(By a research team comprising Patrick Carpenter, Angela Johnston, Neil Joseph, David Neshinapaise, Charnele Sondezi, Jim Ward, Loretta Watetch)
August 2016
1. Introduction
We are Community Health Worker students taking courses at Anishnawbe Health Toronto. Our class in the Introduction to Social Sciences course has six students, all of whom are Indigenous. The instructor for the course (Jim Ward) is not. One aspect of this course is to study methods of social research and a practical aspect is for us to conduct our own study. As a class, we decided to do an exploratory study on homelessness. All members of the research team, including the instructor, have experienced homelessness in the past. The study topic grew out of this experience and a general interest in finding out what the current situation is in Toronto.
At the outset, all seven team members carried out archival research regarding what are seen to be the different causes of the condition we call homelessness. Building on this, research team members identified what they felt to be the four major causes of homelessness: lack of affordable housing, family violence, addictions and deinstitutionalization. (See sources of information below.) The tendency of the research team was to consider structural factors as being more important than individual factors, addictions being the only individual factor we considered to be of major importance. In essence, if we had a hypothesis at all, it was that structural factors are far more important than individual factors and that, consequently, the most effective way in which to reduce homelessness would be to concentrate on reducing the influence of these structural factors.
2. Methodology
The empirical study comprised 21 interviews with currently homeless people in downtown Toronto. Each study team member carried out three interviews in parks and on the streets in downtown Toronto. A convenience sampling approach was used. Individuals who appeared to be homeless were asked “Are you homeless?” If the individual answered ‘yes’, then the interview was conducted, using a basic questionnaire to provide an interview structure. Thus, we considered the study to be exploratory in nature. The results of our interviews are provided below.
2.1 Description of Interviewees
The three tables below provide a description of the 21 interviewees, according to age, gender and ethnicity
3. RESULTS
The following section provides the results of the research study. Wherever possible we have used the precise verbal responses of the interviewees.
3.1 Extent to Which Interviewees Agreed on the Four Major Causes of Homelessness
When interviewees were asked which of the four reasons we had identified as being key causes of homelessness were important in their particular case, they responded as shown in Table 4, below.
Lack of Affordable Housing
As indicated in Table 4, the most frequently mentioned reason for the respondents’ homelessness was the lack of affordable housing; 13 of the 21 (62%) interviewees identified this as a major cause. Several further elaborated on this through making the following statements:
• The landlord starting charging me for the hydro on top of the rent. I had lived in that apartment for two years. Once he started charging for the hydro, I couldn’t afford it anymore. So I live in Seaton House now.
• I was financially unable to get a place. I was not accepted because I had no credit.
• I was being evicted from TCHC because of arrears.
• My old lady was evicted from her home and needed a place to stay. I was helping her out by letting her stay with me. I was up front and honest with my landlord and he still kicked me out.
• We are living in a city that is building condos and that has no plans for affordable housing.
• It’s mostly because of the high rents in Toronto.
• I didn’t keep up with the rent and fell behind.
• I found that rent was far too high to pay and it has only gotten worse in the last few years.
• It’s the whole rent thing.
Addictions
The second most frequently mentioned reason for the interviewees’ homelessness was addictions; 11 of the 21 (52%) respondents identified this as a major cause in their experience. Several spoke of this as a cause in the following ways:
• It’s been about addictions and poverty.
• Drugs, mental health issues and jail.
• I became addicted to crack and heroin and started stealing from home to get high. Eventually I got kicked out.
• For me it was heroin addiction and drinking.
• Drugs, culture shock and addictions.
• I began drinking and living on the streets.
• When I get money I blow it on dope. I just go on being a dummy, month after month, year after year.
• My Mom used to drink a lot as did my grandmother and most of my family. My grandma is a residential school survivor.
Family Violence
Family violence, expressed in a number of different ways, was seen to be a major cause of interviewees’ homelessness by 9 out of the 21 (45%) and was spoken of in several ways, as shown below.
• I was kicked out of home in Labrador when I was a 12 year-old kid. And I refuse to stay in shelters. I’d sooner live outside. Right now I’m living out in the woods in Scarborough. I walk downtown to do my panning. When you leave home really young, it’s hard to make a go of it.
• I was kicked out of my Mom’s house after dropping out of school again. I was drinking a lot after I came back to Toronto. I couldn't find work or a home and drank more.
• I was kicked out by my girlfriend when she discovered I was cheating. I have undiagnosed mental health issues and have not been able to find supports.
• I was in a bad relationship.
• My wife left me, a marriage breakup.
• My wife left me and took everything. We were married for over 30 years. Now I’m living in the Salvation Army shelter. I lost my whole family.
• I was exposed to problems of poverty and family violence at an early age.
• Well, for me, it was just about the breakup with my wife.
De institutionalization
Only four of the 21(19%) respondents agreed that some deinstitutionalization experience was important in bringing about their homelessness. And only one of these elaborated on that experience. In this one case, the respondent said he became homeless after he was discharged from prison and cut off welfare and that having a prison record make it difficult for him to get on in the world.
Other Factors Identified
Respondents identified a number of other factors that had been instrumental in making them homeless, as can be seen in the following responses:
• I have no job and I can’t get on welfare.
• I came to Toronto because the Rez doesn’t have any jobs. Coming to a city with no resources was a real problem and the employers are not hiring me because of stereotypes.
