Introduction.
Our society is designed to distract us from paying attention to significant issues, in many ways. There are just too many television channels, too many reality programs, too many video games, and too many things to buy for us to have the attention span to look at the underlying problems that bedevil our society. One of these is the problem of homelessness, which is plaguing too many people in our society, given the high standard of living that so many Canadians have attained. The definition of homelessness is the inability of people to find housing that it safe and regular (Begin, 1995). While a few homeless have chosen to abandon their regular places of shelter for personal reasons, the vast majority either have mental conditions or have hit financial straits, and as a result can no longer afford to pay for their own housing. One can find the homeless sleeping on park benches or under overpasses, as well as in shelters that are financed by public and private entities to keep them safe. The bottom line is that, in Canada, as in any country, people should have the right to shelter, and it is part of the government’s responsibility to ensure that people have a place to stay that is safe.
At the present time, Canada is experiencing homelessness at one of the highest rates in the history of the nation (Leckie, 2003). Several factors have intersected at once to make this more of a crisis in Canada. The lack of affordable housing, given the increased number of immigrants and the increased number of people with lower education levels. If you combine that with a widespread release of the mentally ill from publicly funded asylums, as a result of cuts in funding, then you have a huge homeless problem. These are not the only reasons why homelessness has skyrocketed in the major cities of Canada, but they definitely are contributing factors. Not every city in Canada has the same levels of homeless; currently, there are more homeless people per capita in Vancouver, for example, than in Montreal or Calgary, and so a regional examination of the problem may well be in order. Using this research will help public policy planners identify specific remedies and interventions that can keep the growing homeless population from swelling into an unmanageable mess.
Research Statement
Whether we're talking about Hamilton or St. John, the problem of homelessness has come home to roost in Canada, and it is becoming more difficult to root out with each passing year. There are interventions that will help the homeless escape the cycle of poverty and find their way back into the productive population, but those interventions must begin immediately, if not sooner. The purpose of this research assignment is to determine and analyze the primary reasons for the jump in the number of homeless people in Canada's major cities. Different political leaders have proposed different reasons for this growth, but since it is a lot easier to issue sound bites at a news conference than it is to propose actual solutions. In addition to causes, the research will analyze each of the primary interventions that are in use against homelessness, to evaluate the relative success of each strategy. This paper will look at several different studies conducted about this issue to find an exhaustive set of results.
Purpose of the Project
This project will analyze the many contributing factors to the homelessness epidemic that is sweeping through the major cities of Canada. There are many underlying factors to this problem, and each of the different possible interventions is quite expensive, and so this research topic is a crucial one for the policy planners in the Canadian government as well as private entities that have arisen to help cure the homelessness problem. The end result, one hopes, will be a series of preventive tactics for public and private entities to use when combating homelessness (Doucet and Weaver, 1991).
Homelessness in Urban Canada: An Analysis
On average, in the city of Toronto, you will find anywhere between 5,000 and 6,500 people who are homeless each night. The Toronto shelters house approximately 32,000 people each year, but many of the Canadian homeless do not go to shelters. Indeed, in Toronto, one in six of the homeless do not go to shelters at all, instead finding a place on the street. There are many others on the bare edge of homelessness, moving from one friend's apartment to the next. The irony is that transitional housing is almost impossible to find – in Toronto, the waiting list has over 70,000 people on it, and it will take seven years, on average, to get to the top of that list (City of Toronto, 2003).
If you look at the demographics a little more closely, the results are even more chilling. The average homeless person in Toronto is a white male, somewhere between 25 and 49 (single women only make up about a sixth of the homeless population. A full third of the homeless population in Toronto is made of of immigrants, and one in ten of the homeless have only been in Canada for ten years or fewer. It's not just immigrants, though – the aboriginal populations of Canada also make up a disproportionately large number of the homeless. In Hamilton, for example, while the aboriginal peoples only comprise about 1 percent of the population, they are a full fifth of the homeless population (Hamilton Community Services). The trend is similar in Vancouver and Toronto; on average, the aboriginal people are 20 to 30 times as likely to end up homeless, in terms of their representation in the homeless population compared to in the total population, than anyone else in Canada.
For young Canadians, the numbers are even more chilling. In Toronto, 5,000 children come through the city's homeless shelters each year, on average (City of Toronto). In 2002, half of all homeless school were between the ages of 5 and 14, and a full third were under four (City of Toronto).
