Employment and Income of People Who Experience Mental Illness and Homelessness in a Large Canadian Sample

Abstract

Objectives:Research suggests that homeless people with mental illness may have difficulty obtaining employment and disability benefits. Our study provides a comprehensive description of sources of income and employment rates in a large Canadian sample.Methods: Participants (n = 2085) from the 5 sites of the At Home/Chez Soi study were asked about their income, employment, and desire for work during the pre-baseline period. The proportion of participants employed, receiving government support, and relying on income from other activities were compared across sites, as were total income and income from different sources. Generalized linear models were used to identify participant characteristics associated with total income.Results: Unemployment ranged from 93% to 98% across 5 sites. The per cent of participants who wanted to work ranged from 61% to 83%. Participants relied predominantly on government assistance, with 29.5% relying exclusively on welfare, and 46.2% receiving disability benefits. Twenty-eight per cent of participants received neither social assistance nor disability income. Among the 2085 participants, 6.8% reported income from panhandling, 2.1% from sex trade, and 1.2% from selling drugs. Regression models showed that income differed significantly among sites and age groups, and was significantly lower for people with psychotic illnesses. Conclusion:These results suggest that homeless people with mental illness are predominantly unemployed, despite expressing a desire to work. In Canada, this group relies predominantly on welfare, but has access to disability benefits and employment insurance. These findings highlight the importance of developing effective interventions to support employment goals and facilitate access to benefits. W W W Emploi et revenu des personnes sans abri souffrant de maladie mentale dans un vaste échantillon canadienObjectifs : La recherche suggère que les personnes sans abri souffrant de maladie mentale peuvent éprouver des difficultés à obtenir un emploi et des prestations d'invalidité. Notre étude offre une description détaillée des sources de revenu et des taux d'emploi dans un vaste échantillon canadien. Méthodes :Les participants (n = 2085) de 5 sites de l'étude At Home/Chez Soi ont été interrogés au sujet de leur revenu, leur emploi, et leur désir de travailler durant la période d'avant-départ de l'étude. La proportion des participants employés, recevant un soutien du gouvernement, et s'appuyant sur le revenu d'autres activités a été comparée entre les sites, tout comme le revenu total et le revenu de différentes sources. Des modèles linéaires généralisés ont servi à identifier les caractéristiques des participants associées au revenu total.Résultats : Le chômage se situait de 93 % à 98 % dans les 5 sites. Le pourcentage de participants qui voulaient travailler allait de 61 % à 83 %. Les participants se fiaient principalement sur l'aide du gouvernement, 29,5 % vivant exclusivement de l'aide sociale, et 46,2 % recevant des prestations d'invalidité. Vingt-huit pour cent...

Clinical guideline for homeless and vulnerably housed people, and people with lived homelessness experience

“…47,55 Financial-empowerment education and individual placement and support had no effect on hourly wages. 47,54 Provision of housing vouchers had no effect on monthly income. 55 The certainty of the evidence was rated low because several trials introduced high risk of detection and performance bias.…”

“…56 Individual placement and support was found to improve employment rates only when there was high fidelity to the model (OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.13 to 5.16). 54 Financial-empowerment education and provision of housing vouchers had no effect on employment outcomes. 47,55 Financial-empowerment education and individual placement and support had no effect on hourly wages.…”

“…We identified 10 trials on income-assistance interventions, including rental assistance, [47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] financial empowerment, 47 social enterprise interventions, 48 individual placement and support, 48,54 and compensated work therapy. 52 Our systematic review showed the benefit that income-assistance interventions have on housing stability (Gary Bloch, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., and Vanessa Brcic, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC: unpublished data, 2020).…”

PROTOCOL: A comprehensive review of prioritized interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of persons with lived experience of homelessness

“…Direct income assistance can be categorized depending on the regularity of the intervention (i.e., provision of income support on a regular or irregular basis). Some examples include government assistance (i.e., income supplement program (Brownell et al, 2016), charity donation or panhandling (Poremski, Distasio, Hwang, & Latimer, 2015), provision of cheques, tax-benefits or cash transfers. Cash transfers are a form of financial aid offered on a conditional or unconditional basis (Lagarde, Haines, & Palmer, 2009).…”

Costs of services for homeless people with mental illness in 5 Canadian cities: a large prospective follow-up study

“…9 We subtracted from the costs attributed to each participant both casual and regular employment income. Reported income from illegal activities (e.g., sex work, drug dealing) was marginal on average, 24 and we did not take it into account in our analysis. However, we included income from undeclared casual work, including busking.…”