Word on the street

Preliminary results from the 2013 Street Needs Assessment (SNA), which provides information and statistics on shelters, the homeless and the underhoused in the city of Toronto, has asked specifically about respondents’ sexual and gender identity for the first time ever.

“Nearly 20 percent of homeless youth identify as a part of the LGBQT community, more than twice the rate for all age groups,” the study says, with a higher percentage of LGBT homeless females specifically.

Other troubling statistics show that the share of seniors who are homeless has nearly doubled since 2009 and that nearly one third of the outdoor homeless population identifies as aboriginal, which is up from 2009 as well.