| 2S/LGBTQ+ youth substance use and pathways to homelessness: A photovoice study. University of British Columbia | Publication | 2024-11-01 | "Trevor Goodyear", "Emily Jenkins", "JL Oliffe", Danya Fast, "Hannah Kia", "Rod Knight" |
| Pathways into and Experiences of Housing Insecurity for Women and Gender Diverse Youth in Vancouver, Canada. Manuscript in progress, will be submitted to the International Journal of Homelessness | Publication | 2025-02-19 | Melissa Perri, Sophie McKenzie |
| 'I'm just trying to stay': Experiences of temporal uncertainty in modular and supportive housing among young people who use drugs in VancouverOver the past decades the city of Vancouver has attempted to address a lack of affordable housing for it most marginalized citizens, including young people who use drugs (YPWUD), by expanding access to temporary modular and supportive housing. These projects are guided by a Housing First philosophy that recognizes housing as a key social determinant of health. In this commentary, we draw attention to how, rather than providing a clear pathway to greater stability, modular and supportive housing have become part of broader “institutional circuits” that reinforce residential transience and what we call “temporal uncertainty.” We use this term to describe a painful and frustrating inability to move though time in desired ways despite the promise of greater stability that housing is supposed to engender. Rather than allowing young people to establish more predictable day-to-day rhythms and routines and enact the futures they imagine for themselves, residing in modular and supportive housing environments often generates significant instability and uncertainty. We believe that Housing First interventions have significant potential to reduce harms and improve outcomes for YPWUD. However, chronic temporal uncertainty must be addressed, including through the creation of more permanent, desirable social housing, extending supports to young people beyond tenancies, and working with them to develop timelines and plans for what happens next British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Publication | 2022-12-01 | Daniel Manson, Thomas Kerr, Danya Fast |
| Intersecting transitions among 2S/LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness: A scoping review. University of British Columbia | Publication | 2024-01-01 | "Trevor Goodyear", "Loulou Chayama", "JL Oliffe", "Hannah Kia", Danya Fast, "Caroline Mniszak", "Rod Knight", "Emily Jenkins" |
| Making Homes in Un-Homelike Places among Young People in Vancouver: Implications for Homelessness PreventionThis article explores the experiences of young people navigating an evolving system of housing and homelessness services in Vancouver, Canada. Despite recent shifts toward Housing First policies and calls for prevention-oriented initiatives, many young people continue to rely on temporary emergency accommodations. Amid a surge in youth homelessness and unstable housing in Vancouver, our study examines young people’s “homing” strategies across time and place and temporary and more permanent living environments. We draw from an ongoing ethnographic study that began in 2021 and has involved over 70 interviews and 100 h of fieldwork with 54 young people aged 19 to 29. Our findings emphasize that feeling at home extends beyond having a roof over one’s head for an extended period of time. A focus on homing strategies—that is, the day-to-day practices, routines, and forms of sociality that generate a sense of stability and care even in un-homelike places—highlights how young people can be better supported in making themselves at home in the places where they live, potentially preventing returns to street-based homelessness. This study contributes insights to youth homelessness prevention policies, urging a strengths-based approach that aligns with young people’s needs, priorities, and desires for homemaking. British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Publication | 2024-11-08 | Daniel Manson, Danya Fast |
| Navigating and negotiating “outness” among 2S/LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness. University of British Columbia | Publication | 2024-09-01 | "Trevor Goodyear", "Rod Knight", Danya Fast, "JL Oliffe", "Mazal Jensen", "Hannah Kia", "Emily Jenkins" |
| “They are always focusing on the person who is doing the worst”: Exploring how crisis shapes young people's pathways in and out of supportive housing in Vancouver, CanadaHousing instability, homelessness, and mental health among young people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada, and elsewhere have increasingly been framed through a language of crisis. The declaration of overlapping housing, mental health, and addictions crises in our own setting has prompted a wide range of interventions, including the rapid expansion of supportive housing programs that include integrated housing-based substance use and mental health care. There is growing evidence demonstrating that these models are effective at stabilizing people who are experiencing protracted housing instability, mental health, and substance use related health concerns. We recount stories of three young people who have lived in supportive housing to argue that achieving the relative stability afforded by these interventions is partially contingent on maintaining a delicate balance between being in a state of “too much” or “too little” in crisis. These stories demonstrate two key findings. First, being in crisis has made these young people visible to housing, substance use, and mental health programs that may not otherwise be available to them. Secondly, entering periods of protracted or intense mental health crisis may reopen pathways into unstable housing and homelessness by activating undesirable institutional responses that conflict with young people's desire for self-determination in relation to their care. This study underscores that supportive housing should be part of a broader youth focused system of housing and care that seeks to address the needs of young people before they enter states of crisis. British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Publication | 2023-08-01 | Daniel Manson, Danya Fast |
