In Canada there are more than 30,000 young Canadians who are sleeping on the street on any given night.

A former homeless youth turned businessman, Joe Roberts, is on a cross Canada journey to change that. Roberts will be pushing a shopping cart from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Vancouver to raise awareness and money to end youth homelessness.

During his 517 day Push for Change campaign he is stopping at cities and speaking out about the growing issue. On Tuesday, he was welcomed in Ottawa at City Hall and Algonquin College.

Roberts said he left a difficult home life when he was 15-years-old and started living on the street. Soon, things spiralled downwards and he turned to drugs.

“There’s the physical and the emotional,” he said, speaking about his time on the street. “The physical, it’s cold and you’re hungry, tired. The emotional is a lot harder, being disenfranchised, being ashamed, and being afraid.”

This went on for nearly a decade, before he was given a second chance by ‘his mom and an O.P.P officer’. At 24-years-old Roberts returned to school – going from homeless youth, to businessman.

Now, Roberts wants to change the stereotype that all young people choose to be on the street.

In Ottawa, there are more than 900 youth who are staying in local shelters and hundreds more with no place to call home.

Daniel Turenne works for Way Home Ottawa, a group aimed at ending homelessness, and said there are several reasons youth end up on the streets.

“The most often we’ve seen in our research has been violence in the home, but there can be many reasons, and we need to reach a prevention state with that.”

He said the key to addressing homelessness in adults is by assisting youth before they before too dependent.

Robert’s know changing a young person’s situation can change their life – pushing through no matter how difficult his journey becomes.

“It is hard – it’s hard being out there on the streets, it’s hard to change policy, it’s hard to change the consciousness of a country. That’s the point.”

You can find more information on the Push for Change here.