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Health System Access for Precariously Housed Youth: A Participatory Youth Research Project

This article builds from young people’s experiences navigating health system organizations to identify concrete institutional and policy processes that pose problems for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness, as well as those that show promise in terms of health promotion. Our participatory youth research team explored homeless youth’s health-seeking practices, the specific barriers they face, and relations between their health-seeking efforts and their homelessness. Youth and adult co-researchers interviewed 38 individual youth (aged 16–29) who completed 64 qualitative institutional history interviews. Their accounts illuminate a systemic lack of capacity to address the mental health needs of homeless youth. Unable to secure access to timely, sufficient, and suitable programs and services, youth navigate patchwork of crisis and emergency supports that undermine their autonomy, their health, and their housing stability. Finally, youth without stable housing—particularly those who are Trans* and non-binary youth and/or who use drugs—report discrimination in health care settings. Our results suggest that access to timely, appropriate, de-stigmatizing, and consistent (mental) health services is one way to prevent youth homelessness.