The Real Top Issues Facing Canadians Part 2: Housing Security & Homelessness

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Article 25
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

The human right to adequate housing

As defined by the first Special Rapporteur, “the human right to adequate housing is the right of every woman, man, youth and child to gain and sustain a safe and secure home and community in which to live in peace and dignity”.

This definition is in line with the core elements of the right to adequate housing as defined by General Comment No. 4 of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the body in charge of monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the States which are party to it).

***********************************

In a city where the municipal government, under the NPA, has allowed unfettered development of real estate, the cost of housing has grown far beyond what most individuals and families can afford without cutting into their food budgets. With a vacancy rate of less than 1%, many of us are forced to live in substandard housing and are faced with housing insecurity.

Some Aboriginal, immigrant and low income families live in third world conditions in Canada. I have been inside some of the homes that families living in poverty are forced to live in, it is shocking that people can be expected to live in these conditions and raise their children in them. Many families come to Canada wanting a better life for their children. They are not prepared for what awaits them and it is not right for all levels of government to allow these substandard conditions to continue for anyone.

Why is there a housing crisis?

The federal government of the past cancelled funding affordable housing to the provinces. Some provinces, such as BC continued to fund housing, but most do not now.
Now, there is a severe lack of affordable housing and municipal and provincial governments do not place obligations on real estate developers to fund and build social and low income housing as part of their developments, or those governments downgrade the expectations on developers.

Housing “booms” in BC have allowed unfettered development, increased density, buying on speculation and out of country ownership and sales have dramatically driven the price of basic housing stock up in BC. This is not a sustainable for our province. For most individuals and families in the Metro Vancouver region, owning a home, even a condo is beyond their economic ability and reality. Governments who receive political contributions from developers, business and construction industry players prevent reasonable and commonsense limits being placed on the price of housing. Many citizens and families are simply one pay cheque away from homelessness now.

Areas that used to offer affordable, working class and low income housing have been taken over, developed and “gentrified,” pushing renters out of the area and even out of the city. This isn’t just Vancouver, this is all across Canada.

These are other main reasons:
· Unavailability of employment opportunities (that provide sufficient incomes to afford housing)
· Poverty, caused by many factors including unemployment and underemployment
· Lack of affordable healthcare
· Substance abuse and unavailability or lack of needed services
· Mental illness and unavailability or lack of needed services
· Domestic violence
· Prison release and re-entry into society
· Natural disaster
· Forced eviction
· Depletion of the supply of rental housing
· A fragmented infrastructure support system
· Personal vulnerabilities stemming from lack of adequate education and vocational training, and the handicaps experienced by people with physical, mental health and substance abuse disabilities.
· Immigration, employment and income issues

Why Did Homelessness Become So Bad?

The deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill was a huge reason so many people became homeless. Governments wanted to close large institutions, talking a good game about community “inclusion” of the mentally ill and handicapped individuals. Really, institutions were too expensive and governments did not dramatically increase low income and affordable supportive housing, so when people who required support services to live functional and safe lives were pushed out of institutional care, many ended up as street homeless. Once on the street, these citizens became easy victims for drug dealers and others who enjoy victimizing others.

When people become homeless, they often become de-socialized and for those who already had mental handicaps and psychiatric illness, exposed to the daily trauma of homelessness and violence that is often part of the street world, every day is one of survival and insanity. No-one should EVER have to live like this is a wealthy nation like Canada and this is a matter of leadership, political will, policy and commitment, or lack thereof.

Miloon Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur for Housing, visited Canada in October 2007 on a fact-finding mission to look at the issues of homelessness, Aboriginal housing issues, women's housing issues and the impact of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Mr. Kothari granted this interview during his recent visit.

He was shocked and taken aback by what he saw in Vancouver. This was what he said:

There is a deep homelessness problem here. I must say I was taken aback by the scale of the crisis here in the Downtown Eastside.

It's glaringly apparent in Vancouver that for quite some time... successive governments have failed to create the housing that is necessary. You have a legacy of misguided government policy that has led to this massive crisis in housing and homelessness. … It is striking that a few blocks from million-dollar condominiums, that there is such immense poverty.

I would say that the part that is the most disturbing, and the scale is astounding, is the issue of forced evictions.... what we see is an astronomical rise in development and market-driven evictions.

Up to 15,500 Homeless: Report
Tally of BC homeless by health profs far higher than housing minister's.
By Andrew MacLeod. Published: January 31, 2008. TheTyee.ca

In B.C. there may be as many as 15,500 adults with severe addictions or mental illness who are homeless, says the 149-page report, Housing and Support for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in British Columbia.

The report says some 130,000 adults in B.C. have severe addictions and/or mental illnesses. About 39,000 are "inadequately housed," meaning they meet the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation's definition of being in "core housing need." Of those, about 26,500 don't have enough support to help them stay in their home.

Somewhere between 8,000 and 15,500 are what the report calls "absolutely homeless," meaning they are living on the streets, couch surfing or otherwise without shelter.

******
The Metro Vancouver Homeless Count in March 2008 found 2,592 homeless citizens on the street and in shelters in a 24 hour period. These were only the people found. There are many, many more who are not included in the counts. These include youth and adults who “couch surf,” individuals who live in hotels, people who are transiently housed, live in areas that aren’t included in the count, and those who are homeless for other reasons, such as eviction.

Read Pivot Legal Society’s submission to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, where they recently reported that since 2005 street homelessness in Vancouver has increased by 39%.

· BC Housing statistics state that there were 40,000 incidents in a nine month period where citizens were turned away from shelters where they were seeking an emergency bed.

******************

What do the Leaders and Parties have to say about Homelessness & Housing?

It is symbolic of the Conservative government’s commitment to homelessness that when we go to the “Homelessness” link on the Canada’s Human Resource and Social Development page that nothing actually comes up. Over the course of the Conservatives time as the leaders of our country, they have invested very little in housing and homelessness. They don’t even identify this as a top issue facing Canadians as we can see on their Key Issues website heading into this election. This just proves how out of touch Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are about the real issues facing Canadians.

After perusing the Liberal Party website, although they discuss the issues of housing and homelessness, this is not included in their election platform and they have no policy explaining what leadership their party will take to improve the plight of Canadians faced with housing insecurity and homelessness and funding affordable housing for citizens.

Both the Liberal and Conservative governments of Canada either created, or have allowed these conditions of homelessness and housing insecurity to flourish and have shown no leadership and no commitment to change these conditions.

The Green Party of Canada, while not ignoring the issue of homelessness and housing does not make it one of their key platform, or policy issues as we can see on it’s Issues page.

Jack Layton, the leader of the federal New Democratic Party has written Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis. The NDP is the only major party that highlights housing and homelessness as a key election issue facing Canadians.

*******************************************
Other links

Homelessness in Canada

Homeless in Canada - Resources

Homeless Nation

Growing Home - Housing and Homelessness in Canada – Conference in Calgary, Alberta from February 18th to 20th 2009.

The Homeless Individuals and Families Information System HIFIS Initiative that created an electronic records management system to collect information about the population using shelters while assisting in daily operations such as booking-in and out clients, and reporting on shelter use.