. 3
24.1%
reported being
homeless only once
75.9%
had experienced multiple
episodes of homelessness
36.9%
had more than 5
episodes of homelessness
3. These figures were calculated including only those who gave a numerical estimate of the number of times they were homeless.
Those who said “multiple times but not sure how many” were not included.
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WITHOUT A HOME: THE NATIONAL YOUTH HOMELESSNESS SURVEY