Canada can do more to prevent youth homelessness, according to research with youth on the street. Waiting until young people are in crisis is costly in human impact and finances. Addressing the issues that contribute to youth homelessness coincides with implementing the rights of children. This is another area where paying attention to children’s rights would make things work better in Canada. A Way Home, an organization that focuses on youth homelessness, and the CCRC call for a national plan to prevent youth homelessness, as part of the new national housing strategy and part of Canada’s current review of how children’s rights are implemented in Canada, under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- Youth Homelessness: A Fact Sheet provides basic information for discussion and distribution.
- Without a Home, presents the findings of a 2016 survey of young people with experience of homelessness in order to show what could be done to prevent homelessness.
- Ending Youth Homelessness: A Human Rights Guide shows the links between realizing the rights of children and preventing youth homelessness.
- Child Welfare and Youth Homelessness documents how children fall through the cracks of fragmented support systems to be at risk of homelessness – and what could be done about it.
The research reports, done by A Way Home, are posted here with permission.