Youth are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Although there has been much research on how youth become homeless and survive on the streets, we know very little about their pathways off the street and the many challenges that present during this process.
This book relates the lived experiences of homeless youth as they negotiate the individual, sociocultural, and economic tensions of transitioning out of homeless and street contexts and cultures. Through interviews the authors gained privileged entry into the lives of youth in Toronto and Halifax over a year-long period.
Through rich qualitative prose, quantitative elaboration, and comic-book narratives, participants spoke of courage, fortitude, strength, adversity, and at times, simple bad luck. Ultimately this became a story of fragility, complexity, living “on the edge,” and the (re)-building of identity.

Jean Hughes’ research and publications concentrate on marginalized populations of children and youth with a focus on mental health issues. Her research is interdisciplinary, community-based, and participatory in nature. It includes expertise from a range of disciplines and sectors, and integrates diverse research designs to enable a holistic exploration of phenomena.

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Jeff Karabanow is a professor of social work at Dalhousie University and has worked with homeless youth in Toronto, Montreal and Guatemala. He is the author of Being Young and Homeless (2004) and co-author of Leaving the Streets (2010). Dr. Karabanow co-coordinates Halifax’s Out of The Cold Emergency Shelter and is the co-director of the Dalhousie School of Social Work Community Clinic.

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Sean Kidd is a clinical psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. The focus of his career has been marginality and service enhancement for the often overlapping populations of homeless youth and individuals with severe mental illness.

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Tyler Frederick is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. His research focuses on how homeless and street-involved young people navigate homelessness, with a particular focus on relationships and issues of identity.

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