Looking at the reasons for homelessness is just as important as the ethnic status, the immigration status, or the age of the people coming in and out of shelters in Toronto's cities. In 2007, Street Health conducted a surveys of homeless adults in downtown Toronto and found a wide variety of contributing factors for homelessness:
52% – economic reasons (can't afford rent, lost a job)
31% – dangerous or unsanitary living conditions
25% – disagreement with landlord or eviction
23% – drug or alcohol abuse
20% – breakdown in the family or relationship
13% – rehab, jail, hospitalization
3% – remote or inappropriate neighborhood
2% – not enough support to retain the housing (St. Michael's Hospital)
As in many countries throughout the developed world, there has been a widening gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” – in other words, between the considerably wealthy and the considerably poor. Because of the worldwide economic downturn that began in 2008, this trend has become increasingly cruel on those on the poor end of the spectrum (Hendricks, 2010). Housing should be a basic right for humans, but there is no law in Canada at the present time guaranteeing people the right to have shelter. In order to solve the problem of homelessness in Canada, one of the first necessary steps will be for the national government to pass legislation that will give people the right to a home. When political parties use the homeless to gain points for themselves, whether it is the conservative party using the homeless to show the laziness of the underclass, or the liberal party using pictures of the homeless to get themselves elected, spending time and money at the trough of government. Because of the manifold problems that can result from a large homeless population, such as increased incidences of disease, growing alcoholism and crime rates, and a larger number of people who get to immigrate. While it is important to remain tolerant of those in the outside world, it may also be important to consider limits on immigrants into Canada, at least until more of those who are already in the country have found a stable place to live. Because so many immigrants into Canada are homeless because they cannot find jobs (St. Michael's Hospital), it does not make sense to allow unlimited immigration, or even immigration at the present levels, until the immigrant labor market has expanded to accept new members. Immigration caps are just another possible form of legislation that could remedy homeless in Canada (Blau, 1993).
Solutions
Obviously, in a situation where a dearth of housing has been identified, one of the first initiatives must be an increase in affordable housing. As Cushing Dolbeare wrote: “The one thing all homeless people have in common is a lack of housing. Whatever other problems they face, adequate, stable, affordable housing is a prerequisite to solving them. Homelessness may not be only a housing problem, but it is always a housing problem; housing is necessary, although sometimes not sufficient, to solve the problem of homelessness”(Dolberre, 1996, p. 34). Finding new housing doesn't have to mean building new projects; it can mean repurposing older buildings for group residence, or putting older buildings back to work (Hutchanski, 2009, p. 8).
Housing can't solve the problems all by itself, though. It is important to find each individual and each family a place to live, but it is also important to give those people the tools they need to learn survival, especially in a century like ours, where there are so few supports in place to help the homelessness break out of their cycle. This means that advocate agencies need to provide not only access to housing, but also such classes as resume preparation and interview consulting, so that clients can gradually move from living in temporary shelters into permanent supportive housing, where clients are placed in apartments but have an ongoing case manager and other supports to help them find a job, to keep that job, and to earn back so many of the things that homelessness takes from you, like a driver's license, like your circle of friends, anything that connects you emotionally to your socioeconomic status.
What about a court challenge? It is true that many consider a home to be a basic right, but the Canadian government has not yet acknowledged that right. It is time, now, to move forward on that front. After all, people have been studying the homeless problem in Canada for years, and the solutions have not changed appreciably. It is time to move the public toward accepting this responsibility and agitating for laws protecting the homeless. These provisions were found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1948, and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, which Canada ratified in 1976. In this case, though, it appears that the Canadian government has created a loophole by basically ignoring the problem. After a while, though, the unemployment problem will become a powder keg.
Conclusions
The plight of the homeless is too cruel to allow to continue. Advocates on the liberal side should draw up petitions, blogs and other instruments of change that involve the will of the people, instead of violent protest. Because shelter is a basic human right, it is time to push for the Canadian government to do the right thing and codify that right into law.
Annotated Bibliography
Blau, J. (1993). The visible poor: Homelessness in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
If you are homeless, then the poverty that goes along with that status is extremely significant. There are some in the homeless population who are choosing to stay on the streets, rather than to break out of the cycle on poverty. This could be people who habitually seek out the same park bench each night, and it could be those who line up outside the city shelter each night, hoping for another night out of the elements.
Bourne, L. & Ley, D. (1993). The Changing Social Geography of Canadian Cities. Toronto: McGill-Queen's Press.
As the title to this book attests, homelessness is on the rise in Canada – however, homelessness also is not confined to developing countries. This article points out that Canadian homelessness is near an all-time high. The government will need to identify and execute dedicated steps designed to bring about the change in the homeless.
