Homelessness In Canada
Recently, I attended a training session on homelessness which opened my eyes to the topic and the actions that we must take as a society to put an end to this unfortunate and inhumane social issue. The speaker was Stephen Gaetz, a Professor at the Faculty of Education at York University and the Director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Homeless Hub. He is also the President of Raising the Roof, a leading Canadian charity that focuses on long term solutions to homelessness.
Here are some facts that I learned from his lecture (statistics are rough estimates):
- Over 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a year
- 35,000 people a night are homeless
- 47.5% are single adult men (25-55 years old)
- Living on the streets is unsafe for women as family violence is a major reason women are homeless
- Youth 16-24 years old make up 20% of the homeless population. The causes are unique and include abuse, low income from minimum wage jobs and lack of affordable housing
- In Toronto, 18% of homeless are Aboriginal
- New Canadians are a growing homeless population
Homelessness as a Problem:
- Society created the homelessness problem
- High paying jobs are disappearing
- Incomes have declined at the same time as increasing housing prices
- There is a focus on tax credits in Canada – instead of spending more directly on childcare for instance
- Reductions in welfare payments
- Wages haven't kept up with inflation
- From 1980s-1990s, the government reduced spending on affordable housing to balance the budget
- National investment in housing decreased (including rental)
- Rise in homelessness in 1990s was a result of shifts in government policy
Causes of Homelessness
- Family conflict, job loss, accidents (disability), mental health and addiction
- Racism, discrimination and homophobia
- Patients that are discharged from hospitals without any support or guidance
- Less rehabilitation programs
Myth: people choose to be homeless – most leave home (or a desperate situation) not because they want to but due to a violent situation, sexual abuse, etc.
- When they leave, they lose everything: family, natural supports, friends and guidance from relatives
- Health worsens- mental health impacted, depression, disease, nutritionally vulnerable
- Addictions follow to “numb the pain”
- Sexual exploitation arises especially for women on the streets that need to make some money
- Gangs and criminal involvement increases – for self-protection and to feed a drug habit
- Homeless are victims of crime as whatever little they own is stolen on the streets, shelters, etc.
- 38% of young homeless women were sexually assaulted in the past year
Canadian Response to Homelessness should be:
Prevention
Emergency Response
Housing and Supports
- We have come to rely on emergency services too much
- What we really need are prevention and housing supports
- Alberta – is way ahead of Ontario on homelessness as they have a provincial strategy to end homelessness
- Medicine Hat has virtually ended homelessness as the city has invested in affordable housing
What is Toronto Public Library Doing:
- Toronto Public Library has partnered with Toronto Public Health and the City of Toronto’s Streets to Homes to launch a pilot program. The program is currently available two days per week at Toronto Reference Library and Yorkville branch
- Toronto Public Health nurses help people connect to health resources for mental health and addiction
- Nurses rove around these branches, checking in with security and librarians about what help is needed
Bookmobile Outreach to Family Shelters
- Bookmobile outreach and storytimes at Toronto shelters serve women with children
- Staff register library cards for kids and residents enabling them to borrow books from the bookmobile for extended loan periods
- Shelter residents don’t get fines and can return books in their shelter
The Toronto Reference Library will also have a program in April with Stephen Gaetz as part of their Thought Exchange programming :
For more information about this important issue, please see the following books, which can be borrowed from the Toronto Public Library:
DVDs:
Home safe. Toronto a documentary
Crowe, Cathy, 1952-; MacDonald, Laurel; Sky, Laura; Strong, Phil
Year/Format: 2009, DVD, 1 videodisc (96 min.)
Additional reading:
Youth homelessness in Canada: implications for policy and practice
Housing first in Canada: supporting communities to end homelessness
18 thoughts on “Homelessness In Canada”
Thanks for this post. I would have liked to attend the York workshop myself. I did not know about the Streets to Homes connection and the participation of TRL and the Yorkville Branch, which I go to frequently. (FYI the Streets to Homes link in this entry redirects me to a 404 page at the Toronto city website.)
I am interested in following up on this. Who should I speak with at Yorkville or TRL?
That was a really informative blog! I learned a lot about homelessness that I didn’t know before. Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure. I thought it was important to write about. I’m glad you learned something new. The link has been fixed. I will try to find out for you who to contact at Yorkville or TRL. Thanks.
Thank you. Glad you found it helpful. I learned a lot too.
Hi Fredrick
In response to your inquiry TPH nurses are at the TRL and Yorkville branch every Tuesday afternoon 1-4 and Thursday morning 9-12.Just ask at any information or the security desk for the Public Health Nurse – they can reach us wherever we are. Alternatively, you can call central Intake at Toronto Public Health 416-338-7600 and your request will be redirected to appropriate area. For Streets to Home (S2H) you can call 311 and they can connect you or give you the correct link to website.
Hope this Helps!
Rosemary R.N.
Thank you so much Rosemary for this updated information. The specific details are very helpful.
Thank you very much, Rosemary and Emoke.
Very informative.What about other countries? How do they deal with homelessness?
This is good news – public health nurses in libraries. I hope this program expands.
I do too. here is a link to what other libraries are doing:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/24/more-public-libraries-their-relevance-at-stake-see-helping-homeless-people-as/
and
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/homeless-find-hope-refuge-and-community-at-public-libraries-1.2841221
That is a a very good and very big question! I’m not sure what countries you are thinking of.
I am certainly not an expert on this issue, but a quick search brought up:
http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/ten-year-plan
http://www.feantsa.org/spip.php?rubrique143
http://www.economist.com/news/international/21632519-how-cut-number-street-dwellersand-save-money-too-one-home-time
http://www.nhca.net.au/
http://www.youthxchange.net/main/b236_homeless-m.asp
http://www.homelessworldcup.org/content/homelessness-statistics
This is a great article, very informative! I think that it is extremely important for individuals to know about homelessness and it’s impact on Canada.
I think that we should put an end to homelessness,or at least help them out rather than stepping over them in the street.
There’s a campaign that is trying to assist the homeless of the GTA:
http://www.homelesshandouts.com
Thank you, alex1234 for sharing your opinion. I fully agree with you, of course.
Did you guys know that other than watering your lawn or putting out fires sprinkler systems are used to keep the homeless from in front of there business. I can see some rich guys looking down from a office window small talking, How are we going to keep the poor away. “I know lets spray them with sprinklers.lol” horrible i say. http://www.sprinklersystemhq@gmail.com
Endless possibilities makes me even more curious. Wonderful insights here at you blog.
Very informative post. Nice collaboration, keep it up.
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