When It Comes to Youth Homelessness, ‘Depressingly Little’ Has Changed
Since the last time the McCreary Centre Society conducted a youth homelessness survey in 2014, British Columbia’s housing crisis has deepened. The toxic drug crisis has claimed 13,000 lives. And Indigenous children continue to be grossly overrepresented in government care.
But the young people most at risk of homelessness — those who are Indigenous, LGBTQ2S+, refugees, from government care or with health issues — remain the same.
The results of the 2023 McCreary Centre Society’s Homeless Youth Health and Wellness Survey were revealed Monday as part of the Society’s report “Searching for a Place: The health and well-being of homeless and unstably housed youth in B.C.”
The survey collected responses from 838 youth ages 12 to 27 from 36 B.C. communities, who were experiencing homelessness, at risk of homelessness or unstably housed.
Because the 2014 survey included youth aged 12 to 19 from 13 communities, it’s not possible to compare the two.
But Annie Smith, McCreary Centre Society’s executive director, says there is a pattern of who is at risk of homelessness.
“Depressingly little (has changed), to be honest. We still see overrepresentation of Indigenous youth, of refugee youth, of young people who have been through the care system, of young people with a disability,” she said.
Opening the survey up to 36 communities has helped lift the veil on rural youth homelessness, Smith added. |Read more https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/11/02/Youth-Homelessness-Health-Wellness-McCreary-Report/| thetyee.ca/News/2023/11/02/You…
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