The purpose of this thesis is to examine the housing environment faced by street youth in the City
of Vancouver. It seeks to understand the housing needs of street youth, to identify the barriers
encountered in accessing housing, to identify and evaluate their housing options, and to examine
the provincial and municipal government roles in providing housing for street youth.
This thesis defines a street youth as an individual between the ages of 12 and 18 who has either
chosen to leave or been thrown out of their family home for a minimum of two days, is involved in
street related activities, and sleeps in inappropriate accommodations or has no shelter at all. The
terms street youth and homeless youth are used interchangeably because the qualities which are
absent from an individual’s living environment - privacy, security, stability and access to support
services - are also absent from the various living situations in which street youth find themselves.
The methodology undertaken to complete this thesis is a literature review and a case study of
Vancouver’s street youth. The literature review provides background information on the general
subject of homelessness, and specifically, the reasons why youth choose to live a life on the street
and the lifestyle they lead once on the street. The empirical component of the research consists of
interviews with service providers and street youth.
The interview results clearly reveal that two interrelated problem areas exist in the broad issue of
street youth and housing. These areas are first, the state care system, both its form and manner of
service provision, and second, accessibility to market housing - social, economic and political factors which affect a youth’s ability to secure housing. An issue common to both problem areas,
and perpetuating the problems in each, is the lack of value and respect society gives to youth.
A ‘continuum of housing’ model is proposed which takes into account the family backgrounds
conmion to many street youth, the types of lifestyle they lead while on the street, and the problems
associated with state-provided and market housing. In addition, recommendations are provided
which centre on advocacy and service-coordinating bodies, attitude changes, additional housing
facilities, landlord-tenant relationships, government assistance eligibility criteria, and funding. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/5523 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Stefanoff, Genya Jennifer Anne |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 3128701 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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