The Impacts of Homelessness to the Teens in Canada

Homeless Teens in Canada
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Canada’s levels of homelessness have been growing rampantly, with reports showing that nearly 35000 people are homeless every night (Guirguis-Younger, Hwang, & McNeil, 2014). These people are families or individuals who know nobody else apart from their street kin. Among the many homeless people, a significant proportion is teenagers and young adults. Apart from the expected problems associated with being homes such as lack of basic things and proneness to diseases, there are broader problems that are mostly psychological or physical and have a longlasting effect on the teens in the streets. This paper will describe the challenges that young adults face as they grow and develop being homeless.
To identify the challenges that homelessness creates, it is vital to identify some of its leading causes. Many people become homeless by being forced out of their homes for the failure of paying rent, while others cannot afford it. Besides, some of the homeless cases are caused by conflicts in the family such as divorce and domestic abuse. Some face racialization in the community, identify with indigenous groups or the LGBTQ community. All these cause homelessness, and the victims face different challenges in the street.
Mental health crisis
The first challenge that homeless teenagers face in the street is a mental health crisis. This is one of the most common problems where teens experience stress and mental instability. Most of them are victims of trauma and abuse, and the streets treat them no different. At a certain point, they feel unwanted and uncared for. Stress prevents them from engaging in any activity that would better their lives. They drop out of school, fail to keep jobs and end up devastated. Among the basic needs of any human being is a shelter, and the lack of it takes a psychological toll on the mind. A major outcome of a continuous mental health crisis is depression, and it is not uncommon for young adults. Most experience post-traumatic stress disorders and the hard life in the streets makes their conditions worse. In most cases, they also suffer from anxiety disorders and in the worst cases nervous breakdowns. This is due to the uncertainty of the future, fear of the present lives and regret of the past experiences.
Sexual Exploitation
Among the teenagers who are in homeless shelters or living in the streets, the majority are young girls and women. These are the most susceptible to sexual exploitation, which takes a variety of forms. The most common type of sexual exploitation is rape, and it is prevalent in the streets. Street girls are seen as sources of sexual pleasure by their fellow street people, gangs and even sexual perverts in the communities where they live.
Secondly, the female street teens may be sexually exploited as payment for food, makeshift shelter or “protection” from other people and gangs in the street. In many cases, the homeless have gang leaders and rivalry among groups, and the females who are mostly targeted by street violence seek helps from those street gangs who mainly expl...