Domestic Violence and Youth Homelessness

I have chosen this topic to research in order to increase awareness of homelessness. It is also of special interest to me because I was homeless for two years myself. By choice I lived on the streets for a period of my life doing drugs, committing crimes and doing serious harm to myself, my family, and to the community as a whole. From my experience, I did not have the coping abilities to handle life situations as they came. Do some people make the conscious choice to be homeless and want to be where they are or can we say that more often than not people don’t have a say, and are forced into homelessness? In this essay, evidence with support that homelessness is not usually a conscious choice.

Homelessness can be defined as relative or absolute. Relative meaning those who live in spaces that do not meet basic health and safety standards and absolute homelessness meaning people living on the streets with no physical shelter. Homelessness affects individuals of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. An estimated 150,000 to 300,000 people in Canada are homeless at some point in a typical year and about one third of those are children and youth.

Part I
There is a broad range of reasons for the causes of homelessness, but the consistent factor is lack of affordable housing.. Other reasons may include job loss, marital breakdown, mental illness, and alcohol and drug addiction. But when it comes to youth in particular, the reasons tend to revolve around the family. Homelessness can also be caused by physical, emotional, or sexual trauma such as domestic violence. Some might say what all homeless individuals have in common is an internal on-going terror, as well as loneliness, despair, fear, and dread.

Affordable housing is a huge concern in our society. Youth live on the streets because their families were made homeless or they cannot find affordable housing or a steady source of income to get off the street. In 2000, a study conducted found