ACTITUDES A1. Detallista:

Two problems surface when trying to define who is captured in the homeless youth population. One, there is no consensus about who make up the homeless, as no single definition exists, in fact, this is one of the criticisms of the UN that the Government of Canada has not adopted a definition in order to estimate. Second, there is no consensus about what ages youth comprises, studies have differing age categories from which they examine issues related to homeless youth (Kraus et al., 2001; Bradley, 1997). While it may be possible to count all the individuals who use emergency youth shelters, the numbers would not include youth who: use adult shelters, sleep “rough” (e.g. sleeps outside, for instance, in parks, cemeteries, on the street, in alleys), sleep/stay in places not specifically designed for human habitation (e.g. apartment/businesses

To further complicate quantification, people who are relatively homeless include those who are living in unsafe, inadequate or insecure housing, or who are paying too much of their income on rent, and are at imminent risk of losing their housing. For the purposes of this research, this broader definition of homelessness was included. This invisible form of homelessness remains largely unstudied because of a decreased dependence on emergency services, such as, emergency shelters, rendering it more difficult to capture their experiences. However, the delineation of the absolutely homeless from the relatively homeless is somewhat arbitrary and futile because homeless youth exist and transition between both groups. Secondly, people do not consciously choose whether they are relatively or absolutely homeless. Homeless youth are in a constant state of transition, one night sleeping outside, another night coming into the shelter, securing precarious housing for maybe a short time, often being evicted for

overcrowding or non-payment of rent, the variables and experiences are endless. Safely said, the only continuity living a homeless life is its’ incontinuity and mutability. Life as an absolutely or relatively homeless youth is defined by constant transition and adaptation. All the while making this population a very difficult one to study and quantify.

entrances), squat (i.e. occupy an unoccupied or abandoned space or building that the individual does not own, rent, or otherwise have permission to use) (Koeller et al., Background Report), “couch-surf” (staying temporarily at friend’s/family’s/acquaintances place), or live in overcrowded or unsuitable and unaffordable housing. Researchers agree that “the majority of homeless youth are not visible on the street, but are couch surfing or living in overcrowded conditions, unsuitable housing, or housing that they cannot afford” (Kraus et al., 2001: 3).

Secondly, the youth population is difficult to define precisely because research and agencies have differing age categories. In the literature, ages range from twelve to twenty-five years old (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2006; Karabanow, 2004; Roy et al., 2003; Library of Parliament, 1999). “The definition of youth is somewhat problematic because of the different mandates of agencies that serve youth and because of different eligibility criteria for programs across the country” (Kraus et al., 2001: 2). The term street youth was defined in Street Youth in Canada: Findings from Enhanced Surveillance of Canadian Street Youth, 1999-2003 (2006) to be anyone between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, who was not living at home for three consecutive days or more in the last six months, was not under the consistent supervision of an adult guardian, and was without a stable place to live. According to Karabanow et al.’s (2005) work, Getting off the Streets, the street youth population is “diverse, complex and heterogeneous” (39). They state further that the generic term “street youth” is

Made up of a number of subcultures (by no means mutually exclusive) including hard-core street entrenched young people, squatters, group home kids, child welfare kids, soft-core ‘twinkies’, “in-and-outers”, punks, runaways, throwaways, refugees and immigrants, young single mothers, and those who are homeless because their entire family is homeless. Within these makeshift ‘categories’ are numerous descriptors that tend to signal street activities such as gang bangers,

prostitutes, drug dealers, drug users, panhandlers, and squeegeers (Karabanow et al., 2005: 39).

In this study, both the terms homeless youth and street youth will be employed interchangeably. The term street youth implies a more street-entrenched lifestyle, where one’s basic and social needs are met “in the street” – it implies a detachment from mainstream life. While the term homeless youth, implies a youth who has no fixed abode or whose housing is precarious and transient. According to Parazelli (1997), street youth can be differentiated from homeless youth by their increased social disengagement, their social desires and their cultural tastes. Gilbert (2004) who conducted research with homeless youth in Montreal, argues that street youth tend to be younger (aged 14 to 25 years old) whereas homeless youth tend to comprise ages anywhere from 18 to 30-35 years old, and runaways tend to be under 18 years old. Due to the differing legal rights for minors in Quebec, as compared to Ontario (at age 16 one is considered legally emancipated if they choose to leave home), this probably accounts for some of the differences in categorizations of street youth versus homeless youth.

Nevertheless, this study’s purpose was to study the experiences of sixteen and seventeen year- olds in Ottawa, Ontario, who were living on their own (legally emancipated) and who could fall into either the street youth (more street entrenched lifestyle) or homeless youth category (or both, as these are not mutually exclusive terms). Thus, this study chose participants based on their age (16 and 17 years old) and their lack of residential stability, determined as having no stable place to live of their own. This study adopted Karabanow’s (2004) definition as

any young person… who does not have a permanent place to call home, and who instead spends a significant amount of time on the street, which to say, in alleyways, parks, storefronts, and dumpsters, among many other places; in squats (located usually in abandoned buildings); at youth shelters and centers; and/or with friends (typically referred to as “couch surfers”) (3).

Similarly, utilizing O’Grady and Gaetz’s (2009), and Gaetz and O’Grady’s (2002) definition, it is the instability of their housing situation that characterizes their status as homeless or street youth, and the absence of supervision of a parent or guardian.

The purpose of this study was to include all forms of youth homelessness2. At one end of the spectrum there were participants whose lives were completely entrenched in street life, at the other end, there were those who lived in transitional housing, who rarely socialized downtown, who went to school or had part-time jobs, who formed the less socially disenfranchised group. For the purposes of this research, sixteen and seventeen year-olds living in Ottawa, Canada, were

2 _{For a discussion on the differences between homeless and homelessness see Hulchanski (2009) and}

Hulchanski et al. (2009). According to them,

To be homeless, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), is to have “no home or permanent abode”. Adding the suffix – ness however, “makes the simple and clear word homeless into an abstract concept… It tosses all sorts of problems into one handy term. We thus have the ongoing problem of defining what homeless-ness is and isn’t. There is no single correct definition, given the different mix of problems that goes into the hodgepodge of issues, and depending on who is using the term… Starting in the 1980s it was clear that homelessness referred to a poverty that includes being unhoused. It is a poverty that means being without required social supports. And it is poverty so deep that even poor-quality housing is not affordable (2009: 5).

According to Hulchanski (2009), being homeless is not having a permanent residence whereas homelessness refers to a plethora of problems related to being homeless.

purposively sampled due to specific barriers this age group faces (which will be elaborated on further in the chapter) and because they remain a largely understudied group.