A/HRC/54/30 also pay due regard to the risk of contemporary forms of slavery among children in street situations. IV. Profiles of person experiencing homelessness and key causes of homelessness 25. The vulnerabilities surrounding homelessness are extremely similar, if not the same, as those of contemporary forms of slavery. There is no doubt that those who face the risk of becoming homeless are simultaneously vulnerable to labour or sexual exploitation, and vice versa. This becomes apparent in looking at the major causes of homelessness and the profiles of those who are at a heightened risk of becoming homeless. It has been estimated that 150 million people globally are homeless. 14 If one adopts a broader notion of homelessness, that number will be much higher. 26. Anyone can be at risk of being homeless, for many reasons, but there are particularly vulnerable groups, and chief among them are children and young people. While structural (e.g. poverty, inequality, discrimination, lack of affordable housing, evictions, displacement, migration and destruction of homes), as well as personal (e.g. unemployment, substance abuse, physical and intellectual disabilities), causes can result in homelessness for anyone, there are specific factors relevant to children and young people. For example, a lack of access to education, and being subjected to physical and mental abuse, neglect and abandonment and family disintegration may push children and young people into street situations.15 These are evident, for example, among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex young people, many of whom end up on the streets because they are neglected or abandoned by their families and communities.16 In addition, adolescents who escape from or age out of care arrangements are at a heightened risk of homelessness. 17 27. Women are also vulnerable to homelessness. In addition to the structural causes noted above, discriminatory laws and practices in areas of divorce, inheritance and matrimonial property,18 as well as limited access to decent work among women, significantly increases the risk that they face. In this regard, it has been reported that female-headed households constitute 70 per cent of the world’s homeless population. 19 Furthermore, gender-based violence, including domestic violence, often contributes to homelessness among women. 20 Due to a lack of alternatives, women may engage in sex work in order to survive, but various States have chosen to criminalize sex work, instead of providing assistance, 21 further stigmatizing women sex workers. The gendered nature of other forms of exploitation, such as domestic servitude and forced and child marriage, must also be highlighted. 28. Ethnic and other minorities in many States constitute another group at heightened vulnerability to homelessness. It has been reported, for example, that Roma people, people of African descent, Hispanic populations and communities discriminated against on the basis 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 GE.23-12640 A/HRC/43/43, para. 2. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 21 (2017), para. 8; and submissions to the Special Rapporteur from the Government of Chad, Human Trafficking Legal Center, Raíces and Pourakhi Nepal. Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 20 (2016) on the implementation of the rights of the child during adolescence, para. 33; CERD/C/USA/CO/10-12, para. 39; and submissions from ReportOut and the Centre for Applied Human Rights of the University of York. Laura Murphy, “Labour and sex trafficking among homeless youth: a ten-city study”, Modern Slavery Research Project, Loyola University New Orleans, 2017, pp. 25–26. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 29 (2013) on the economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution, paras. 43 and 44; and submission from Medica Zenica. This also includes those living in inadequate housing. E/CN.5/2020/3, para. 12. Submissions from the Governments of the Philippines and Portugal and the Office of the Ombudsman of Argentina. Submissions from the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women and Mission d’intervention et de sensibilisation contre la traite des êtres humains. 5