Working to untangle the multiple interests and “truths” that manifest in decision-making in youth shelters, I draw on the Foucauldian perspective of governmentality as an alternative means of problematizing “youth homelessness” in Canada. Tracing interdiscursivity between levels of authority, I use critical discourse analysis to deconstruct federal and Ontario government, and Toronto youth shelter discourses. Aiming to normalize the problematic, I uncover tensions between crime control and human resource development within each level of authority. Further, usurping attention to employment and housing, mental illness and youth criminality are taking over as dominant discourses. Moreover, the discursive production of “needy” and “helping” subjectivities is serving to depoliticize and individualize institutionally structured relationships, thereby limiting the depth of citizenship permitted poor, racialized and gendered young people. Concealing ongoing neo-liberal restructuring, therapeutic community-based governance is thus justified over action to address the roots of youth homelessness.

Working to untangle the multiple interests and “truths” that manifest in decision-making in youth shelters, I draw on the Foucauldian perspective of governmentality as an alternative means of problematizing “youth homelessness” in Canada. Tracing interdiscursivity between levels of authority, I use critical discourse analysis to deconstruct federal and Ontario government, and Toronto youth shelter discourses. Aiming to normalize the problematic, I uncover tensions between crime control and human resource development within each level of authority. Further, usurping attention to employment and housing, mental illness and youth criminality are taking over as dominant discourses. Moreover, the discursive production of “needy” and “helping” subjectivities is serving to depoliticize and individualize institutionally structured relationships, thereby limiting the depth of citizenship permitted poor, racialized and gendered young people. Concealing ongoing neo-liberal restructuring, therapeutic community-based governance is thus justified over action to address the roots of youth homelessness.

BACKGROUND: Youth continue to be at high risk for STI and HIV transmission and unplanned pregnancies because of their liberal approach to sexual-health and their susceptibility toward engaging in risky activities. Youth who are street involved face greater risks than their peers because they occasionally participate in behaviours that places them at increased risk; for instance injection drug use, multiples sex partners, low condom use and considerable substance use. However, while street youth are predisposed to engage in many of the situations they do, some street youth are also making decisions to limit risk. OBJECTIVES: To 1) determine the basic level of HIV and STI knowledge of street youth; 2) to understand youth’s knowledge of, access to, and use of sexual-health information; 3) to explore where and from youth would like to get accurate sexual-health information and appropriate care; 4) to determine whether peer education is a useful method of transmitting sexual-health information to youth; 5) to assess the sexual risk level of youth; and 6) to develop an understanding of the proactive sexual-health behaviours and decisions youth have established for themselves. METHODS: Street-involved and homeless youth living in Hamilton, Ontario (n=97) who were between the ages of 14 and 24 were interviewed using a 112 questions interview tool. Topics covered in the interview included demographics, personal safety, health behaviour, accessing sexual-health information, accessing sexual-health services, HIV/AIDS knowledge and services use and peer education. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted using SAS. RESULTS: Youth had high rates of STI and HIV testing and good HIV knowledge when compared to the general youth population. However, the sample also had increased rates of unplanned pregnancies and young women were not well-informed about what gets tested for in pap smears. Some youth are also not accessing sexual-health services at all. CONCLUSIONS: Youth are making attempts to protect themselves, however there are areas for improvement; specifically increased condom-use, knowledge of HIV and pap smears. Youth who were found to have increased risk were youth who were under the age of 19, and youth who had experienced unstable housing before the age of 15. The findings suggest that sexual-health harm reduction needs to start at a younger age and the basics of sexual-health should not be overlooked.

Objective: For this dissertation, I investigated the characteristics of homeless, unaccompanied youth to determine which subgroups of students pursued and obtained financial stipends as an incentive for satisfactory educational outcomes- grades C and above. Method: The study was based on data obtained from a community-based, non-profit, drop-in center that serves homeless, unaccompanied youth enrolled in school. From each participant (n=965), demographic variables (including the student's age, grade, gender, race, and ethnicity) and life experience variables (including the student's reason for homelessness, current living situation, teen parenting status, and program enrollment status- either a new or returning student to the program) were obtained. These variables were used to determine the relationship between the student's characteristics and the outcome measurements: percent of the potential monthly stipends earned and the length of enrollment in the program. Results: The results demonstrated significant mean differences within the student's age, grade, and program enrollment status for both the percent of stipends earned and the length of program enrollment. A student's teenage parenting status also indicated a significant difference for the percent of stipend earned. Three student characteristics were significant predictors for the percent of stipends earned, and five characteristics were significant predictors for the length of program enrollment. Conclusions: Specific subgroups within the unaccompanied, homeless population pursue and obtain financial stipend incentives for educational outcomes at different rates. These results add to the literature needed to better align educational services and programs to the various subgroups within the homeless youth population.

