Youth Homelessness in Canada - Reading Analysis

In contemporary Society, homelessness is a major problem facing Youth in Canada, especially those that live in major cities like Toronto. As I walk down Queen Street to get to work, I see a  large amount of homeless people engaged in panhandling and begging, with a large amount of them looking less than 25 years of age. According to Covenant House Canada, there are up to seven thousand homeless youth in Canada on any given night (Covenant House), with a large majority of these people being found in cities and urban centers. These youth are not only homeless, but also unemployed, with panhandling and asking for handouts being their main source of income. In the article Youth Homelessness in Canada, the author addresses this lack of traditional jobs, where the income of Homeless Youth come from non traditional jobs, such as squeegeeing, panhandling and criminal activity (Gaetz and O'Grady 247). This part of the article directly correlates to what is seen on the streets, especially downtown or more urban than suburban areas. The article also goes on to explain the informal economic activities that homeless Youth engage in depend on a variety of factors, such as when they left home, their education level, and any addictions or any physical or mental disabilities (Gaetz and O'Grady 247), with those worse off engaging in more quasi legal activities such as prostitution and criminal activities.
In order to combat this problem, proactive measures need to be taken to minimize the amount of homeless youth found in Canada. For starters, cities need to increase the amount of Youth shelters available for those without a home, in order to give those on the streets to stay for the night. However, emergency response measures such as this is only the first step solution, and as Professor Gaetz pointed out in the lecture, steps must be taken in order to combat Youth Homelessness through prevention, and better supports for those already on the streets. In addition, programs have to be set up by government agencies that would focus on providing legitimate and legal jobs for Youth that found themselves on the streets, since that would provide them with a more stable source of income than informal societal methods such as panhandling. Even if only Toronto would manage to invest money in more support for homeless Youth and by helping provide them with jobs, it would not only greatly decrease the amount of homeless in Toronto, but in Canada as a whole.

Works Citied List

Gaetz, Stephen & O’Grady, Bill (2013) “Why Don’t You Just Get a Job? Homeless Youth, Social Exclusion and Employment Training” in Gaetz, S., O’Grady, B., Buccieri, K., Karabanow, J., & Marsolais, A. (Eds.) (2013), Youth homelessness in Canada.

“Facts and Stats.” Covenant House, Covenant House Toronto, 2017, www.covenanthousetoronto.ca/homeless-youth/facts-and-stats.

Youth Rendering 1 - Youth Poverty

Child Workers from a Coal Mine. 19th Century

While this rendering is from the 19th century, the message of the image is pretty clear. During the 19th century, these children were forced to work in mine shafts, mining coal and other minerals for large corporations, in a futile attempt to lift themselves up from their poverty stricken lives. 

In our modern day, while children and adolescents no longer work in coal mines or in depraved conditions, the issue of adolescents growing up in impoverished situations remains. In 2008 alone, roughly 14 million children in America live in families that are living below the poverty line (Murry 114). For all the progression and advances that were made in the 20th and 21st centuries, that is an alarmingly large number of children that still remain below the poverty level. However, as Murry notes, one key difference in impoverished families in the 19th and early 20th century and the present day, is that African-American and Latino adolescents have higher odds of residing in impoverished neighborhoods than white youth do (Murry 114).While in the previous century the issues of adolescent poverty was more the concern of employers and governments, in the present day this has shifted to educators and school boards as the primary vehicle for helping students from impoverished neighborhoods succeed. 

In our modern schools, in order to combat neighborhood poverty and to combat the negative effects of it (such as lower than average marks, higher drop out rates) educators must make changes at classroom and school levels in order to be more inclusive of all students, and bridge the gap between the rich and poor, in terms of access to materials and learning (with one method being having laptops to give out to all students for in class assignments). Secondly, after school programs and events that allows students regardless of their economic status to participate is a great way to involve students from impoverished areas, since it makes them spend less time with the negative influences that come from impoverished neighborhoods. Lastly, in terms of academia, schools need to end the process of streaming students into particular academic levels of study (ie academic, applied, locally developed math) based on their race or gender, a problem which has been happening in schools since the 19th century. With work and implementation of solutions such as these, it would help reduce the levels of poverty among adolescents and youth.

Works Citied

Mcbride-Murry, V. (2011) “Neighborhood Poverty and Adolescent Development.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 114-128

Neighborhood Poverty and Adolescent Development Analysis

From the Article, the passage that I have chosen to look at talks about the indirect effects that Neighborhood poverty has on an individual's academic achievement, including their literacy and their drop out rates. 

In the first section, it mentions that "The effect on neighbourhood disadvantage on school dropout was twice as large for African American youth as compared with White Peers (McBridge-Murry 117). In this case, this quote is in line with the article, since the article attempts to prove the effect poverty has on academic achievement, and how this poverty is split among racial lines. Therefore, the quote can be seen as a way to represent the entire article, since it states that African American youth are more likely to drop out of classes than youth of other ethnicities, even though other factors such as family structure and demographics have an effect on drop out rates across all ethnicities. This data is also backed up by the second article by Steinberg and Sheffield, who also go on to claim that ethnic and socioeconomic issues affect adolescent success and dropout rates (Steinberg and Morris 96). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the article mentions that in non African American youth, females were more likely to drop out of high school than males were (McBridge-Murry 118). This can be due to the social pressures and conditions young women find themselves in, especially coming from a position of poverty, where they may be required to take care of younger siblings, take care of the house, or fall victim to substance abuse. Lastly, the section concludes with the statement that “across generations, the negative influence of neighbourhood poverty has increased for African American youths and remained equal for White youths” (McBridge-Murry 118). This is an interesting statistic to note, it can be seen that living conditions for African American youths are poorer than they were in the past, despite the racial inequality, since in the modern age, African American youth from impoverished areas are more susceptible to exposure of illicit substances, in addition to increasing peer influences from their community, coupled with the fact that most schools do not attempt to provide help to those coming from impoverished communities. Therefore, in order to change the problems noted in this article, schools need to be able to provide the proper tools that allow students from poverty to succeed on the same level as those from middle or upper class neighborhoods. In this case, providing free after school activities, safe spaces for their feelings and learning, and places to express their creativity would be a good place to start.

Works Citied

Mcbride-Murry, V. (2011) “Neighborhood Poverty and Adolescent Development.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 114-128

Steinberg, L. & Sheffield Morris, A. (2001) “Adolescent Development.” Annual Review of Psychology, 52:83-110