While commuting through the city of London on the way to work (or anywhere), it is hard not to notice that at nearly every stop light there is a homeless person with a sign. In this day of digital money, it is rare that you see someone roll down their window to give. It really makes one wonder if we as Canadians are doing an adequate job at manage this problem and more importantly finding a long-term solution. For reference, homelessness is defined as “an extreme manifestation of poverty, characterized not only by inadequate housing but also by insufficient income and social supports and poor health” (Gaetz, 2008, p.27).
In Canada, on average 235,000 people experience homelessness per year, 27% being women, and 19% youth. An overwhelming percentage of homeless people are indigenous, making up around 34% of shelter visitors per year. Unfortunately, these numbers only represent the ‘visible homeless’ population, with another 450,000-900,000 people considered ‘hidden homeless’ (Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, 2017, p. 1). ‘Hidden-homelessness’, is defined as, “(someone) - who reported that they ever had to temporarily live with family, friends, in their car, or anywhere else because they had nowhere else to live” (Rodrigue, 2016). All these numbers considered, nearly one million Canadians are affected by these problems provoking many city officials to declare it a crisis.
So, what are we as a society and our government doing to alleviate this issue in Canada?
Historically, Canada as focused on what is categorized as a ‘manage’ approach to the homeless crisis, meaning investment in temporary shelter and support to service their needs. This is arguably the most financially dependent of the approaches, which also include ‘prevent’ and ‘transitions’. Alternatively, ‘prevent’ focuses on providing support and services to reduce the likelihood of an individual becoming homeless in the first place. Or, ‘transitions’ primarily deals with counselling and services focused on reintegrating the affected individuals into productive society members (Gaetz, 2008, p. 1-2). Maybe it is time for Canada to revaluate their approach to something that more evenly distributes the focus to all three of these alternatives.
Regardless, today’s reality is a haunting representation of how a human rights structure has failed an overwhelming number of individuals. Here, I have documented the pained faces of this national crisis, in an effort to document their struggle.
References:
Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. (2017). Homelessness in Canada and Ontario. Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario. Retrieved from:
Gaetz, S. (2008). Why Are We Still Struggling With Homelessness in Canada? Canadian Housing. Retrieved from: https://www.homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/attachments/Gaetz.CHRA.why%20are%20we%20still%20struggling.pdf
Rodrigue, S. (November 15 2016). Hidden homelessness in Canada. Statistics Canada. Retrieved from: