Homelessness, Gender and Subsistence: The Case of Toronto Street Youth

Abstract

Abstract Research on employment segregation and women's lower earnings has predominantly focused on labour‐market participants. Marginal groups such as the homeless have therefore been excluded from theory and research on work‐related gender segregation. In order to fill this void, this paper explores how income creation among homeless youth from Toronto, Canada varies according to gender. Based on questionnaire and interview data our results show that, in relative terms, males are involved in the more financially lucrative sectors of the street economy. We frame the analysis of our findings in terms of a broader discussion of how homelessness is gendered within the spaces and places homeless youth occupy. Notes Correspondence to: Bill O'Grady, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W2. Email: [e-mail]. This research was conducted on behalf of the Shout Clinic (Central Toronto Community Health Centres), a community health centre for homeless youth in Toronto, and was funded by The City of Toronto, Human Resources and Development Canada, and Shout Clinic. Please note that the ordereing of authors alternates with each article published from this project. The authors are also greatful for comments made by Myrna Dawson on an earlier draft of this paper. For our purposes, homeless youth (also referred to as street youth) include: '… young people up to the age of 24 who are absolutely, periodically or temporarily without shelter, as well as those who are at substantial risk of being in the street in the immediate future' (Daly Citation1996, p. 24). In Toronto, young people under the age of 18 who are not 'legally emancipated' are not eligible to receive welfare benefits unless they are enrolled in school full time and with the permission of their parents. When data were collected for this project squeegee cleaning was legal in Ontario. As of 31 January 2000, the Ontario Safe Streets Act outlawed squeegee cleaning and 'aggressive' panhandling. These figures represent self‐reported income and their accuracy cannot therefore be verified. It should also be noted that the number of respondents who answered this question was rather low. The mean calculated for the two females was $350.00. For instance, Shout Clinic (a community health centre for street youth in Toronto) reports consistently that over one‐half of their visits are by young women, in spite of the fact that women make up only one‐third of the street youth population. At the time of this survey, there were 11 shelters for youth in Toronto. Two were exclusively for females, one for males, and the rest were co‐ed. By 'absolute homeless' we are referring to sleeping in spaces that are unfit for human habitation (e.g. rooftops, doorways, parks and under bridges). 'Relative homelessness' refers to environments such as short term rentals and temporarily staying with friends.