No two young people follow the same path into and out of homelessness. However, there are certain trends and common risk factors that we can identify and that affect some populations of young people more than others. For instance, young Black people are more likely to experience homelessness than other groups, and a big part of that is their overrepresentation in systems that often lead to homelessness, notably the criminal justice system.
These facts are well known in the homelessness sector, but the specific ways that homelessness and criminalization intersect for Black youth remain understudied and poorly understood. This makes it harder for services to remove barriers faced by Black youth and to shift towards equity-focussed prevention by addressing the unique causes of their homelessness.
To address this racial knowledge gap and understand the specific challenges faced by Black youth experiencing homelessness, a team of researchers led by Ahmad Bonakdar from the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness analyzed data from the 2019 Without a Home survey on youth homelessness in Canada. As the largest study of youth experiencing homelessness, the survey’s data allowed the team to get a clearer picture of the complex factors related to the criminal justice system and Black youth homelessness. Their goal: understand the risks associated with the criminal justice system for this population to better centre their needs in policy and services.
Closing the racial knowledge gap also involves accountability. This means ensuring systems change to address inequities and allow Black youth and Black-led organizations to shape the solutions, and the study’s conclusions identify opportunities for that important work.
The researchers published their results in the Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness in January 2026 under the title Black Youth Experiencing Homelessness and Criminal Justice Involvement: Findings from the Without a Home National Youth Homelessness Survey in Canada.
Black Youth Experiencing Homelessness at Added Risk
Black youth experiencing homelessness face distinct criminal justice system risks that set them apart even from other racialized groups. As the researchers note, “While Black youth experiencing homelessness may share common pathways into homelessness with other racialized groups, due to systematic and structural inequalities, their experiences significantly differ.” This means that although all youth experiencing homelessness attract increased attention from law enforcement and that racialized groups in particular are likely to be criminalized for experiencing homelessness, these factors aren’t enough to explain the unique criminal justice system experiences of Black youth. These disparities reflect unequal access to housing and supports, which maintains racial inequality both in terms of homelessness and in society overall.
To get a clearer picture, the researchers looked at data from 864 young people who had experienced homelessness and provided answers about their criminal justice involvement. Of those youth, 13.6% identified as Black, but this rose to 14.5% among those who reported contact with the criminal justice system. This is a statistically significant difference that shows that Black youth are more likely than other youth experiencing homelessness to be policed or criminalized. No other racial group showed a statistically significant increased risk of criminal justice involvement.
The results also show that, across all racial groups, the younger someone is when they first experience homelessness, the more likely they are to report involvement with the criminal justice system. However, the strongest relationship between age and criminal justice involvement was for Black youth. This means that the earlier Black youth experience homelessness, the more their risk of criminalization is disproportionately great.
What are the causes of the increased risk of criminalization faced by Black youth experiencing homelessness?
Policing at the Intersection of Homelessness and Race
Too often, Black youth are seen as posing a risk to the community rather than as needing support when they are in vulnerable situations. This leads to responses that seek to punish or exclude them, such as law enforcement, rather than an offer of services. This pattern is not limited to those experiencing homelessness and can lead communities to mistrust police, because the police are tied to their experiences of marginalization. The end result: Black communities are overpoliced and underserved, with Black youth particularly affected.
Everyone who experiences homelessness is at increased risk of criminal justice involvement. This is due to both survival behaviours that are considered illegal, like possessing illegal drugs or engaging in theft, and the criminalization of homelessness itself through measures like tent or panhandling bans. To experience homelessness almost by definition means to exist on the fringes of legality, where even the most basic acts of survival such as finding somewhere to sleep, seeking shelter from the elements, or simply being present in public space, can draw law enforcement attention. Therefore, the experience of homelessness is often shaped by the criminal justice system. As we have seen, this is especially true for youth.
Both of these dynamics, the authors note, are linked to a “colonialist value system” that determines who belongs in public space and who should be forced out. Racial bias, and in particular anti-Black racism, is a key part of this value system, driving the overpolicing of Black youth, especially those considered street-involved. This resonates with the findings of the study, which show a significantly higher risk of involvement with the criminal justice system among Black youth compared to other youth experiencing homelessness.
Research to Inform Homelessness Prevention
This correlation between early homelessness and criminal justice risk underscores the urgency of early intervention. This shows how important it is to work with younger youth to prevent homelessness before risks turn into concrete harms. This research calls us to look upstream and consider both early intervention in the lives of specific youth as well as systems prevention, which involves transforming public systems, like the criminal justice system.
On the service level, it is critical to improve access to essential services for Black youth, notably by providing training on criminal justice system involvement. Black youth experiencing and at risk of homelessness would also benefit from support when exiting correctional facilities, as this is a major source of homelessness. On the level of policy, all governments should review laws and regulations that most commonly target those experiencing homelessness and seek to decriminalize survival activities. And as we said above, to meaningfully address these racial inequities, Black youth voices and Black-led organizations need to be supported to take the lead.
These are just a few examples of concrete steps that could be taken towards racial justice in the homelessness sector that go beyond educating about the issues. As the authors note, “These approaches can help create paths for youth and empower them to build stability, resilience, and opportunities for a brighter future.”
Want to put these ideas into practice? Check out the Transitional Housing for Black Youth collection on the Homelessness Learning Hub.