HOMELESSNESS RESPONSE TOOLKIT
UNDERSTANDING HOMELESSNESS
Learn what homelessness is, who it affects, the principles of harm reduction, and why language matters. Explore common misconceptions and the stories behind them.
Individuals experiencing homelessness are people first.
They are navigating a complex, painful reality, not just problems to be solved.
Homelessness is rooted in systemic issues: affordable housing shortages, gaps in mental health services, low-wage or unstable employment, and insufficient social services—not simply poor choices or personal failings.
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According to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, homelessness includes a range of housing and shelter circumstances:
Unsheltered: living on the streets on in a place not meant for human habitation
Emergency Sheltered: staying in overnight shelters or shelters for people impacted by family violence
Provisionally Accommodated: ‘hidden homelessness’, includes people who are couch surfing or without security of tenure
At Risk of Homelessness: not homeless but in a precarious economic and/or housing situation
Even those who are housed can face vulnerability similar to unsheltered, emergency sheltered, or provisionally accommodated individuals. Most people experience homelessness as a fluid state that is often changing. Recognizing this broader spectrum helps us understand and respond effectively.
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Anyone can experience homelessness, and the majority of us are closer to homelessness than we are to extreme wealth. Homelessness does not discriminate. However, there are some groups of people who are disproportionately represented in the homeless population. This includes our indigenous community members, black and racialized people, and youth exiting or who have been connected government care. Seniors are the fastest growing group of people experiencing homelessness.
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Harm reduction is an evidence-based (supported by research and studies), client-centred, public health approach to reducing harms related to addiction and substance use. The primary goal is to save lives and protect the health of people who use drugs and their communities. Other goals include: decreasing the stigma of addiction and drug use, increasing education on safer substance use, encouraging protected sex, and connecting people who use drugs with supports when they voice readiness. It recognizes that there will always be people who use drugs including some who are unwilling or unable to stop. Harm reduction in practice requires individualized supports to help each individual meet their goals.
We engage in harm reduction in our daily lives and may not realize it. Wearing a helmet when riding a bike, wearing a seatbelt in a car, and looking before crossing the street are all examples of harm reduction. Each of those actions minimize a risk. Common examples of harm reduction for drug and substance use include: using a nicotine patch instead of smoking, consuming water while drinking alcohol, housing first programs, using substances in safe environments with trusted people, and needle exchange programs.
Harm reduction services don’t require people to stop or abstain from using substances unless that is their goal. Instead, focus is placed on making positive changes in a way that meets the needs of the individual. Choice is given to as to how someone wants to minimize harm to themselves without judgement or coercion. At the same time, harm reduction promotes opportunities to enhance skills and knowledge for living safer and healthier lives.
WHAT WE SAY MATTERS:
Language shapes perceptions, reinforces stereotypes, and contributes to stigma. The words we choose influence our own attitudes and those of others, and using humanizing language helps us see people experiencing homelessness as individuals deserving respect and support.
Using respectful language demonstrates care for vulnerable community members and helps educate the wider community.
STIGMATIZING LANGUAGE & ALTERNATIVES
| INSTEAD OF: | USE: |
|---|---|
| homeless, bum, hobo | person experiencing homelessness |
| the homeless | unhoused, unsheltered |
| junkie, addict, druggie | person who uses substances |
| criminal | person who has been criminalized |
| clean | sober |
| welfare | person receiving income assistance |
| beggar | person who is panhandling |
URBAN, SUBURBAN, AND RURAL HOMELESSNESS
Our region is made up of urban, suburban, and rural communities. Each community has residents experiencing homeless, but those experiences will look and feel different depending on where the person is. Let’s look at homelessness in urban, suburban, and rural communities.
URBAN
HOMELESSNESS
Unsheltered urban homelessness is what most people think of when imagining homelessness. This is because the concentration of people experiencing homelessness in urban areas is greater and unsheltered homelessness is more obvious. You can see folks sleeping on park benches or in the doorways of buildings. In urban communities people experiencing homelessness can connect most easily to social and community supports. In the Fundy Region, for example, the only emergency shelters are in the City of Saint John. That is also where community services offering supports to individuals experiencing homelessness are located. The number of people who are provisionally accommodated or at risk of homelessness is harder to know because of the hidden nature of their experiences.
