Youth in Calgary’s Housing Programs: A Case Study

There is increasing awareness that homeless youth face very different challenges than homeless adults do. With this awareness comes the recognition that housing programs for youth must be designed and developed differently to meet their unique needs.

The study’s outcomes were encouraging. Of the 531 youth with clearly identified exits from the program, 61 per cent remained housed — either remaining in the program or moving to permanent housing without support. An important feature of our study is the ability to observe youth for as long as six to seven years. Those who we were able to observe for only a short period (one to two years) had an 80-per-cent success rate. The rate of success was lower for youth observed for longer periods, settling at around 60 per cent for youth observed for up to five to six years. The high rate of success in Calgary’s housing programs comes despite the program choosing high-acuity youth with significant histories of addiction, mental health issues and frequent police encounters.

Ours is a case study of Calgary’s housing programs for youth. As such, we cannot offer commentary on the effectiveness of youth programs in other jurisdictions populated by youth with different personal or experiential characteristics from those enrolled in Calgary’s program. We can, however, suggest that the evidence from Calgary is that a program offering even high-acuity youth housing without preconditions can realize an impressive rate of success and can do so even when evaluated over a long period. While this is a case study of housing programs in Calgary, it will nonetheless be valuable for other jurisdictions to use in designing programs and developing policies to assist youth experiencing homelessness.