What Is Homelessness?

Homelessness Defined

According to the Canadian Definition of Homelessness, homelessness is “the situation of an individual, family, or community without stable, safe, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect means and ability of acquiring it.” It is important to note that this definition does not fully encompass every experience of homelessness. There are various groups of people who are affected differently, and every individual’s experience is unique. Homelessness is not strictly an issue of housing instability. These differences are important when considering methods of addressing homelessness, as one strategy does not apply for every community. The Indigenous definition of homelessness considers the traumas imposed on Indigenous Peoples through colonialism. According to the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada, it is “a human condition that describes First Nations, Métis and Inuit individuals, families or communities lacking stable, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means or ability to acquire such housing… Indigenous homelessness is not defined as lacking a structure of habitation; rather, it is more fully described and understood through a composite lens of Indigenous worldviews.” Additionally, youth experience homelessness in fundamentally different ways than adults, due to their age. The Canadian Definition of Youth Homelessness outlines that it is a “situation and experience of young people between the ages of 13-24 who are living independently of parents and/or caregivers, but do not have the means or ability to acquire stable, safe or consistent residence.”

Causes of Homelessness

There are various myths and misconceptions around the issue of homelessness. Some believe that it is a choice; there is the idea that people experiencing homelessness can simply pick themselves up “by the bootstraps” if they wanted to and that they are unhoused simply because they are lazy. However, homelessness is not a choice, and there are many reasons why people experience homelessness, including the lack of structural supports for those experiencing poverty or job loss and inadequate discharge planning for those leaving hospitals, correctional facilities and mental health facilities.

Ending Homelessness

By understanding homelessness and its causes, we can create plans to end it. There are various programs and policies that target the issue of homelessness. In 2019, the federal government launched its homelessness strategy, Reaching Home. Under this strategy, the government will work with communities to develop and deliver data-driven system plans with clear outcomes. It uses an outcomes-based approach to leave each community with the autonomy to make decisions about how best to address local priorities.  Reaching Home includes a focus on homelessness prevention. Stopping homelessness before it begins is the key to ending homelessness and preventing all the harms associated with it. Some prevention-focused programs are Reconnect, Family and Natural Supports, and Upstream. These programs are all aimed at youth, which is critical, as 40% of homeless youths first experienced homelessness before the age of 16. As well, the homeless youth of today are very likely to become chronically homeless adults, so preventing youth homelessness is the key to preventing homelessness overall. Another important piece for ending homelessness is to ensure that experiences of homelessness are as short as possible. There are several promising programs that seek to do this, notably shelter diversion and eviction prevention. Shelter diversion focuses on people who show up at emergency shelters and helps them find immediate, temporary housing arrangements in their communities. It can also connect those people with services and financial supports to help them return to permanent housing. Eviction prevention is a broad term that describes any intervention that seeks to keep families at risk of eviction in their home. These include rent banks, financial supports, and community legal clinics. Finally, there is a legislative element to ending homelessness. Some jurisdictions have created a duty to assist, which means that housing authorities have a legal duty to make reasonable efforts to end a person’s homelessness or stabilize their housing.