A national study of Indigenous youth homelessness in Canada

This study was designed to address the need for more detailed information about Indigenous homeless youth, a group overrepresented in the homeless population, using a national-level data set. The study used a cross-sectional, self-report survey design. Surveys were used to gather demographic, mental health, and quality of life data from a sample of 1103 Canadian youth accessing homeless services with data collected in 2015. This article focused on the 332 Indigenous respondents, using both comparisons with non-Indigenous youth and within-group comparisons across key domains. These findings suggested greater mental health and addiction challenges among Indigenous homeless youth compared with non-Indigenous respondents as well as evidence of a more problematic role of child protection. Within-group comparisons suggested that female and sexual and gender minority youth are particularly at risk among Indigenous youth with some added child protection and justice implications for reserve-raised youth. Child protection history and street-victimization were particularly relevant to the current distress levels. Overall, such findings reinforce calls for Indigenous-specific interventions for these populations—including policy-driven prevention initiatives to address the legacy of colonization. •Indigenous homeless youth are at greater risk than non-Indigenous homeless youth.•Victimization and distress are particularly high among female and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queen, two spirit youth.•Child protection involvement is strongly associated with risk in this population.•Policy imperatives include child protection policy and culture-specific intervention.