{"id":8852,"date":"2018-02-26T14:44:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T19:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=8852"},"modified":"2025-08-19T10:03:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:03:27","slug":"youth-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/youth-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending Youth Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Ending Youth Homelessness\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

On a cold, grey February afternoon, a small group of locals and visitors walked along Rideau Street and stopped in front of the Beer Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stu, a 28-year-old Ottawan who lived on the streets for three years and now has an apartment in Vanier, opened one of the large recycling bins on the curb.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cCollecting bottles is considered to be better than panhandling,\u201d he said, \u201cbut it\u2019s actually illegal to scavenge from the city\u2019s containers, and it\u2019s trespassing if you take bottles from a blue bin on private property. I almost got a ticket for doing this once.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Stu was leading a walking tour as part of a conference called \u201cComing Up Together<\/a>: Towards Ending and Preventing Youth Homelessness in Ontario, Canada and Beyond,\u201d organized by Carleton Sociology Prof. Jacqueline Kennelly<\/a> and a multi-sector committee. The three-day gathering in downtown Ottawa brought together researchers, policy-makers, community organizations and young people who have been homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The excursion along Rideau and into the ByWard Market \u2014 one of several walking tours offered to conference participants on Feb. 22 \u2014 provided a unique perspective on the city and on legislation such as Ontario\u2019s Safe Streets Act<\/a>, which was enacted by the government of Mike Harris in 1999 to crack down on \u201caggressive panhandling\u201d instead of dealing with the root causes of youth poverty and homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ending
Stu, a 28-year-old Ottawan who lived on the streets for three years and now has an apartment in Vanier.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stu challenged his group to identify good panhandling spots with plenty of passersby, such as the out-of-the-wind entrance nook of an empty storefront on Rideau just down the block from the Beer Store, and he shared urban survival advice.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cFun tip,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to get hit by a car, jump a little bit. It\u2019s the impact on the legs that gets you. But if you jump, you can roll onto the hood of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Stu paused across the street from the Salvation Army shelter on the edge of the ByWard Market and talked about the charity\u2019s controversial plan to build a large new shelter in Vanier and the backlash from many neighbourhood residents. Then he led the group into the Rideau Centre and said how difficult it can be to find a public bathroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked how he ended up on the streets, Stu said that he was a bright but troubled child with mental health issues and a dysfunctional home life. \u201cNobody did anything about it,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody acted on my behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Coming Up Together: Addressing Youth Homelessness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main goals of \u201cComing Up Together,\u201d said Kennelly, was to get people who work to address youth homelessness talking and listening to young people with what academics call \u201clived experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roughly 50 of the conference\u2019s 250 participants were youth who have been homeless. Several were involved from the early planning stages, and they helped Kennelly develop a program that attracted their peers, with workshops on knowing your rights, another led by a community veterinarian on pet care, and an evening music and poetry showcase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ending
Carleton Sociology Prof. Jacqueline Kennelly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t have come if we didn\u2019t create an event that was interesting, relevant, accessible and safe,\u201d said Kennelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd they need to be part of the conversation about policy change.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cWe approach homelessness as if it\u2019s an aberration in a system that\u2019s otherwise working,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to rethink that. Homelessness is a consequence of the way our system is set up, with so much inequality and, for many people, a lack of access to health care and education and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe system is set up to respond to crisis, which means we wait for people to have a dire need before we help. Switching how we respond to the issue means changing the way we think about homelessness.  It shouldn\u2019t be: \u2018The individual failed, so we have to intervene to help them,\u2019 but rather: \u2018The system failed and we need to fix it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closing sessions at the conference, featuring speakers such as MP Adam Vaughan, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, covered concrete steps that researchers, policy-makers and social service agencies can take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur systems are projecting people into homelessness and sustaining people in homelessness,\u201d said Vaughan. \u201cWe build shelters instead of building housing. We need prevention and permanent solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Ending<\/figure>\n\n\n

A Way Home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those sentiments were also expressed by speakers at a panel discussion about homelessness prevention on the final morning of \u201cComing Up Together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all experts, but we know nothing,\u201d said Mike Lethby, executive director of Niagara Resource Service for Youth<\/a>. \u201cThings are happening, but it can\u2019t just be happening up high where \u2018adults\u2019 talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a hell of a lot of investment in the status quo,\u201d said Melanie Redman, president of A Way Home<\/a>, a national coalition dedicated to preventing and ending youth homelessness. \u201cAs much as people say they want change, it takes a lot of work to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cSome of the outcomes, when we talk about homelessness, have to be rethought,\u201d said Stephen Gaetz, director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness<\/a> at York University.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cGetting into housing is not everything. Social inclusion is just as important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ending
Youth peer researcher Charlotte Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur systems are designed to answer to the funders, not to youth,\u201d said Corinne Sauv\u00e9, a youth committee adviser with A Way Home Ottawa and one of the walking tour leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sauv\u00e9 and three other youth peer researchers – Aya Fawzi, Tiffany Rose and Charlotte Smith<\/a>) – worked with Kennelly on a new report about youth homelessness in Ottawa and joined the Carleton professor to discuss the process of collaborating on a research project during a session on the final morning of the conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with Jacqueline, I never felt like I was reduced to a \u2018lived experience\u2019 token,\u201d Sauv\u00e9 said about \u201cBuilding Bridges: Perspectives on youth homelessness from First Nations, Inuit and M\u00e9tis, Newcomer, and LGBTQ2S+ youth in Ottawa,\u201d which is rooted in interviews conducted with youth who were or still are homeless. \u201cWhen you have \u2018lived experience,\u2019 sometimes your voice isn\u2019t as valued.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cBuilding Bridges\u201d finds that several \u201cpoints of failure\u201d typically converge to send young people to the streets \u2014 a conclusion that meshes with Stu\u2019s story.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIn each of the young lives described are numerous points at which a school, agency, detention facility, household, adult, etc. had one or more opportunities to positively impact the young person\u2019s life,\u201d the report declares. \u201cAt a quick glance, it may seem that these young people are an anomaly, a minority that flew under the radar, but this is false. They had many points of contact with people and organizations that had the power and knowledge to help them; and yet they were not helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis report advocates for a wake-up call, not a meandering diffusion of awareness. There is no time for that. This is a call to action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Ending<\/figure>\n\n\n

Click here<\/a> for more of Our Stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the main goals of \u201cComing Up Together,\u201d said Kennelly, was to get people who work to address youth homelessness talking and listening to young people with what academics call \u201clived experienced.\u201d Roughly 50 of the conference\u2019s 250 participants were youth who have been homeless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":8860,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-8852","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/8852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/8852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8984,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/8852\/revisions\/8984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=8852"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=8852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}