Collins, D. (2010). Homelessness in Canada and New Zealand: A comparative perspective on numbers and policy responses. Urban Geography Vol. 31 (7): 932-952.
This paper compares current trends in homelessness in Canada and New Zealand, and also looks at the two countries’ different ways of handling the homeless crisis.
Dolberre, C. (1996). Housing policy: A general consideration, in Homelessness in America.
This is a meditation by Dolberre about the ways in which the government has failed many of society’s poorest members by failing to maintain adequate access to housing as a fundamental right.
Doucet, M. & Weaver, J. 91991). Housing the North American City. Toronto: McGill-Queen'sPress.
Why has homelessness increased at such a fast pace? It could be a boost in poverty, a drop in affordable housing units, an increase in the immigrant population, more people dropping out of education without a significant job, and the release of the mentally ill from institutions.
The government has taken some initiative in this area and is erecting homes to give the homeless a place to stay; most of these are offered by the government at no cost, or at a greatly reduced cost for those who can afford to pay on a sliding scale.
Frankish, C., Hwang, S. and Quantz, D. (2009). The relationship between homelessness and health: An overview of research in Canada. In Hulchanski, J., et al. (eds) Finding home: Policy options for addressing homelessness in Canada (e-book), Chapter 2.1. Toronto: Cities Centre, University of Toronto. Web. Retreieved 3 April 2012 from http://homelesshub.ca/ResourceFiles/Documents/2.1%20Frankish%20et%20al%20- %20Homelessness%20and%20Health.pdf
This article is an overview of existing research on the causes and solutions for homelessness, as well as the connection between homelessness and health in Canada.
Hendricks, K. (2010). Open our eyes: Seeing the invisible people of homelessness. Washington, D.C.
This article attacks the stereotypes that go along with being homeless; in fact, most of people make presumptions about the homeless, such as that they are mentally unstable, that they abuse drugs, or that they are all dirty. Many of those suffering from these disorders would rather try their hands at the street, thinking that a street life will be preferable than a medicated, institutionalized existence. As a result, they unplug from society and find a nearby place to live, of the grid. As a result, the author suggests, the less fortunate never achieve authentic attachment – and so, Hendricks suggests, it is important for public policy planners to come up with solutions that will make the homeless more visible to those who walk past them.
Leckie, S. (2003). National perspectives on housing rights. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
The homeless problem is not just specific to Canada; as Leckie indicates, this problem goes throughout the whole world, but the developed nations have more resources to dedicate to finding their homeless a place to sleep. This article is a call to action for the governments in developed nations to give their homeless populations the shelter they deserve. Throughout the book, Leckie suggests a wide range of different solutions to the homelessness problem.
Payne, R. (2005). A framework for understanding poverty. Chicago: Aha Process, Inc.
This book is all about the effects that generational poverty has on work habits, individual decision-making, and learning. Payne discusses all of the behavioral barriers that stand between those who are generationally poor and those who have achieved status in the middle class.
Thurston, W., et al., (2011). Final report: Improving housing outcomes for aboriginal people in western Canada: National, regional, community and individual perspectives on changing the future of homelessness. Prepared for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, National Housing Secretariat. Web. Retrieved 3 April 2012 from http://www.ucalgary.ca/wethurston/aboriginalhomelessness
This article discusses ways to improve the housing conditions for aboriginal peoples in the western half of Canada, and reassessing the ways in which the Canadian government addresses homelessness for everyone.
Works Cited
City of Toronto (2003). The Toronto report card on housing and homelessness. Web. Retrieved 3
April 2012 from http://www.toronto.ca/homelessness/pdf/reportcard2003.pdf.
City of Toronto (2009). How Toronto is solving family homelessness. Web. Retrieved 3 April
2012 from http://www.toronto.ca/housing/pdf/family_homelessness.pdf
Hamilton Community Services (2006). Web. Retrieved 3 April 2012 from
http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/57CD447B-28FF-45BA-9F74-
AF2F21A5E694/0/OnAnyGivenNight2006.pdf
Hutchnanski, J. (2009). Homelessness in Canada. Conference keynote address, Growing home:
Housing and homelessness in Canada. University of Calgary, 18 February 2009. Web.
Retrieved 3 April 2012 from http://www.cprn.org/documents/51110_EN.pdf
St. Michael's Hospital (2005). Homeless in Canadian cities. Web. Retrieved 3 April 2012 from
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/pdf/crich/homelessness-canadian-cities.pdf
