Introduction
SECONDARY, DYSFUNCTION
Research on social and structural inequities that cause and perpetuate youth homelessness in high-income countries typically highlights factors such as familial poverty and dysfunction, mental health challenges, incomplete secondary education, inadequate employment, and discrimination based on race, disability, gender non-conformity, and sexual orientation (Abramovich, The focus of this paper is on social and economic inclusion for young people living in Canada who have experienced homelessness. We utilized a social determinants of health framing to capture both the material and relational nature of social and economic inclusion/exclusion (Popay et al., There is a small but growing body of literature from longitudinal studies conducted in high-income countries that highlights how underprepared most young people are once they leave homelessness (Kidd et al., A stark example of this precarious existence was highlighted in a pan-Canadian survey of 1103 youth accessing services for youth experiencing homelessness, which revealed that 76% reported at least two failed attempts to exit homelessness (Gaetz et al., Understandably, one might identify the provision of stable housing as being the primary solution to assist with transitions out of homelessness; indeed, a common misconception about youth homelessness—sometimes perpetuated by well-intentioned housing advocates—is that housing in and of itself will help youth achieve socioeconomic inclusion. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. For example, in the aforementioned CHS, Uppal (Prior to initiating the intervention discussed in this paper, some of the authors were involved in a 6-week, 6-session mixed method feasibility study designed to bolster identity capital—purpose, control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem (Côté, The aforementioned study alongside the lead author’s 10-month critical ethnographic study on socioeconomic inclusion with youth exiting homelessness (Thulien et al., 