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Homelessness

The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Housing strongly criticized Canada for its failure to ensure access by all Canadians to adequate housing.

• UN Press Release on Report
• UN Report
   

Government Initiatives

Municipalities and regional governments in BC may have their own homelessness and housing strategies and initiatives.
 

Some major initiatives are listed below:

• BC Housing: Breaking the Cycle
• Capital Region Affordable Housing Strategy
• Metro Vancouver Regional Affordable Housing Strategy
  • 2010 Metro Vancouver Homeless Count
• Metro Vancouver Homelessness Page
• Metro Vancouver Regional Homelessness Plan
• Homelessness Action Week

Canadian Homelessness Organizations

Links to Canadian organizations that deal with homelessness:

• The Homeless Hub
• Wellesley Institute
• Canadian Housing and Renewal Association
• StreetoHome Foundation
• Recession Relief Fund (Toronto)
• Social Planning & Research Council (BC)
• Solving the Crisis of Homelessness & Affordable Housing in Greater Vancouver
• Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives
• Alliance to End Homelessness
• Community Voice Mail
   

Studies

One Canadian study, "Homelessness in a Growth Economy," estimates that Canada is spending between $4.5 and $6 billion a year funding its homeless, and found that the average homeless person uses $30,000 to $40,000 per year in emergency services such as hospital care, jail time, and shelters.

Links to other reports or articles on homelessness and housing policy include:

• Bridging the Divide: Building Safe Shelters for Women and Families in BC. Source: Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver.

• Precarious Housing in Canada: Setting the foundation for a national housing plan. Source: Wellesley Institute.
  
  • Precarious Housing in Canada
  • Executive Summary
  • Part One: Framing the challenge
  • Part Two: Vision 2020, toward a national housing plan
     
• Unpacking the Housing Numbers: How much new social housing is BC building?  Source: Seth Klein and Lorraine Copas of SPARC BC.
   
• A Home for All: A Tyee Series on Affordable Housing.  Source: The Tyee.
   
• The Canadian Facts: Social Determinants of Health   By Juha Mikkonen and Dennis Raphael.
   
• Report Card on Ending Homelessness in Ottawa, Jan - Dec 2009.  Source: Alliance to End Homelessness
   
• "Homelessness in Metro Vancouver: A Comparative Community Profile". Source: The Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness
   
• "Right to Housing - a dream or reality?"  Source: 2009 Article by Global Tenant Magazine
   
• "Youth Homelessness in Canada: The Road to Solutions" Source: 2009 Report by Youthworks
   
• "Sorry it's Rented" Source: 2009 Report by the Centre for Equality Rights in Accomodation 
   
• "Homelessness: Clear Focus Needed" Source: 2009 Report by the Auditor General of British Columbia
   
• "Where's the Money Gone?: An Analysis of Declining Government Housing Expenditures"  Source: 2009 CHRA Report by Steve Pomeroy
   
• “Sustaining the Momentum: Recommendations for a National Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness” Source: 2008 Report by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
   
• “Canada’s Dual Housing Policy”  Source: 2007 Report by the University of Toronto Centre for Urban and Community Studies
   
• “Cracks in the Foundation”  Source: 2006 Report by the Pivot Legal Society
   
• "Results of the pilot study to estimate the size of the hidden homeless population in Metro Vancouver" Source: 2009 Report for the Homelessness Partnering Secretariat; Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
  
  
• “Seven Solutions to Homelessness”   Source: 2007 Article by The Tyee online newspaper
   
• "Homeless Crisis Grows in BC North"  Source: 2009 Article by The Tyee online newspaper
   
• "Hidden Homelessness - Lessons from Experience"  Source: 2005 Project for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, prepared by Kathleen Boyes, Jason Copas and George Lawrie.
   

Housing and Children

• Housing Affordability: A Children's Issue 
• Housing Quality and Children's Socioemotional Health 
   

Campaigns

If you want to get involved in ending homelessness, you can visit www.stophomelessness.ca or contact active groups in Vancouver including:

• bcpovertyreduction.ca
• Canada Without Poverty
• Raise the Rates campaign
• City Wide Housing Coalition
• BC Living Wage Campaign
• Carnegie Community Action Project
• Pivot Legal Society
• Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA)
• City Wide Housing Coalition
• Poverty Olympics
• Impact of Olympics on Community Coalition
• Dignity for All Campaign
   

Lu'ma Native Housing Society is proud to announce that the Community Voice Mail (CVM) program, which has already launched with great success in the Downtown Eastside, is now expanding into Surrey.

CVM offers homeless and/or phoneless people in crisis or transition with a constant and reliable telephone number.  For more information on the CVM program, including instructions on how to enroll and features that come with the service, click on the links below.

• CVM website
• Phonelines are Lifelines - James Foster, CVM Project Manager
   

Video

You can also watch a short video exploring the evolution of human rights over time and how they are being disregarded with respect to homelessness today.  Source: United for Human Rights Organization.