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Originally Broadcast March
10, 2004
NO WAY HOME
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EXPLORE THIS
ISSUE FURTHER:
THE CAUSES OF HOMELESSNESS
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THE CAUSES OF HOMELESSNESS
People become homeless for a wide variety of
reasons – loss of job, marital breakdown, mental
illness, and alcohol and drug addiction. But when it comes
to youth and children, the reasons tend to revolve around
the family.
Missing child reports: Overall,
a total of 66,532 missing-child reports were made to
Canadian police agencies in 2002, of which 52,390 were
classified as runaways. About 75% return to their homes
within a week.
These are not 52,000 individual children, but simply
reports, and 73% of the children will run away again.
More females (59%) than males are categorized as runaways.
96% of the children were between the ages of 12 and
17 years old.
Over half of these children - 56% - report they were
“thrown out” by their parents. When youth
were asked whose decision it was to leave home, 47%
noted it was “their decision”, 18% said
it was the decision of one or both parents and 30% indicated
it was a joint decision by themselves and their parents.
Abuse in the home: Ultimately,
experts say that the vast majority of youth or children
rarely leave happy homes for the streets. Several studies
have indicated that 70% of youth have experienced some
form of sexual, physical or emotional abuse. Many of
the rest simply felt neglected.
One Toronto study showed that 40% of girls and 19%
of boys left home because of sexual abuse. Physical
abuse was a factor among 59% of females and 39% of males.
Violence and parents’ drug and alcohol abuse were
also huge factors.
SEXUAL
ABUSE CASES RISING:
Between 1993 and 1998 a study found cases of physical
abuse jumped from 4,200 to 8,000. There was also
an 870% increase in emotional maltreatment. |
The number of confirmed victims of child abuse and neglect
nearly doubled in Ontario between 1993 and 1998, according
to a University of Toronto study published in 2002. Substantiated
cases of physical abuse jumped from 4,200 cases to 8,000,
while cases of neglect rose from 4,400 to 8,900. The study
also found an 870% increase in cases of emotional maltreatment,
largely as a result to exposure to domestic violence.
The number of investigations completed by children’s
aid societies in Ontario has increased by 36% from 1998
to 2002. Social factors:
Various studies have identified some key social factors
besides sexual and physical abuse.
Many children simply have a poor relationship with
their parents. 56% of youth characterized their relationship
with their mothers as poor or fair, and 49% said they
had a poor or fair relationship with their fathers.
Another 19% of street youths said they had no contact
at all with their fathers. 28% had a poor relationship,
21% fair, 17% good and 14% excellent.
A higher-than-average portion of the youth come from
single parent homes: 17% from homes where one parent
is deceased and 64% of from homes where the parents
have split up.
One report indicates that street youth are much more
likely to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered
(20-40%) than the general population (10%).
A staggering portion – nearly 50% - have had
some involvement with the child welfare system. In other
words, a huge number were once wards of state, living
in foster homes or youth shelters and have now fled
to the streets.
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ON
THE STREET OUT ECONOMIC NECESSITY:
One reason many youth live on the streets is
because their families were made homeless or
they can't find affordable housing or a steady
source of income to get off the street. |
A shortage of good jobs and
affordable housing: A recent study by the Children’s
Aid Society of Toronto (CAS) found that in 2000, housing
was a factor in one in five cases where children were
taken into care by the CAS – a dramatic 60% increase
over a similar study in 1992.
And a lack of inadequate housing caused a delay in the
return of children to their parents in more than 10%
of cases. During a community social audit carried out
last year, Ontario’s religious leaders heard testimony
from low-income mothers who spoke about losing, or the
fear of losing their children because they couldn’t
afford housing and were being evicted from their homes.
Indeed, while the loss of income and of affordable
housing would seem to affect why adults become homeless,
it would be naïve to believe these factors don’t
also affect youth. After all, the reason many youth
end up on the streets is because their families were
made homeless, or they themselves can’t find
affordable housing or a steady source of income to
get off the street.
The housing crisis: Here
are some facts about the housing crisis in Toronto:
Between 1996 and 2001, Ontario lost 44,780 rental
units, of which 17,515 were in the greater Toronto area,
where the population increased by 9.6% over that time
period.
Between 1997 and 2001, Toronto rents rose by 31%
- more than double the 14% rate of inflation for the
same period. Today, only 20% of private rental apartments
rent for less than $800 a month.
Since 1997, the increase in monthly rent for an average
two-parent, two-child family rose $225. Among conventional
one-bedroom units, average rent rose $220 over six years,
to $894 in 2002.
In the past three years, 873 new rental-housing units
were built in the Toronto area (3% of new housing construction),
as compared to 28,492 for the home-ownership market
(97% of new housing construction).
In Toronto, 49% of all households are tenants. Since
1996, the overall supply of rental housing actually
decreased by 5,000 units.
While vacancy rates in Toronto have climbed to about
2.4% this is not as heartening as it may appear. For
units at the low end ($400 to $800) the vacancy rate
is at about 1%, while the vast bulk of the vacancies
are in the $1,200 to $1,600 range. As an indication
of how tight the rental market has become, in 1996 units
under $800 made up more than 65% of the market; today
they make up only about 20% (49,100 of 250,500 units).
| ENTIRE
FAMILIES IN SHELTERS:
There are now 71,000 households on waiting lists
for social housing. 200% more families have
had to visit homeless shelters over the last
decade. |
As a result of this shortage of affordable housing 71,000
households are on waiting lists for social housing.
In the mid-‘90s, both the federal and most provincial
governments stopped funding the construction of social
housing. The federal government has offered up $245-million
to resume building housing, but some provinces refused
to match the federal money, thereby stalling the program.
One City of Toronto report indicated that even if this
housing was built, it might still not be affordable
for the poor.
In 2002, 32,000 different people stayed in one of Toronto’s
emergency homeless shelters – of which 4,779 were
children – an increase of 21% since 1990 and a
200% increase in two-parent families.
Falling incomes:
At the same time incomes have not kept pace with the
cost of living increases. Although median household
income went from $40,443 in 1995 to $49,345 in 2000
in the nineties economic boom, when inflation is taken
into account, household income remains below 1990 levels.
Of Toronto’s children aged 17 and under, 34%
were living in low-income families in 2000. The number
of low-income children increased from 152,000 in 1996
to 176,000 in 2001.
Between 1997 and 2002, weekly earnings in Toronto
rose from $618 to $685, a change of 11%. However, average
rents grew by 30% during that same time frame.
The median income for youth is $9,100 a year, while
their unemployment rate is about 16%.
In 1995, Ontario’s provincial government cut
welfare rates by 21.6%. A single parent with one child
receives a maximum of only $511 per month for shelter,
making the vast majority of two-bedroom and even most
one-bedroom apartments financially out of reach. For
two-parent, two-child families they were $1,178 a month,
of which $602 is allotted for rent. By August of 2003,
the impact of these cuts meant a reduction of 35% in
the purchasing power for the poorest families in the
province.
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COST OF HOMELESSNESS
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MAIN
- WHO ARE HOMELESS
YOUTH? - LIFE
ON THE STREET
THE HAZARDS OF HOMELESSNESS - THE CAUSES OF HOMELESSNESS
THE COST OF HOMELESSNESS
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