SUBURBAN
HOMELESSNESS
Homelessness in suburban communities is often hidden from the public eye. Residents experiencing homelessness usually sleep in their vehicle, stay on a couch at a friend or family member’s home, or rent rooms in a motel/hotel instead sleeping on the street.
Challenges of suburban homelessness include: communities growing at faster rates than the construction of new and/or appropriate housing, a lack of affordable housing - especially rentals due to high rates of home ownership, and transportation barriers. With the majority of services concentrated in urban centres, it’s harder for people in suburban communities to get the support they need.
Homelessness prevention may be the most important tool for suburban communities to avoiding homelessness crises.
RURAL
HOMELESSNESS
The appeal of living in a rural community has a lot to do that ‘small town feel’ where people know and support one another. The challenge is that when someone is experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness others know and might judge judge. Fewer services exist in small and rural communities so, people rely heavily on personal networks for support, keeping homelessness hidden. People often couch surf with friends or family or stay on someone’s property in structures like a shed or camper. Transportation can be a barrier for connecting to services in nearby urban communities leaving people ‘stuck’ and unable to access support.
Prevention is key to combatting homelessness, and this is most true in rural settings where an entrance into homelessness is rarely able to be supported in the community.
COMMON BELIEFS & MISCONCEPTIONS
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People experiencing homelessness do tend to use drugs and other substances at a higher frequency than housed community members; however, the majority are not using substances regularly.
Research shows that substance use is often a result of homelessness not a cause and that use increases the longer someone experiences homelessness because it is often used as a coping strategy to deal with the stresses and challenges of their daily lives.
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People experiencing homelessness spend most of their time trying to improve their lives, this includes looking for work. However, finding a job while homeless is very hard as there is a lot of stigma a person faces while looking for working without an address. A lack of reliable communication like a phone or internet access makes it hard to manage a schedule for interviews or work itself. When a person is experiencing homelessness they will often not have clean or professional clothing for an interview or access to a place to shower.
People experiencing homelessness do have jobs, however, their income is not sufficient to get them into the rental market. Once some is unhoused, it is very expensive to become housed again as affordability is a barrier.
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There is no evidence that supports this idea. Many people remain unhoused because they are unable to meet the expectations of some housing programs requiring things like sobriety. Housing First programs, which offer housing without strings attached, also help debunk this theory. When people are given an opportunity to live in a place that is safe, clean, and theirs they generally accept it and maintain it successfully with supports. Many individuals experiencing homelessness do not want to sleep in shelters because of a lack of privacy leading to feelings of insecurity.
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It is true that there is a greater likelihood that a person experiencing homelessness has interacted with the criminal justice system. However, that is largely because a lot of their daily survival activities are criminalized. The majority of crimes involve theft of necessities like food, clothing, water, theft of items that can easily be sold, or things like loitering and trespassing. In fact, people experiencing homelessness are more likely to be victims of violent crimes than perpetrators.
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People experiencing homelessness have a variety of levels of education, many have post-secondary education. In fact, according to the 2024 Point In Time Count conducted in Saint John, 24% of individuals experiencing homelessness had completed or partial post-secondary education, 4% had graduate level education, and 37% had completed high school. Large debts can contribute to housing insecurity and for people who have completed some or all of a post-secondary education but are not in jobs high enough to cover their debts and living expenses, they are at an increased risk of becoming homeless.
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Every person makes mistakes and choices that they realize may not have been right, however, these rarely lead to homelessness. Homelessness is less likely to be the result of a bad decision or a series of bad decisions and more likely to be a result of things outside of their control. Common reasons people become homeless are a lack of sufficient income, job loss, rising costs of housing, and fleeing domestic violence.
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There is significant work happening across the Fundy Region to address and reduce issues related to homelessness, including its prevention. We have a network of strong, community-based service providers working directly with people experiencing homelessness, government, and landlords to help people get housed and stay housed.
For those struggling to maintain a home there are preventative measures and resources to with rent payments, energy bills, and food insecurity. In Saint John, the Housing For All Strategy has created Green Zones with structures for people experiencing homelessness to move into where they can stay dry and warm and have access to bathrooms.
There are emergency shelters in the city with over 150 beds for people who are unhoused to have a warm, dry place to sleep. Every community is working hard to increase the amount of affordable housing for its community members.