• I was evicted for trying to be a good neighbour by trying to get the dealers and drunks out of the apartment where I was staying and they complained about me.
• I had no place to start in the city.
• Poverty has been the main reason for my problems.
• I got cut off welfare with my spouse.
• As soon as I feel hopeful I get knocked down because people see me and judge me rather than help me.
• I had trouble holding a job. I wasn’t living a stable life.
When interviewees were asked if they felt there were other factors that had led to their becoming homeless, they mentioned a number of reasons, most of which were highly personal, yet structural, including:
• I refuse to collect welfare or ODSP. I prefer to do what I’m doing right now. (panhandling)
• I was a skinny little Indian boy who had no guidance to live a good life.
• I was in the military for eight years. I served in the Arctic and I carry my experiences in my heart.
• Drinking and panhandling is all I can do.
• Drinking and as I’m old now and can’t really work these days.
• I was not given life skills.
• The government helps refugees rather than First Nations people.
The fact that the most frequently mentioned cause among our small convenience sample of 21 currently homeless was the lack of affordable housing indicates that the hypothesis that structural factors are of the greatest importance has some validity. However, since addictions was identified by over half our sample as a major cause of their homelessness, the hypothesis must be questioned. In addition, almost half the respondents indicated that family violence in some form was a precipitating cause. Arguments can be made, of course, that family violence is a structural problem if one believes that much family violence is rooted in historical discriminatory treatment of marginalized groups in society. Perhaps it should be no surprise that deinstitutionalization was only identified as a cause by fewer than 20% of the respondents, since the role of psychiatric hospitals in housing otherwise homeless people has diminished markedly over the past 50 years.
It could be argued that homeless people themselves are more likely to identify individual rather than structural causes since such explanations are closer to their direct experience. In this regard, it should not be forgotten that one of the major confusions regarding the genesis of social problems is mistaking effect for cause.
Conclusion
The results of this exploratory study indicate that the research team’s assumption that the major causes of homelessness are structural in nature is only partially supported. Lack of affordable housing and family violence ranked highly as causes but deinstitutionalization did not. According to our 21 homeless interviewees, the second most important cause of homelessness was seen to be addictions. Addictions can not be considered to be structural. Therefore, the tentative hypothesis of the team that homelessness is primarily a structural problem, is not supported by this non-statistical, exploratory and small-scale research study.
However, it is possible that the interviewees believed their own and other’s experience with addictions to be a cause rather than an effect of social marginalization and homelessness rather than an effect, since they are likely to be as inculcated as many members of Canadian society (marginalized or integrated) with the belief in full individual control over the trajectory of one’s destiny in life.
Print and Internet Resources Reviewed
The Homeless Hub www.homelesshub.ca The State of Homelessness in Canada 2014
Youth without Shelter www.yws.on.ca Facts and Figures
Homelessness- Causes and effects “The Relationship between Homelessness and the Health Social Services and Criminal Justice Systems: A Review of the Literature Volume 1 British Columbia February 2001
Taking Responsibility for Homelessness- Published by the city of Toronto
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=cfa2d62869211410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
http://homesfirst.on.ca/info-stats
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/homeless-toronto-1.3340277
City of Toronto (2003) The Toronto Report Card on Housing and Homelessness
Gaetz, S., Donaldson, J., Richter R., & Gulliver, T. (2013) The State of Homelessness in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Homelessness research Network Press
APPENDIX
Personal Stories Interviewees Shared with Research Team Interviewers
The following personal stories, related to the interviewers by the homeless respondents, have been included to flesh out the reality of life struggles for someone currently homeless in Toronto.
• You need to find out about the shelters. A lot of us won’t stay in the shelters because you have to sleep with one eye open. And you never know what you’re going to catch either, some kind of disease or you’re going to have to deal with bed bugs. And there’s every kind of addiction in there. There’s the boozers, the weekend addicted – those who say “I’m not a alcoholic.” But they are. Then there’s the occasional users. They’re usually okay.
• You know family violence is not just about women. It happens to guys too but you don’t hear about that.
• A lot of the people who work in the shelters are just there for the pay. And the shelter collects the money for having you staying there.
• When I was 18 I got into a lot of trouble in Winnipeg and well let’s just say I ended up in jail. I got out and tried to go back to school. I started drinking more and more and not going to school. Then I got kicked out of my Mom's and ended up back in Toronto looking for a home. No home... ended up couch surfing and some shelters here and there. That's about it.
• For me it’s just that I can’t afford to pay the rent for my own place. I’ve been in Seaton House for three months but I’m hoping to be able to get enough money together soon to move out.
• I should have been more better at keeping up with the rent. I lived on Sherbourne north of Dundas in TCHC building which was a dump !! When I was time to go to the landlord board I didn't see the need to fight for such a horrible place to live. So I moved and couched surfed till I can manage to get my own place.
• I’m from Guyana. I’ve lived in Toronto for 47 years now. My wife kicked me out two years ago. She was having an affair. I have three sons. None of them help me. I was living in a hostel on Kingston Road. I’ve been living here in the Salvation Army shelter for nine months now. I mostly keep to myself.
• The North Star is of great importance. We are all of the universe and the North Star of the Big Dipper tells us we all came from way back there in the eighteen hundreds. They found tombs of each colour of the medicine wheel and I am a Christian. Please understand that. I can tell you all about how evil and good came into place and this information came to me from my experience in the residential school. But the priest and nuns were very mean to us all and did bad things to us.
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