What is Youth Homelessness?

Alberta Homeless Foundation
Sep 12, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Sep 19, 2025

Introduction

Youth homelessness is a growing issue that affects young individuals all across Canada. As defined by the Homeless Hub, youth homelessness refers to individuals aged between 13 and 24 years old without a stable, permanent shelter. This age group com

prises individuals who are still in a developmental stage, both emotionally and cognitively, as well as socially and otherwise.

How is this Different from Adult Homelessness?

Although similar concepts, youth homelessness differs from adult homelessness in multiple aspects. According to the Government of Canada, 51% of the youth population reported experiencing housing loss due to interpersonal issues, compared to 31% of adults. These interpersonal issues often stem from conflict with parents, abusive experiences, mental health challenges, or substance use.

Homelessness for the youth has a different outcome as well; whether the individual leaves home by choice or as a necessity, it leaves a lasting effect as they develop and transition into adulthood.

Dependency: Many of these individuals are still dependent on their parents or guardians in both financial and emotional aspects. This can cause them to face struggles when attempting to live independently.
Limited Skills: Leaving home means the youth may no longer be able to attend school. This results in them lacking education, social interactions, and life skills that are required for living independently.
Developmental Risks: At a young age, homelessness interferes with the ability to form an identity, self-esteem, and create meaningful relationships that allow for a support circle.

Primary Causes of Youth Homelessness

Although the cause of youth homelessness varies between each individual, a commonality can be found amongst all that can be defined within related groups. Some of these primary causes include:

System Failures: According to the Homeless Hub, many young individuals experiencing homelessness shared that if they had received support through social services or healthcare, these measures would have prevented them from living on the streets.
- Identity-Based Discrimination: Expanding on this, the Indigenous youth homelessness population were observed to have contributed to the high percentage of homeless youth due to association with child welfare services. This reflects an inadequacy in services that claim to have preventative measures in place for youth homelessness by failing to provide stable, secure housing for minority groups.

Family Conflict: The National Library of Medicine states that a common reason that adolescents leave their homes is due to poor family functioning, family conflict, as well as traumatic events such as physical, mental, or sexual abuse. In certain instances, a parent or guardian imposes beliefs on the individual, leading to disagreements and conflict surrounding religion, sexuality, or political reasons. This can also be known as a form of identity-based discrimination.

Risks and Consequences

While the precise risks and consequences may differ depending on individual circumstances and regional context, several key themes consistently emerge. The following points outline the most significant and commonly observed risks and consequences that warrant closer examination:

Exploitation: Homeless youth face a serious risk of sexual and labour exploitation through human trafficking. Research shows that standard healthcare assessments often overlook these cases, while trafficking-specific screening tools are much more effective at uncovering both exploitation and the underlying risk factors. When exploitation goes undetected, the consequence is that young people remain vulnerable, trapped in cycles of abuse, and unable to access the prevention and treatment they need.
- A major barrier to disclosure is the involvement of outside authorities: many youth fear police involvement, mistrust institutions, feel stigmatized, or avoid mental health services, which further prevents them from seeking help.

Substance Abuse: Homeless and unstably-housed youth face a high risk of substance use. The stress of finding safe shelter, securing food, and avoiding violence often leads them to use drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms. Research across Canada consistently shows high rates of marijuana, tobacco, and other illicit drug use among street-involved youth. Substance use in this population can harm physical health, increase vulnerability to exploitation, lead to addiction, and, in some cases, contribute to involvement in criminal activity.
- Peer influence, the desire for social inclusion, recreational use, and limited access to youth-specific support services further intensify these risks and make it harder for young people to get help.

Educational Interruption: Homeless and unsteadily-housed youth face major disruption in their education, which puts them at risk of long-term academic underachievement and limited future opportunities. Daily survival, unsafe environments, and experiences of bullying mean that attending school often isn’t a priority. Housing instability and associated stress contribute to frequent absences and disengagement, which can perpetuate cycles of poverty and homelessness.
- Additional barriers, such as limited school support, stigma, and difficulties navigating educational policies, make it even harder for youth to stay in or return to school.

Mental Health Effects: Unhoused youth or those with unstable shelters are at high risk of mental health challenges, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts. Many also use drugs or alcohol to cope with trauma or to fit in socially.
- Exposure to abuse, neglect, and sexual exploitation, along with the instability of daily life, increases vulnerability and makes accessing consistent mental health care difficult. This can worsen overall well-being, limit educational and employment opportunities, and increase the risk of further exploitation or engagement in risky behaviours. Frequent moves, stigma, and limited youth-specific mental health services add additional barriers to support and recovery.

Support Systems

There are multiple local and national support systems in place to support this youth population by providing temporary shelter, substance use and addiction recovery, counselling, and education programs. Specifically, organizations like Trellis, McMan Youth, Wood’s Homes, Calgary John Howard Society, and Enviros all have a vast diversity of ages 15-25 as well as multiple services, including shelter, clinical support, financial support, and advocating for minority groups such as LGBTQ+ and Indigenous groups.

Call To Action

As the youth population is still in their developmental stage, we can help as a society by supporting their needs and offering assistance when able to, by advocating for affordable housing, strengthening child welfare supports and social services. In addition to this, raising awareness and supporting local initiatives is also one step closer to helping the homeless youth population find a safe, stable shelter to call home.