What effects does homelessness have on adolescents?

Each year, approximately 35,000 people experience homelessness in Canada. Out of this enormous number, a shocking 20% of homeless individuals are, in fact, adolescents. Homelessness can be caused by many factors, including poverty, shortage of affordable housing, or family violence. But, what effects do these factors have on our children?

When youth are not able to live in a stable, healthy environment, this can have significant impacts on other parts of their lives, with a prime example being poor academic achievement. Not having enough financial support for a child’s education, as well as a lack of study materials, can surely cause a decline in performance. It prevents consistent access to necessary supplies, preventing the child from being capable of reaching their full academic potential. Financial problems can also lead to increased anxiety and poor nutrition, further impacting their emotional as well as physical wellbeing on a day-to-day basis. Being on the constant search for food can restrict the amount of time a child can dedicate to their studies, hence negatively impacting their capability to achieve in school.

A recent study found that people experiencing homelessness also tend to sleep much less compared to their opposing counterparts. With limited money to spend, sleeping accommodations of homeless individuals tend to be uncomfortable, unsanitary and unsafe, with many seen sleeping in storage units, streets and abandoned buildings. As a result, this can lead to a reduced focus in school as well as difficulty in efficiently completing basic tasks. All in all, homelessness in youth can significantly impact the ability their ability to gain a proper education, which may pose big problems for their working future.

To make matters worst, being young and on the streets not only impacts their ability to succeed in an academic setting but can also put them at extreme physical risk of being harmed. Being young and inexperienced can cause homeless adolescents to be extremely vulnerable to violence from others, as they do not have an older adult capable of advocating and protecting them. Children are often robbed, beaten or otherwise violently targeted by both criminals and law enforcement because they are viewed as easy prey. As young individuals, they are also much more susceptible to being sexually assaulted, recruited into illicit gangs or used for human trafficking. Not knowing much about the world and how to handle large decisions impacts their ability to understand right from wrong, leading them to fall into such dangerous situations.

Finally, adolescents living on the street are significantly more likely to abuse unlawful substances, seeing that they often suffer from serious mental health problems. Many use drugs to cope with their current situation of trauma, hunger and discrimination, but this often leads to long-term health problems later on in life, which is only further worsened by their living condition. To conclude, young children living on the streets are at much higher risk of physical and sexual violence, involvement in illegal activity and substance addiction, which can impact their long-term health, both mentally and physically.

Lastly, homeless adolescents, in particular those with disabilities, face a disproportionately large amount of discrimination when compared to adults facing similar situations. In many countries, children living on the street are often charged for loitering. This causes them to face additional daily stress, having to continuously hide from police to be able to stay safe. To add on, homeless adolescents are often treated as adults, meaning special accommodations such as schooling are overlooked and not provided. They are expected to grow up as quickly as possible, only deepening the rabbit hole of eternal poverty they currently find themselves in. Homeless youth often come from a home in which they relied principally on older adults to provide all their basic needs. Suddenly facing this new need for complete independence can be extremely overwhelming and difficult to face alone, causing many youths to feel lost and out of place. Homelessness is an even bigger problem for adolescents with disabilities, as they have a higher risk of being socially excluded. Our society is built in such a way that those that appear different from the known norm are often valued less than because they don’t meet our criteria of what is considered “traditional”. This causes those with disabilities to face extreme discrimination and are often treated differently in various social contexts. Those with disabilities also frequently face inaccessible housing. As they need specific resources or modifications to various tools to be able to continue effectively living their daily lives, this makes it difficult to find a place that provides this wide extensity of needs.

Discrimination against disabled homeless people also makes it difficult for them to receive and hold a job. One study found that in Canada, 69% of businesses had admitted to never hiring someone living with a disability. Even when fulfilling all requirements, worries of costs, accommodations as well as believing that those with disabilities are less than capable prevent the disabled from being able to fulfill a satisfying career. This can largely impact adolescents, as their limited experience in the workforce already makes it much harder to find a job. To sum up, many homeless adolescents are subject to discrimination, outcasting them from society and preventing them from attaining gratifying lives.

In conclusion, homelessness is an immense and complicated issue that has large effects on the entire homeless population, in particular those under the age of 18. They face a lack of access to proper education, an increased risk of violence on the streets as well an extensive amount of discrimination from those around them. Through this information, it is extremely evident that youth homelessness is a problem we need to be fixing today. We need to begin changing our mindset towards how we approach those facing homelessness, implementing measures of prevention for those who are most vulnerable. Much like Sheila McKechnie said, we need to begin treating homeless people like people. After all, aren’t we all just simply human?

“People who are homeless are not social inadequates. They are simply people without homes.”

- Sheila McKechnie, housing activist and consumer campaigner