Choices for Youth (CFY) has noticed many trends in recent years – one being the rising housing insecurity and homelessness outside of the St. John’s Metro region. Approximately 50% of the youth that CFY supports come from outside of St. John’s. When we speak with these young people, they tell us they feel like they didn’t have a choice but to move to the city.

​

The issue of rural housing insecurity and homelessness in Canada is a challenging one because very little research exists on the topic. In the absence of good research and data, it is difficult to advocate for funding to address rural and remote homelessness. CFY has been working in partnership with Municipalities NL (MNL) to determine what housing insecurity looks like in rural and remote regions, what are some potential solutions to the issue, and how we can support municipalities in collecting and leveraging data so that they can pursue funding opportunities to address housing insecurity and homelessness in their region.

​

CFY and MNL continue to pursue innovative solutions to address rural housing insecurity and homelessness. CFY plans to hire a researcher in 2023 to work with municipalities that are interested in playing an active role in reducing rates of homelessness, with the goal of digging into their data to ensure they have the information they need to pursue funding opportunities. The findings of that research will be published in a report in the Fall of 2023 that will include a needs assessment for select rural and remote municipalities along with recommendations on how to better support municipalities as they confront issues related to homelessness in their communities.