Regions

Homelessness is a global challenge.

The United Nations Human Settlements Program estimates that 1.1 billion people live in inadequate housing, and the best data available suggest that more than 100 million people have no housing at all.

Search for country-specific resources

Affordable Housing in Ottawa, Ontario: A Case Study of Land Use Policy and Transferability (2005)

Greg Sauer

Topic areas that will be covered in the following text include a City of Ottawa affordable housing primer, followed by policies in support of affordable housing. This latter section includes a discussion of land acquisition and dedication; inclusionary zoning; secondary dwelling units; density bonusing and incentives; cash-in-lieu of parking; condominium conversion; demolition policy; down-zoning; and alternate development...

Affordable Housing Land Use Policy Review: Working Paper

Calgary City Council

Affordable Housing Implementation Plan.

Determining suitable locations for affordable housing must balance quality of life considerations for both the occupants of the units and the surrounding community to ensure that healthy community environments are developed and sustained. This recognizes that each affordable housing project must be reviewed on its own merits for the specific geographic location for which it is proposed. Developing land use policy and...

Health Status and Service Use: Comparison of Adolescents at a School-Based Health Clinic with Homeless Adolescents

Santelli J.

This study compares shelter-based adolescents and housed adolescents in a large US city on the following factors: health status, risk-taking behaviors, and access-to-care. Objective: To examine the health status, risk-taking behaviors,and access-to-care issues of shelter-based homeless adolescents compared with a domiciled adolescent population from the same large US city. Subjects: The samples consisted of 109 youth (aged...

The Neglected Health Care Needs of Street Youth

D.J. Sherman

This study compares street youth and adolescents in the general population on the following factors: overall health status, sex-related medical problems, mental health, and substance abuse. Juveniles who live on the street are often the victims of physical and sexual abuse and family chaos. They have a multitude of health problems such as malnutrition, respiratory infections, sexually transmitted diseases, including human...

At the Margins: Street Children in Asia and the Pacific

Andrew West

Major themes in most descriptions of street children include homelessness, separation from family, and being out of school, but often those children designated as street children do not possess all of these traits. A further set of characteristics includes poverty and the need to work. These in turn are linked to vulnerability to exploitation and risk of coming into conflict with the law.

Children for Social Change: Education for Citizenship of Street and Working Children in Brazil

Anthony Swift

Through imaginative educational workshops and recreational activities, the children dialogue about their lives, their problems and those of their community. They decide on courses of action and then review the consequences. Decisions are taken and leaders elected democratically, with the participation of all actively encouraged. The educator facilitates. Wherever possible parents and communities are invited to support the...

Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in US Cities

Homes Not Handcuffs is the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty’s (NLCHP) ninth report on the criminalization of homelessness and the National Coalition for the Homeless’ (NCH) fifth report on the topic. The report documents cities with the worst record related to criminalizing homelessness, as well as initiatives in some cities that constitute more constructive approaches to street homelessness. The report...

Providing WIC services to homeless families

L. A. Hamm

E. W. Holden

This study, conducted by Lisa Anne Hamm and E. Wayne Holden, investigated the nutrition of homeless individuals in the shelter setting and the implications on the WIC program. The Families in Transition program (FIT), in collaboration with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, designed and implemented a Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) homeless outreach project. Staff...

Family Motel

Headstrong Ayan, a refugee from Somalia, has big dreams. New to Canada, she’ll show anyone she can provide for her family. Still, it’s difficult to keep it all together. On top of the soaring rent, her daughters, 16-year-old Nasrah and 13-year-old Leila, need braces. And even working two jobs as a cleaner, it’s tough to find enough money to send to her anxious husband and two sons still stuck in East Africa. Ayan’s...

Homelessness: What’s in a Word?

Before the 1980s, the word “homelessness” was rarely used in Canada, partly because few people were utterly without housing before that time. Since then, Canadians have come to use the word “homelessness” as a catch-all term for a host of serious social and economic policy failures, particularly the failure to have in place systems for meeting basic human needs in a universal, inclusive fashion. This electronic book is...

8.2 Pathways into Homelessness: Testing the Heterogeneity Hypothesis

Tracy Peressini

Using data from a sample of 268 homeless persons in the Region of Peel, the author tests the hypothesis that sociodemographic traits are associated with risk factors, causes, or pathways into homelessness and that different services, programs and policy responses are required for different subgroups of the homeless population. The results of this study show that while there is an association between sociodemographic traits...

