Youth Homelessness Prevention

Dear Colleagues,

Rapidly changing sociopolitical contexts, fiscal constraints, and sudden events such as population health crises are macro level challenges that magnify pre-existing issues with which marginalized and at-risk children and youth contend. Especially in these times, social justice and equity issues become more visible as problems escalate for these young people, exposing them to increased risk and exacerbated inequities, far too often leading to homelessness.

Research shows that the consequences for youth experiencing homelessness can manifest in numerous, interconnected ways. Youths without a home tend to suffer from malnourishment, extreme stress, and inadequate healthcare (e.g., untreated infections and inadequate or lack of medications). Their experiences are characterized by social and emotional crises and social exclusion, which is largely caused or exacerbated by having to relocate between unstable—and often unsafe—living situations. Given all of these challenges, it should not be surprising that so many homeless youths (50.5%) are not in employment, education or training—in stark contrast to their peers at 12–14% (Gaetz, 2016). The largely crisis-oriented responses to youth homelessness are costly, at the societal, systems, and individual levels. Billions are spent on emergency management across systems in Western nations such as Canada (Gaetz et al., 2016), while youth potential is wasted as they struggle to survive instead of thriving. Globally, formal declarations have profiled certain basic human rights. For instance, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights articulates certain rights, such as to food, clothing, and housing (Article 11), and to standards of physical and mental health (Article 12). Additionally, many of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals aim to reduce systemic barriers that are features of the lived experiences of homeless youth (e.g., poverty, food insecurity, poor health, poor wellbeing, gender inequality). It is clear that better solutions are needed to address such problems—importantly, preventing them from happening in the first place. However, while prevention efforts are an ‘easy sell’ initially, for both moral and economic reasons, they are rarely sustained, as they can be unexpectedly complex, typically requiring unanticipated long-term resource commitments without the ability to demonstrate the concrete impacts required by funders (Cairney and Denny, 2020).

This Special Issue aims to address these challenges by featuring studies on efforts to prevent youth homelessness in areas such as mental health, housing, education, and social services. We welcome interdisciplinary studies across international contexts with diverse methodological approaches (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and conceptual), particularly studies that are equity-focused and illuminate cross-sector collaboration. Collectively, the papers in this issue will contribute key insights and evidence to research, policy, and practice to move prevention efforts forward and advance dialogue about the unique challenges and opportunities that lie within a much-needed focus on youth homelessness prevention.

Dr. Jacqueline Sohn
Dr. Rebecca Stroud
Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Youth is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• at-risk children/youth
• children/youth in crisis
• marginalized children/youth
• homeless youth
• youth homelessness prevention