Ottawa Street Youth

The current situation of street-involved youth in Ottawa

A Working Group on long-term strategies to address street youth, organised by the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa-Carleton and comprising street-involved youth and members of the social services, education and business communities in downtown Ottawa recently described the situation currently being faced by street-involved youth:

	the population of street-involved youth is growing in numbers as well as age range (i.e. youth are coming to the street earlier and seem to be staying on the street into their 20's as they cannot find employment);
	fewer youth are receiving social assistance, because of changes to the criteria (only about 50% of the 16-17 year old street-involved youth are now receiving social assistance);
	more youth are engaged in activities such as squeegeeing and panhandling; more youth are engaged in illegal activities such as drug dealing and prostitution to earn enough money to survive;
	the incidence of sexually transmitted disease and HIV among street-involved youth has increased significantly, as a result of increased prostitution;
	up to 50% of young street-involved women are either pregnant, or have already had one or more children. Youth tell us that some of the reasons why they want to be pregnant relate to wanting to access more money from social assistance and stable housing. Another important factor is the desperation and lack of opportunity felt by many street-involved youth. Whereas the vast majority of youth in school who become pregnant will choose to either end the pregnancy or give the baby up for adoption, almost none of the street-involved youth choose this option. In many cases, and despite their best intentions, the youth have a very difficult time with parenting as they are living in unstable housing situations, with a very limited income and little or no family support. CAS is often called in as the situation becomes unmanageable for the parents.