9.1 Burned by the System, Burned at the Stake: Poor, Homeless and Marginalized Women Speak Out

Social and Cultural Rights United Nations Committee on Economic

This chapter uses women’s own words to show how rights violations unfold in the lives of migrant and Canadian-born women who are poor, homeless, racialized, Aboriginal, psychiatrized, older, disabled, queer, mothers, and survivors of violence. The findings show that violations of social and economic rights make women more vulnerable to violations of their civil rights, and violations of civil rights contribute to the social...

8.1 A Longitudinal Approach to Research on Homelessness

This chapter demonstrates some of the benefits of conducting carefully constructed, systematic studies of what happens to homeless people over time by presenting findings from a longitudinal study conducted in Ottawa. A sample of 412 people representing five subgroups of individuals based on age, sex, and family status were interviewed while they were homeless; 62% were re-interviewed approximately two years later. Results...

7.3 Homelessness, Incarceration, the Challenge of Effective Discharge Planning: A Canadian Case

Stephen Gaetz

Bill O'Grady

What is the nature of discharge planning in provincial correctional facilities in Ontario and British Columbia? What are the key similarities and differences between the prison population and the homeless? How is discharge planning experienced by inmates and releasees? This chapter seeks to answer these questions, drawing on interviews with inmates, recently released ex-prisoners (housed, underhoused, or homeless), and those...

7.2 More Sinned Against than Sinning? Homeless People as Victims of Crime Harassment

Homeless people are more often victims of crime than housed people. This chapter draws on a survey that explored the experiences and views of homeless individuals who have been involved with the criminal justice system or been victimized. The survey found that homeless individuals appreciate the need for law and order, but are critical of perceived unfair policing practices, especially differential treatment of racialized...

7.1 A Revolving Door? Homeless People the Justice System in Toronto

How many of Toronto’s 30,000 homeless people end up in correctional facilities for reasons relating to their lack of housing? And how many of the 50,000 released each year from provincial correctional facilities in the Toronto area end up on the streets? Drawing on administrative data and interviews with homeless individuals, service providers, and key informants, the authors reveal that many homeless people are caught in a...

6.2 Homeless Aboriginal Men the Effects of Intergenerational Trauma

Peter Menzies

Aboriginal people are over-represented among the homeless in urban centres across Canada. Increasing evidence from mental health studies conducted in Aboriginal communities suggests that trauma is a critical contribute to an array of personal, family and community behaviours. Specifically, the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next has left some individuals without the necessary skills to deal with trauma....

6.1 Housing for Aboriginal Children Youth: The Need for a Holistic Approach

National Council of Welfare

Aboriginal housing is substandard and inadequate at rates disproportionate to that experienced by the non-Aboriginal population; Aboriginal people and youth particularly are also over-represented in the homeless population. Aboriginal housing issues must be approached through a holistic strategy. Adequate funding, intergovernmental co-operation, collaboration with aboriginal communities and a focus on community economic...

5.3 At Risk in Canada’s Outer Suburbs: A Pilot Study of Immigrants and Homelessness in York Region

The suburbanization of immigrant settlement means that immigrants must look for housing in submarkets that offer mainly single-family, detached, owner-occupied housing. In York Region, rental housing and social housing are scarce, as are social services, including settlement services. Immigrants in York Region may face precarious and overcrowded housing arrangements, as households double up, move into unlicensed rental units...

Taking Care of Their Own? Or Falling Between the Cracks? Absolute Relative Homelessness Among Immigrants, Refugees, Refugee Claimants in Vancouver

Daniel Hiebert

Silvia D’Addario

Kathy Sherrell

The housing situation of newcomers to Greater Vancouver is heavily influenced by the social capital of existing ethno-cultural communities. As a result, the extent of relative and absolute homelessness among immigrants, refugees, and refugee claimants is less than would be expected, given the income levels of these groups. Although many individuals and families are living in crowded, sub-standard conditions, the social...

Understanding Homelessness

IGH Framework

Strategy & Planning

Program Models

Evaluation

Using Data in Homelessness Work

About Us

The Institute of Global Homelessness