Preventing Youth Homelessness in BC

We found that 1% of BC youth experienced homelessness during the analyses period. This is an undercount, as it does not capture rough sleeping and is limited by the years of shelter data available. That said, we estimated that 9% of youth experienced hidden homelessness between 2015 and 2019.3 Most youth who experienced homelessness were also involved with other systems when they were 19-27-years old. Almost all youth (88%) had interactions with three or more systems, and 61% with four or more systems. For example, for youth who experienced homelessness: 95% also received income assistance; 65% also had not completed a high school diploma by 27 years old; 64% also accessed healthcare for substance use; 16% also received a provincial custodial sentence; and, 4% died between ages 19 and 27. Children involved in more systems were more likely to be homeless, with 25% involved in six systems becoming homeless (Figure 1).