While public libraries and faith-based organizations may not be able to solve the issue of social stigma, looking at how they provide spaces for homeless people is a good place to start.
A new Canada-wide survey shows 28 per cent of women-led households struggle with the affordability, suitability or adequacy of their housing. This is almost double the rate of households led by men.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson
As we push for a real solution — an increase in housing supply and related supports — the encampment evictions must stop. We need to make encampments unnecessary.
Evictions continued despite the ban imposed during the pandemic.
Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
‘Informal evictions’ in which landlords harass or pressure tenants out of their homes continued during the the pandemic and may have even seen an increase.
The Supreme Court lifted the CDC’s eviction ban.
AP Photo/Elise Amendola
Millions of Americans with tens of billions in unpaid rent face eviction and loss of their home.
Toronto Public Health’s tool kit for COVID-19 prevention in congregate living settings contains few references to ventilation, air filtration and other measures to prevent airborne transmission.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
Because COVID-19 is airborne, we can’t know if the shelter system is as safe as it should be without seeing metrics related to ventilation, filtration and occupancy.
A key component in any planning around encampments is the voice of people with lived experience. It is clear the go-to response of policing is not working.
Some college students have no home to return to.
Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
JobKeeper, the COVID boost to JobSeeker, and moratoriums on rent increases and evictions all ended this month. Only smarter policies will prevent homelessness, as a landmark Victorian report explains.
Schizophrenia has been identified as a significant risk factor for dying of COVID-19.
(Canva)
People with schizophrenia are almost three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those without the serious mental illness, making it second only to age as a risk factor for mortality.
A small homeless camp is shown outside a department store in Montréal, Que., on Jan. 23, 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
It’s possible to prevent homelessness, but it will take a commitment and dedication to understanding the conditions that produce it.
Ambulances waiting outside the emergency room at St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver, where an outbreak of Shigellosis is affecting marginalized people.
(Ben Huang)
Infectious dysentery, usually found in developing countries with poor living conditions, is turning up in Vancouver’s most marginalized neighbourhood.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri sits among his belongings in a 2004 photograph taken at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where he lived for nearly 18 years.
Eric Fougere/VIP Images/Corbis via Getty Images
Some do so of their own accord, using airport amenities to meet their basic needs. Others, however, would rather be anywhere else – and find themselves at the mercy of bureaucratic wrangling.
Many older women are in desperate need of affordable housing where they can age in place securely, with dignity and as part of a community. The siheyuan model offers ways to meet these needs.
A man steps out of the trailer he lives in at a homeless encampment at Strathcona Park in Vancouver in December 2020.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Adopting a universal basic income requires a fundamental restructuring of the existing social safety net in Canada, and would not necessarily conquer income inequality and poverty.
More people than expected needed help, and the states have found stable housing for less than a third of rough sleepers who were put up in hotels. A hands-off federal government simply isn’t helping.
The U.S. National Guard are seen surrounding the U.S. Capitol a week after Donald Trump supporters raided it.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnick)
Paul R. Carr, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO) and Gina Thésée, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
The U.S. illustrates this week that changing a nation’s leader without rethinking the system he or she is upholding is no longer acceptable for citizens. We need an improved form of democracy.