Home-less-ness What s in a Word J. David Hulchanski Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto OCAD, October 2012 SIX key points 2 Page 1 of 21
Home-less-ness an abstract construct, a harsh reality Home-less-ness since the 1980s homeless 1900 homelessness 1980 4 Page 2 of 21
1960 Social Planning Council Study 5 1977 Report by City of Toronto Planning Board November 1977 6 Page 3 of 21
1983 No Place To Go: Homelessness in Metropolitan Toronto Report by Metro Toronto, 1983 People Without Homes: A Permanent Emergency Report by the Social Planning Council Of Metro Toronto, 1983 7 H-L-N: Cause & Solution! Housing! Income! Support Services The one thing all homeless people have in common is a lack of housing. 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. Cushing Dolbeare, 1996 8 Page 4 of 21
Policy & Program Response 1. Prevention " Housing; Income; Support Services 2. Maintenance " Emergency Shelters and Services 3. Elimination " Housing; Income; Support Services 9 Human Right to Adequate Housing HUMAN DIGNITY REQUIRES ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL RIGHTS 10 Page 5 of 21
11 The Red Tent Campaign Day of Action 2010 for a National Housing Strategy www.redtents.org Page 6 of 21
HOMELESSNESS: a HOUSING RIGHTS VIOLATION 13 1987 IYSH Ontario Government 14 Page 7 of 21
15 The Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services also said he refuses to whitewash the fact that the cut was prompted by the province s very serious fiscal crisis. The Liberal minority government faces a deficit of $15 billion. 16 Page 8 of 21
Wealthy(Na*ons:((Canada((#14(( 2012 Ranking For GDP based on PPP per capita IMF, 2012 17 Total( Tax( Revenue!!!! as!a!%!of! GDP!! OECD,!2009! 18 Page 9 of 21
Toronto CMA Individual Income, 2005 19 For further information NeighbourhoodChange.ca Page 10 of 21
Why!worry!about!more!! rigid!socio?spaaal!divisions!! and!greater!inequality?! Inequality!promotes!strategies!that!are! more!self?interested,!less!affiliaave,!oien! highly!anasocial,!more!stressful,!and!likely! to!give!rise!to!higher!levels!of!violence,! poorer!community!relaaons,!and!worse! health.!richard!wilkinson,!the$impact$of$inequality,!2005:22! 21 Social Housing in Canada 22 Page 11 of 21
FUTURE of HLN: 3 Scenarios 1. HLN becomes routinized 2. HLN is no longer a problem 3. HLN problem worsens Society, Sept./Oct., 1998 23 Jan. 1999 Toronto Mayor s Task Force Recommendation #1 Never Implemented 24 Page 12 of 21
Who Supports Homelessness? Most social problems stem, to a considerable degree, from oppositions of value or interest Poverty, racial tension, environmental disarray, unemployment are all, strictly speaking, conflicts rather than problems in the sense of conditions equally deplored by all. - James B. Rule, Theory and Progress in Social Science, Cambridge U Press, 1997. 25 Homeless Makers & Making Processes! The events that make people homeless are initiated and controlled by other people.! The primary purpose of these activities is not to make people homeless.! Homelessness occurs as a side effect. Rene I. Jahiel, ed. 1992. Homelessness: A Prevention-Oriented Approach. The Johns Hopkins University Press 26 Page 13 of 21
Looking pitiful is important I learned that looking pitiful is important when panhandling. So it's better to be sitting -- literally and figuratively down and out. John Stackhouse The Globe and Mail 27 Homelessness: An Occupation He concluded that homelessness, for many, is an occupation, a way to exploit a deep well of public sympathy and ignorance, and a way of liberating oneself from the stress, effort and sacrifice required by work and family life. # How to beg for $750 million: The friends of the homeless panhandle Ottawa for a mega-handout they probably don't need, Report Newsmagazine, February 7, 2000 (and in Alberta Report and B.C. Report). 28 Page 14 of 21
Human Rights of the Homeless: trampled without regard or regret Homelessness is the predictable result of private and public-sector policies that exclude the poor from participating in the economic revolution, while safety nets are slashed in the name of global competitiveness. The principles of economic and social rights an integral part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights... are trampled without regard or regret. Philip Alston, Chair, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva in Hardship in the Midst of Plenty, The Progress of Nations 1998, NY: UNICEF. 29 We know what to do. 2006 30 Page 15 of 21
Emergency Declaration Homelessness a National Disaster, 1998 We call on all levels of government to declare homelessness a national disaster requiring emergency humanitarian relief. Solution $ Toronto Disaster Relief Committee $ National Housing and Homelessness Network About $3.5 Billion All three levels of Government Federal, Provincial & Municipal 31 1% Solution Federal Share, $2 Billion (1) Supply About $1 billion to provide capital funding for the provision of 20,000 to 25,000 new social housing units a year. 32 Page 16 of 21
1% Solution Federal Share (2) Affordability About $500 million a year for rent supplements for about 160,000 households. 33 1% Solution Federal Share (3) Supportive Housing About $125 million a year for 10,000 new supportive housing units. 34 Page 17 of 21
1% Solution Federal Share (4) Rehabilitation About $125 million a year to double rehabilitation funding for 30,000 units. 35 1% Solution Federal Share (5) Emergency Services About $250 million a year on services and shelter for homeless people. 36 Page 18 of 21
National Campaign About $3.5 Billion 1% of the budgets of all three levels of Government Solution National Campaign 2003 Federal, Provincial & Municipal 37 Final Observations True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam A Time to Break Silence, Riverside Church, New York City, April 4, 1967. 38 Page 19 of 21
Final Observations When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. Martin Luther King Jr., Beyond Vietnam A Time to Break Silence, Riverside Church, New York City, April 4, 1967. 39 www.homelesshub.ca Page 20 of 21
HLN Charter Challenge www.acto.ca/en/cases/right-to-housing.html 41 Page 21 of 21