| Vancouver Needs a Real Plan for Homeless YouthThis is an opinion editorial written in collaboration with our team's Youth Health Advisory Council--a diverse group of young people with lived and living experience of substance use, mental health, unstable housing, and homelessness. It also includes the perspectives of young people who attended a two-day youth housing summit to discuss their challenges navigating unstable housing in Vancouver. The article argues that efforts to address youth homelessness are urgently needed, and the City of Vancouver needs to create a tangible action plan for addressing youth homelessness and unstable housing. Currently the Housing Vancouver strategy (the city’s 10-year housing plan) acknowledges that youth are at an increased risk of homelessness. But it contains no measures or housing targets earmarked specifically for youth. The City of Vancouver needs to create a tangible action plan for addressing youth homelessness and unstable housing. British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Publication | 2023-12-11 | Daniel Manson, Danya Fast |
| Youth Harm Reduction University of British Columbia | Presentation | 2022-06-16 | Danya Fast |
| Modular HousingCKNW, The Jas Johal Show. University of British Columbia | Press | 2023-12-21 | Danya Fast |
| Youth Homelessness Prevention: Are We Really Making a Difference. University of British Columbia | Presentation | 2025-02-24 | "T Thulien", "E Dej", "J Malenfant", Danya Fast, "A Nelson" |
| Crackdown Podcast episode with Mazal JensenFeaturing the story of Mazal Jensen, a member of the YHAC and organizer of the Housing is a Home Summit. Currently in production and will be released soon. University of British Columbia | Press | 2025-02-19 | "Mazal Jensen", Danya Fast, "Garth Mullins", Sam Fenn, "Alex de Boer", "Lisa Hale" |
| Housing is Healthcare and Harm ReductionVirtual presentation to the Making the Shift Board of Directors. University of British Columbia | Presentation | 2023-03-28 | Danya Fast |
| The necropolitics of homelessness in the age of COVID-19 Panel organizer University of British Columbia | Presentation | 2021-11-19 | Danya Fast |
| Intersecting transitions among 2S/LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness: A scoping review. University of British Columbia | Presentation | 2023-11-17 | "Trevor Goodyear", "Loulou Chayama", "JL Oliffe", "Hannah Kia", Danya Fast, "Caroline Mniszak", "Rod Knight", "Emily Jenkins" |
| “I’m trying to just stay": Subsidized housing and temporal uncertainty among young people during an overdose emergency in Vancouver British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Presentation | 2021-05-13 | Daniel Manson, "Madison Thulien", "Reith Charlesworth", Danya Fast, "At-Risk Youth Study (ARYS) Youth Advisory Council" |
| Between homelessness and care (and back again): Navigating complex institutional trajectories among young people who use drugs in Greater Vancouver University of British Columbia, British Columbia Centre on Substance Use | Publication | 2025-02-26 | Danya Fast, Daniel Manson, Sophie McKenzie |
| A researcher chronicled the lives of Vancouver’s homeless youth. Then fentanyl arrived.CBC News Vancouver University of British Columbia | Press | 2024-03-26 | Danya Fast |
| A researcher followed 20 young people living on Vancouver streets. Half of them died. Vancouver Sun University of British Columbia | Press | 2024-03-25 | Danya Fast |
| Critics say modular homes for B.C.’s unhoused can be a problemThe Province University of British Columbia | Press | 2022-12-15 | Danya Fast |
| Critics say modular homes for B.C.’s unhoused can be a problem. Front page of the Vancouver Sun University of British Columbia | Press | 2022-02-15 | Danya Fast |
| Modular and Supportive Housing for YouthOn the Island, CBC Victoria. University of British Columbia | Press | 2023-03-14 | Danya Fast |
| Vancouver Needs a Real Plan for Homeless Youth British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Press | 2023-12-11 | Daniel Manson, "Shane Douglas", "Mazal Jensen", "Trevor Goodyear", "Cameron Eekhoudt", Sophie McKenzie, Christian Barborini, Danya Fast |
| Policy Brief: Housing is a Home Summit Findings. Youth Emergency Shelter Feedback. Policy Brief: Housing is a Home Summit Findings. Youth Emergency Shelter Feedback. Ministry of Child and Family Development. 2024. University of British Columbia, British Columbia Centre on Substance Use | Publication | 2024-02-01 | Danya Fast, Daniel Manson |
| Policy Brief: Recognizing the Role of Integrated Youth Services in Addressing Youth Homelessness. Policy Brief: Recognizing the Role of Integrated Youth Services in Addressing Youth Homelessness. Foundry British Columbia. 2024. https://foundrybc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Foundry-Policy-Brief-Youth-Homelessness-English.pdf University of British Columbia, British Columbia Centre on Substance Use | Publication | 2025-02-19 | Danya Fast, Daniel Manson, "Foundry BC" |
| Research brief: Youth voices on the toxic drug crisis and substance use treatment. Research brief: Youth voices on the toxic drug crisis and substance use treatment. Government of Canada, House of Commons Canada, Standing Committee on Health, for their study on the “Opioid epidemic and toxic drug crisis in Canada.” 2024. British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, University of British Columbia | Publication | 2024-07-10 | Daniel Manson, Danya Fast |
| Youth Housing and HomelessnessReport on youth housing and homelessness which synthesizes the results of the current study with the PhD work of Dr. Trevor Goodyear on 2S/LGBTQ+ youth homelessness. University of British Columbia | Publication | 2025-02-19 | Danya Fast, "Trevor Goodyear" |
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