Youth Homelessness in Canada: An Overview

Abstract

Although there have been some significant advances in our understanding of youth homelessness in Canada, there remains gaps in our knowledge. What we do know though are that young people between the ages of 13 and 24 make up approximately 20% of the homeless population in Canada. This means approximately 35, 000-40, 000 youth experience homelessness during the year with between 6000 and 7000 being homeless on any given night. We also know that certain groups of young people are overrepresented within the homelessness population. This chapter provides an overview of what we do know about youth homelessness on Canada.