BACKGROUND: Youth continue to be at high risk for STI and HIV transmission and unplanned pregnancies because of their liberal approach to sexual-health and their susceptibility toward engaging in risky activities. Youth who are street involved face greater risks than their peers because they occasionally participate in behaviours that places them at increased risk; for instance injection drug use, multiples sex partners, low condom use and considerable substance use. However, while street youth are predisposed to engage in many of the situations they do, some street youth are also making decisions to limit risk. OBJECTIVES: To 1) determine the basic level of HIV and STI knowledge of street youth; 2) to understand youth’s knowledge of, access to, and use of sexual-health information; 3) to explore where and from youth would like to get accurate sexual-health information and appropriate care; 4) to determine whether peer education is a useful method of transmitting sexual-health information to youth; 5) to assess the sexual risk level of youth; and 6) to develop an understanding of the proactive sexual-health behaviours and decisions youth have established for themselves. METHODS: Street-involved and homeless youth living in Hamilton, Ontario (n=97) who were between the ages of 14 and 24 were interviewed using a 112 questions interview tool. Topics covered in the interview included demographics, personal safety, health behaviour, accessing sexual-health information, accessing sexual-health services, HIV/AIDS knowledge and services use and peer education. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted using SAS. RESULTS: Youth had high rates of STI and HIV testing and good HIV knowledge when compared to the general youth population. However, the sample also had increased rates of unplanned pregnancies and young women were not well-informed about what gets tested for in pap smears. Some youth are also not accessing sexual-health services at all. CONCLUSIONS: Youth are making attempts to protect themselves, however there are areas for improvement; specifically increased condom-use, knowledge of HIV and pap smears. Youth who were found to have increased risk were youth who were under the age of 19, and youth who had experienced unstable housing before the age of 15. The findings suggest that sexual-health harm reduction needs to start at a younger age and the basics of sexual-health should not be overlooked.

Introduction: Homelessness is a living condition associated with a number of adverse health outcomes. Unaccompanied homeless youth are at risk for many of the same health outcomes as other homeless persons, but these youth are especially vulnerable because they are young and without the protection or support of an adult caregiver. Aim: The purpose of this capstone project is to present a basic overview of the topic as well as to highlight what more needs to be done to address this issue. Methods: This project involved a review of the literature related to homeless youth, child sexual or physical abuse, and mental health issues associated abused and/or homeless youth, focusing on United States information, for the years 1995 to present. Discussion: to discuss current prevention and intervention efforts, and to discuss needs for future research and intervention

This case study of Covenant House, an emergency shelter for street kids in downtown Toronto, focuses on the experiences that draw kids into youth shelters and that drive them out. The analysis stresses the importance to street kids of feeling "cared for". Street kids were drawn to Covenant House because they felt cared for there by its open intake policy, appealing facilities (clean surroundings and good food), and staff who listened to and were interested in their problems. But residents were rather swiftly turned off by its rigidly enforced, elaborate and "uncaring' rule structure, and either walked out or got kicked out. Given the limited alternatives in Toronto's "shelter world", however, Covenant House has become the preferred choice for street kids who find themselves in a cycle of entering, leaving and returning.

This thesis explores street involved youth friendship in Victoria, Canada. The friendships of street involved youth—that is “young people who may or may not be homeless and spend some time in the social and economic world of ‘the street’” (Perkin 2009)—are regularly thought and talked about as being prone to deviant or risky behaviour, particularly in social scientific literature and by the mainstream media. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 street involved youth (ages 16 – 21) who talked about friendships as important relationships offering (among other things) help, protection, support, nurture and meaningful existences not available to them otherwise. Street youth friendships allow youth some escape and respite from damaging neoliberal political-economic policies in Victoria, Canada. In addition, street involved youth friendships bring into question dominant developmentalist discourses and assumptions as youth agentively and expertly negotiate their friendships in careful and nuanced ways. / Graduate / 0326 / twerdal@uvic.ca

Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observation and my experiences of working with young homeless people in refuges, in this thesis I develop an analysis which identifies some key spatial practices through which young people negotiate the field of homelessness in inner-city Sydney. The particular contribution of this work is to consider homelessness in terms of a theorised understanding of the broader role of place within homelessness, rather than in terms of the immediacy of cause or solution. While acknowledging the importance of the large body of work which has focused on the structural causes of homelessness and the need for a clear policy-oriented definition of homelessness, I develop an alternative agenda for a focus on young homeless people's struggles to feel 'in place' and 'at home'. These struggles throw into relief the need to understand young people???s homelessness in terms of a search, not just for a place to stay, but for a place to belong. Utilising the rich body of work which explores the important relation of place and subjectivity, I connect young people???s experiences of place within homelessness with the broader social and phenomenological concepts of ???displacement??? and ???implacement???. In particular, I focus on the spatial relations through which young people construct and organise their daily paths and begin to make sense of their often painful and chaotic lives and their fears about the future. I contextualise their fragile experiences of being somewhere in a broader spatial structure of constant movement and grief and feelings of alienation from the wider community. I consider the enduring role of past homes in their continuing struggle to piece together a way of ???being at home??? both in terms of drawing together a network of physical places of safety and in terms of experiencing a sense of acceptance, recognition and rootedness through place. I point to the critical need to include broader understandings of both home and homelessness in addressing the displacement which shapes the experience of homelessness for young people and impacts on the success of immediate measures developed to respond to it.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 2005. / Not embargoed. Vita. Bibliography: 156-180.