Carleton students and Ottawa community members are working towards creating the first-ever bursary for homeless youth at the university.
Cora MacDonald, a masters of sociology student at Carleton, is part of a team of people at Carleton University creating a new bursary to help homeless youth in Ottawa get off the streets and into university. The bursary, titled Chicken and Boots, is named to honour two homeless youth in Ottawa who recently passed away.
According to the online funding page for the bursary, Chicken and Boots will cover housing accommodations on or off campus, tuition, and living expenses for one student each year at Carleton.
“When we say a homeless person, the picture that pops into most people’s heads, and is … frequently in the media and on TV, is an older white male sleeping on the street,” said MacDonald, who is also a project manager for A Way Home Ottawa, an advocacy group campaigning to end youth homelessness.
But according to MacDonald, there were more than 1,200 youths living on the streets in Ottawa in 2018. “And we know that the number is not representative of probably the actual number,” she said.
The diversity of resources the bursary offers is unique, according to Stu Pitts, a youth member of A Way Home Ottawa who has previously experienced homelessness himself.
“The scholarship is to buy not only the class programming and books and stuff like that, but (also) housing which is not included in a lot of scholarships and it’s a major obstacle to try to go to school,” Pitts said.
However, only $9,685 has been raised so far as of December 2019. MacDonald said $150,000 is needed in order for the project to “be a real thing” and become an annual bursary.
More than money
Every day, thousands of people across Canada experience homelessness. The Canadian Observatory’s research on homelessness in Canada from 2016 estimates on any given night, 35,000 people across Canada are homeless. Data from 2017 showed in Ottawa there are about 7,530 families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
“When you’re on the streets, the immediate survival is so pressing that you lose a lot of your hopes and dreams in the process and you leave them literally on the curbside,” Pitts said.
Chronic homelessness increased by 21 per cent between 2014 and 2017, according to a report the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa (ATEHO), a coalition of community-based services. The report also mentions shelter use by youth decreased by 13 per cent. However, the average length of shelter stay has increased by seven per cent.
“When you’re on the streets, the immediate survival is so pressing that you lose a lot of your hopes and dreams in the process and you leave them literally on the curbside.” –
Stu Pitts, A Way Home Ottawa member
“I was couchsurfing for a year and then I was in a transitional living place for another year where you’re surrounded by guys that aren’t really well and it’s hard to focus on these sort of studies,” said Leif Harris, a first-year psychology student at Carleton who previously experienced homelessness.
“A lot of the guys I lived with, it was mostly 40-year-olds and up with mental health issues and addictions,” Harris said. “It’s very difficult to focus on anything when you’re dealing with a lot of issues.”
Barriers
There are many barriers to homeless youth attending school and getting a degree. One of which is the stigma attached to homelessness.
“It’s embarrassing, like having to go to school or work or something,” Pitts said. “It’s just difficult socially. If you are dirty and smell you feel very othered and even if you act like you’re not ashamed of it like you feel awkward.”
For Harris, the stigma attached to homelessness comes from people not understanding the situation of a homeless person.
“A lot of things that people would say: ‘get a job,’ ‘Why don’t you do this?’ ‘Why don’t you?’ It’s not really that easy,” he said. “In my experience, a lot of people that I’ve met at Carleton don’t recognize how big of an issue or how it may affect different individuals.”
The stigma attached to homelessness can prevent youth from seeking help.
“We don’t want people to know that we’re homeless because we don’t want to face that stigma,” Pitts said. “We don’t want to consider ourselves homeless because we don’t want to have that stigma put on us. We don’t want to be treated like good for nothing bums, just because we don’t have a place to sleep.”
Access to education is another barrier which makes this bursary necessary, MacDonald said.
“There aren’t many resources for homeless youth in order to get an education or to learn anything about academia, of any sort,” Harris said.
“I know from my own experience when I was homeless, I wanted to go to Carleton for a long time, but I never had the funds or resources available to me, including housing, which was a huge downside,” he added.
“I think it just takes those pressures off to help support people to do what they’re at school for. And, we wish we could extend it to the whole student population,” MacDonald said. “But the truth is folks, and young people, who … have experiences of homelessness or are currently homeless, are already less likely to even get to enrolling.”
“A lot of things that people would say: ‘get a job,’ ‘Why don’t you do this?’ ‘Why don’t you?’ It’s not really that easy,” he said. “In my experience, a lot of people that I’ve met at Carleton don’t recognize how big of an issue or how it may affect different individuals.” –
Leif Harris, first-year psychology student
Getting Housing
Getting affordable housing through the city takes a long time. The current waitlist for affordable housing in Ottawa is 10,597 according to 2017 data from the Canadian Observatory for Homelessness.
“Affordable Housing is very difficult to come by, especially when you’re on OW (Ontario Works). So, it’s impossible, really, unless you have a subsidy,” said Harris.
“If you’re a single male like Leif, it could be up to nine years, like on the housing waitlist,” Pitts said. “And it all depends on how many people move out, which, like, sometimes you’re just waiting for people to die.”
MacDonald describes the process as “a lottery.”
“We need to start thinking of (the) full package and sending people out towards the path of opportunity and where they want to be, and university is a ticket for some people 
to get there,” she said.
Harris was able to get a housing subsidy from the city which helped him to stabilize himself.
“When I finally got my subsidy from the city, when I got myself to the city, I was very thankful and it helped me get grounded. I got a job after a couple (of) weeks of getting a new place. It’s just, ‘Housing First’ priority is huge,” Harris said.
“Finding work was easy when I had residence, like a place that was mine. My confidence boosted up, my self-esteem boosted up, my motivation and aspirations and inspiration boosted up,” he added.
MacDonald said a bursary that covers all aspects of homelessness is required in place of one-time single solutions.
“How can we start lowering those barriers for everybody when it comes to housing?” she said. “It’s making a point of like, everything has to be all-inclusive and happy for the four years because stability requires consistent and non-interrupted supports.”
For Harris, this bursary can give a future to homeless youth.
“It will give a lot of hope to some individuals that don’t have it in the first place because I know when you’re homeless, you lose a lot of confidence, a lot of self-esteem,” he said.
“And if this bursary was available, …you give people a chance at a rewarding, potentially healthier future.”
Feature image by Paloma Callo.
