Homeless Canadians are a social pariah. They are often ignored by the general public, and institutional change is held back by prejudiced attitudes which cast homeless Canadians as the architects of their own misfortune. This is not the case. Homelessness is the result of a series of systemic failures.  

“The loneliness that people who are experiencing homelessness face is not because of them, it’s because of us,” says Wilfred Laurier University criminology professor, Erin Dej. 

Dej says that ignoring homeless Canadians has a dehumanizing effect on them. The small everyday acts of dehumanization are part of a much larger social stigma against homeless Canadians. This stigma makes it even harder for them to form relationships with the larger community. As a result, homeless people are particularly vulnerable to loneliness. 

One study based out of the United States which conducted 40 interviews of homeless panhandlers found that their subjects frequently stressed the value of acknowledgment from a passerby.  

Studying loneliness in homeless people is difficult, partially because loneliness does not have a clinical definition. However, one international study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine shows that homeless people experience loneliness at a reported rate of 39.6 per cent. 

Homeless people also age faster than housed people. Homeless people aged 50 to 60 experienced similar amounts of cognitive decline and deteriorating physical health as housed people in their 70s and 80s. The report was very specific in its recommendations. 

“Clinicians and policymakers concerned with improving outcomes in older adults with experiences of homelessness should address loneliness, because it is a source of distress and may increase the experience of other forms of symptomatology,” it reads.  

Homeless people are often stigmatized by intersecting issues. One of them of course is poverty. The other is mental health. According to the Homeless Hub, 30-35 per cent of those experiencing homelessness have mental illnesses.  

One of the reasons the mentally ill are overrepresented amongst the homeless is because people with mental health disorders are often released from hospitals without adequate support set up for them. As a result, they often go through a period of homelessness.  

One study found that as many as 520,700 Canadians with mental illnesses were inadequately housed. Another 119,800 were homeless.  

Providing accessible housing to people with debilitating mental health disorders can go a long way to supporting both the homeless and the mentally ill.  

“I have six diagnoses of mental illness,” says Daniel, who used to live on the streets of St. Catherines Ontario. Daniel says he’s currently living in a home with people experiencing similar issues. Most of them are seniors and have mobility issues.  

“I can do chores I can get up and walk around and they're stuck in a wheelchair, so I go out and do things for them,” he says.  

Daniel says he grew up across the border in the United States but that he is from Six Nations. Indigenous Canadians make up anywhere from 20-50 per cent of the total urban homeless population. The stats are not wholly reliable though. Homeless Hub claims that some reports of homelessness amongst Indigenous populations range from 11-96 per cent.  

It varies dramatically from city to city, but Indigenous Canadians are consistently over-represented in urban centers. In Toronto, for example, they make up 15 per cent of the homeless population despite only being 0.5 per cent of the total population.  

Some people experiencing homelessness do in fact form relationships with other members of the homeless community, but some are reluctant to form those relationships.  

“I think it depends on the person. I think there are some people who really do build community within the homelessness sector,” said Dej.  

There are many in the homeless community who maintain relationships with children or other family members outside the community, and there are others who form a community amongst others experiencing homelessness. Others, however, feel ashamed by their housing status and will attempt to distance themselves from other people struggling with housing.  

“They don't want to either become entrenched or even to be seen as becoming entrenched in homelessness,” says Dej.  

The immense shame that comes with being homeless can lead many to withdraw from their families. However, homeless youth are overwhelmingly without shelter because of personal conflicts with their families.  

In Toronto alone there are nearly 2000 youth going to sleep every night without proper shelter. 78 per cent of these youth are racialized. 26 per cent of them are LGBTQ+. Across Canada, 20 per cent of the homeless are aged between 13 and 24, and 40 per cent of them will first experience homelessness before the age of 16. 

Homelessness causes untoward stress on those experiencing it, and it overwhelmingly affects some of the most vulnerable people in our society. The shame and humiliation collectively inflicted upon them increases their risk of loneliness and normalizes homelessness as a condition of our society. Providing stable shelter to the 235,000 Canadians who may experience homelessness in a year can dramatically help to reduce the most alarming outcomes of prolonged loneliness and social isolation. Nobody needs to be treated like a pariah.