What is Homelessness?

There is no single definition of homelessness.

Homelessness, often referred to as housing insecurity, occurs on a spectrum or a continuum. This means that it includes people who are sleeping rough or sleeping on the streets and those who may be using emergency shelters or couch surfing (Alberta Interagency Council on Homelessness, n.d).

Pathways into Homelessness

There is also no single pathway into homelessness.

While homelessness is often simplified to the understanding that it results from individual decisions or personal circumstances. In reality, homelessness is rarely the result of a singular factor. Instead it can be understood as the result of overlapping structural factors, system failures, and individual circumstances (Homelessness Hub, nd).

Structural Factors

Structural factors are broader or large-scale, often national issues that can limit opportunities for economic stability or housing. We all experience these factors as they are outside of any one person's control.

Canada's rate of poverty has been rising and deepening. Nationally, families with children are on average living at least $15,000 below the poverty line (Campaign 2000, 2026). As the cost of living continues to rise and incomes remain stagnant, the rates of poverty increase.

This rising economic inequality not only impacts access to secure and stable housing,
but also access to health services, transportation, and mental health services.

Homelessness may occur or be further impacted when the services people need are unavailable, difficult to access or not designed to work together. That means that gaps in healthcare, mental health, substance-use services, transportation, income supports, or continuing care can leave people without a safe or available service to utilize.

These gaps can be even more present in rural or smaller communities where services may be more limited, located in another community or have reduced hours.

System Failures

People experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness often interact with multiple systems, When these systems are not communicating or coordinating safe transitions, people can be left without support or services that they need to remain safely and securely housed.

We all see and experience failures like this in our everyday lives, they are not necessarily the result of one person or organization doing something wrong. Instead, they are the results of policies or systems that are not build with people's lived realities in mind.

People may need support from several organizations at the same time, but those services do not always work together and communicate. Sometimes this means that the responsibility of coordinating and communicating with all the organizations in this system falls on the person needing services.

Services can exist and be difficult to access when there is no clear path. This lack of
coordinated services can mean that people fall through the cracks.

Service requirements like having government identification, documentation, or specific program eligibility can be more difficult for someone without a phone, transportation, reliable internet, or a permanent address.

Services may have specific policies or practices around missed appointments or incomplete paperwork that may result in release from program services.

Making these supports not realistic for those who need to access it.

Personal Factors

Often this pathway into homelessness if oversimplified to be the sole or primary cause of homelessness for all people. However, these personal factors are only one part of the picture that includes those structural factors and system failures.

Living with a chronic illness, disability, or an ongoing health concern can affect someone's ability to work, manage daily responsibilities, or maintain housing. Furthermore, these chronic health issues can result in medical costs, reduced incomes, and difficult accessing care all increasing barriers to stable and affordable housing.

It's been estimated that nearly 30-40% of adults experiencing homelessness have a form of cognitive impairment, including intellectual disabilities e.g fetal alcohol syndrome or traumatic brain injuries (Brown et al., 2021).

Individuals experiencing severe or chronic mental health concerns are at a higher rate of experiencing housing insecurity. In the 2024 National Homelessness Survey, 60% of respondents self-reported experiencing mental health concerns.

The relationship between homelessness and mental health can be seen as reciprocal, where people experiencing mental health concerns are more likely to experience homelessness but also those experiencing housing insecurity may have mental health impacts as a result.

Traumatic experiences, including adverse childhood experiences, violence, loss, displacement, neglect, discrimination, or other overwhelming events can impact how someone interacts with services, systems and providers.

For someone experiencing homelessness, past trauma can make it harder to feel safe in unfamiliar places, trust service providers, and navigate complex support systems. Homelessness itself can also be traumatic and may compound the experience someone is already carrying.

Research has shown that violence against women has been commonly self-reported as a leading cause of homelessness for women and families (Baker et al., 2003) (Schiff et al., 2016).

Violence against women occurs in many different ways such as interpersonal violence (childhood abuse or spousal abuse) inclusive of physical violence, sexual violence and psychological violence (Baker et al., 2003). As many as 57% of women in shelters report violence as their immediate cause of homelessness (Baker et al., 2003).

Substance use and addiction is a health and social issue, not a personal failure. It is often closely connected to experiences of trauma, mental health, chronic pain, poverty, and experiences of homelessness.

Studies suggest that utilizing substances tends to be associated with unmet physical and mental health needs (Diduck et al., 2022). At the same time, substance use and addiction can affect housing stability, relationships, health and income.

How People in the Lakeland Become Homeless

Pathways into homelessness are rarely simple. Many clients reported more than one factor contributing to housing loss, including unaffordable rent, financial crisis, family or domestic violence, mental health concerns, substance use, justice involvement, and discharge from systems without stable housing in place. These pathways reflect the reality that homelessness is often created by overlapping pressures rather than one single event.

Support & Accountability Can Exist Together.

Supporting someone does not mean pretending that every behaviour is safe or acceptable.

Shelters and community services still have responsibilities around:

safety
respectful behaviour
boundaries
the wellbeing of staff and other guests
community safety

At the same time, withholding basic support does not remove the underlying housing need.

A safe space or resource like Cold Lake John Howard Society can allow someone to connect with services, replace identification, address legal or health concerns, apply for income, look for housing, reconnect with supports, or simply have enough stability to think about what comes next.