Homeward Trust Case Study

Housing in Toronto is at an all time high, through research found it has become apparent that there is a significant problem with affordable housing. Although finding affordable housing is not necessarily impossible, those who are lucky enough to find affordable accommodations end up with other issues that are beyond their control such as pests and property maintenance issues. Many families living in Toronto are considered middle class and could easily afford to live anywhere else, the rent prices are too steep in the city for them to afford. The city is growing at a healthy rate and there is already a significantly high homeless rate in the city. The purpose of this proposal is to introduce a few organizations that have plans to help this

The DC government has been implementing Rapid Re-Housing programs in response to the homelessness crisis that the nation’s capital has been facing for years. The Rapid Re-Housing models were implemented across the country through the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP), as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 (Anderson, 2015). Rapid Re-Housing is mainly an intervention, informed by a Housing First approach. Housing First is a critical part of the community’s effective homeless crisis response system (Anderson, 2015). The program attempts to connect families and individuals experiencing homelessness to permanent housing through personalized programs of assistance that may include the use of limited-time

With a large homeless community and vacant houses one of the first natural thoughts could be to renovate these houses, and turn them into homes for the homeless. But, it just may not be that simple. In the article, Barbara Samuels, who is a managing attorney for the ACLU of Maryland’s Fair Housing Project referenced an attempt to do that exact same thing about two decades ago. A developer named James Rouse and city officials put forth more than $130 million into a poverty-stricken neighborhood to rehabilitate houses and build more, and sadly there are even more vacant houses than before. Unfornately, this probably caused some people to feel there is nothing that can be done, and loose all hope in restoring these homes.

Often children are moved around between several different homes or are removed several times if not permanently from their families. This prevents the children from developing a sense of security that is necessary for them to become confident in themselves in order to become successful and healthy individuals. Disrupting the family unit can also inhibit children from becoming connected to their culture during the time they are discovering their identity. The connection between First Nations youth being removed from their homes and in turn becoming a part of the homeless population in Canada is shown in the following statement: “In general, many youth that are homeless come from the care of the child protection system such as adoptive homes, foster homes, or group homes ((Cauce and Morgan, 1994; Fall and Berg, 1996; Fitzgerald, 1995; Lindsey et al., 2000; Maclean et al., 1999), as quoted by Baskin, 2011, p. 194). Whenever it is a safe possibility, it is crucial for a child to be raised by their family to serve the child’s best

The focus of this paper is to discuss homelessness today in Canadian cities. Canada continues to struggle with its national issue of homelessness, in which the Indigenous population is overrepresented. Research shows that “6.97 percent of the urban Aboriginal population in Canada is homeless, as compared to a national average of 0.78” (Belanger 2013, p.4). Though the reasons for homelessness vary from person to person, within the Indigenous community, multiple common factors contribute to the misfortune Aboriginal peoples continue to face. Housing conditions and limited employment opportunities on Native Reserves leave people wanting to leave, but the high cost of living in cities makes it hard to settle down. As a result, many Indigenous

Taking into account that, the housing first program is applied in several western countries around the world like the United States, England and Australia, this letter is directed to the government of Canada. It proposes solutions for homelessness in Canada by introducing an additional new branch of the program that speaks only for the invisible people while leaving the original program to speak for

Our goal is to end homelessness in 10 years by creating a framework for a portable housing for people to receive housing assistance flexibility to choose where to live. For this reason, we are proposing legislation for inclusionary zoning because it would enable municipalities to ensure affordable housing. Ontario has updated the Long-Term Affordable Strategy legislation, which was implemented in 2010, because we want to implement people-centered housing program and provide municipalities with flexibility to meet local needs in the community. We are introducing new legislative and policy measures by investing $178 million over the

21.9% of renter households spend more than 50% of their income on shelter putting them at serious risk of homelessness. (http://www.wesley.ca/cmfiles/Onanygivennight.pdf). As Gaetz, Donaldson, Richter, & Gulliver (2013) reveal the fact in their report ‘The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013’ that approximately 30,000 individuals are counted as homelessness every night. Among them, around 3,000 individuals are found totally unsheltered and spend each night outside on the street, in parks or in an open place without even any shade overhead. Oudshoorn , Ward-Griffin & Berman (2013) say that whenever people are exposed to homelessness for any of the factors, they try to look for service agencies. Naturally, these 10% of total unsheltered homelessness are the result of government’s inappropriate policy to reach them as rest other are somehow managed by different

Political leaders in US, Canada, policy-makers and Researchers are in agreement with “Housing First intervention as a solution to homelessness.” Therefore, addressing the homeless individual with housing and mental health challenges, primary care, psychiatry, and case-coordination. In addition, conversations” ultimate to goal to end homelessness in Canada.”

This objective was to be achieved through six outcomes, which also addressed issues of social inclusion and disadvantage, including Indigenous disadvantage. The outcomes were; firstly, to achieve sustainable housing and social inclusion for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness. Secondly, to provide Indigenous people with improved housing amenities and reduced overcrowding, especially in remote areas, and housing opportunities that are the same as the wider

A large number of Americans get off of work or get through with school for the day and get in a car or on the bus and commute home. Home is a place of security for most; a place that is comforting and full of ample resources to live comfortably. Unfortunately, according to Project HOME, in January of 2015, 83,170 individuals and 13,105 people in families were chronically homeless, meaning that they have experienced homelessness for a year or longer or have been homeless four times in three consecutive years (“Facts on Homelessness”). Chronically homeless individuals tend to rely on public housing and other government aid and while it is done with good intentions it does not always teach how to eventually get out of being chronically homeless.

The outcomes were to achieve sustainable housing and social inclusion for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness. Also, to provide Indigenous people with the same housing opportunities as other Australians and improved housing amenities and reduced overcrowding, especially in remote areas. Furthermore, lastly, for people being able to rent housing that meets their needs, purchase affordable housing and have access to an efficient and responsive housing market. The achievement of these outcomes was to be assessed by a range of outputs and reported upon annually by the COAG reform council. (12,

Since the elimination of the affordable housing investments by the Canadian Federal government in 1990, there have been various attempts at relieving the epidemic of homelessness for Aboriginals that coincided with the program withdrawal. These have included federal initiatives, typically crafted as a solution to homelessness as a whole, but with funds targeted to Aboriginal groups, as well as provincial, municipal and even band programs working to relieve

the Housing First or Pathways to Housing programs consider housing a basic right and provide individuals with housing first. Housing is then combined with supportive treatment services in the areas of mental health and general medical health, substance use, education, and employment (“Permanent supportive housing: assessing the evidence”, 2014).

However, affordable housing needs money. For not only governments, but people in all sorts of positions, there exists a hesitance to put money into a situation in which one does not immediately benefit. Government’s are more willing to spend millions on fighter aircrafts, for example, than invest into their own people. Such behavior begs the question of what the priority of the government is. Ironically, ignoring the homelessness issue in Canada “costs the Canadian economy over $7 billion per year.” (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 6) The Canadian Government has invested in the issue of homelessness, increasing the number of temporary shelters, investing in longer hospital stay, emergency healthcare and various other programs to aid in this issue. However, the rate of homelessness continues to grow; this implies that what has been done is simply not enough. Temporary shelters, similar to their name, are temporary. A homeless person, temporarily, has a place to sleep; however, temporarily does not solve the issue of homelessness. Programs like temporary shelters and emergency healthcare are costing the Government billions each year and not aiding in the fight to end homelessness. For many Canadians a large portion of their income goes towards rent, in fact “nearly 1 in 5 households experience extreme housing affordability problems, meaning they have low incomes and have to spend