introduction, thesis with 3 claims, and suport each claims in succeeding paragra

introduction, thesis with 3 claims, and suport each claims in succeeding paragraph and last paragraph for the conclusion
Homelessness in Canada
Citation metadata
Date: 2021
From: Gale Canada Online Collection
Publisher: Gale, a Cengage Company
Document Type: Topic overview
Length: 1,095 words
Content Level: (Level 4)
Lexile Measure:1120L
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Main content
Life in the Streets
A man lives on the street, begging passersby for money and sometimes eating out of trash cans. He can sleep outside when the weather is warm, but he worries about what he will do when winter comes. A young woman has one suitcase. In it are all her personal belongings. She takes the suitcase with her as she moves from one friend’s house to another. A mother picks up her two children from school. They go to the park for a few hours before eating a meal at a soup kitchen and going to a shelter to sleep.
The government of Canada estimates that more than 235,000 people experience homelessness each year. A growing number of people each year are at risk of becoming homeless because they have to pay too large a percentage of their income for housing. The homeless population is made up of men, women, children, and young adults.
What Is Homelessness?
Homelessness encompasses many situations. Absolute homelessness refers to those who live on the street and have no home at all. Relative homelessness describes those who live in places that are unsafe or insufficient. Examples of this would be an abandoned house with no clean running water or sanitation, or a car that serves as a place to sleep. A large percentage of homeless people are described as invisibly homeless. They do not have homes of their own but do not live on the streets or in shelters. Instead, they live with others—sometimes friends or relatives, and sometimes people they do not know so well. They may put themselves in unsafe situations.
How Does Homelessness Happen?
People become homeless for an assortment of reasons. A personal crisis may affect a person’s income. For instance, someone might lose his or her job; get evicted; suffer from assault by a partner; get thrown out by a family member; leave an abusive situation; or lose someone in their family who was the primary earner. People may be employed but not earn enough to afford housing. A person in this stage of homelessness may be able to move in with friends or family and become invisibly homeless. For some, this is a temporary situation, and they will get back on their feet.
Some people are homeless because they have recently been released from a mental institution or from jail. They may be able to find a temporary home with a relative or friend, but they may have less success in getting back on their feet. It is difficult to leave a hospital or the criminal justice system and find a job that pays enough to provide shelter.
Individuals who are ill, have addiction problems, have a criminal history, or have a history of sexual or emotional abuse may lack a support network. They may not have friends or family who are willing to give them even a temporary home.
How Many People in Canada Are Homeless?
It is difficult to count the number of homeless people. The reason for this is that homelessness, by its nature, is transient. A common method of counting the population is the Point-in-Time (PiT) Count. This is an effort to count the number of people who are homeless on a single night every two years. This labor-intensive process relies on volunteers who conduct the surveys through observation. PiT Counts are conducted within communities, so they may miss individuals for various reasons, such as because they are migrating between communities. Homeless individuals who do not stay in shelters or use services such as community kitchens, including those who move from place to place, are often missed.
Each night, from 25,000 to 35,000 people in Canada are estimated to experience homelessness, while up to 50,000 may be among the hidden homeless, often called couch surfers. The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness estimates that between 150,000 and 300,000 people experience homelessness each year and up to 1.3 million Canadians have been homeless or in extremely insecure housing at some time in the previous five years.
In addition to emergency homeless shelters, individuals may stay in other shelters. Among these are violence against women shelters, which often house children as well.
Researchers believe for the vast majority a period of homelessness is brief. Most are homeless for less than a month and are able to leave homelessness without much assistance. For them, homelessness is often a one-time experience. A smaller number are chronically homeless or episodically homeless, but these populations use more than half the emergency shelter space.
Addressing Homelessness
The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness lists three main ways to address homelessness. The first is to prevent people from becoming homeless. The second, the emergency response, includes shelters, day programs, and providing food for individuals while they are homeless. Finally, providing housing and support services helps people move out of homelessness.
While emergency services are necessary, the focus of addressing chronic homelessness has shifted to solving the problems that lead to homelessness. In 2008 the Mental Health Commission of Canada funded a project to set up a model targeting homelessness and mental health in five Canadian cities. It was later expanded as a federal program. Called Housing First, it is a client-centred program that moves people from shelters or the street quickly into stable, long-term housing and provides support to help them remain out of homelessness. Individuals who are in stable housing are better able to access services and address issues that affect both chronically and episodically homeless persons. The program provides rent supplements and, for those with mental illness, mental health support services.
The original demonstration project was deemed a success after two years. A study found that it significantly increased the number of stable housing days of participants in the short term. Every $10 invested in the program for the high-needs participants resulted in an average savings of $9.60 because they did not spend as much time in shelters and hospitals. A six-year study published in 2019 in The Lancet Psychiatry found that Housing First succeeded in reducing homelessness long-term for those with mental illnesses. Previous programs had required individuals to stop using substances or receive treatment for mental illness before they were eligible for housing assistance.
Preventing Homelessness
Canada has developed a community-based program to prevent and reduce homelessness. Reaching Home provides funding to urban, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, so they can address the local needs. Reaching Home is part of the 2019 National Housing Strategy, which was established to reduce chronic homelessness by half in ten years and invest in building up to 160,000 affordable homes.