Homelessness and Extreme Housing Insecurity: What should be done?

AGENDA

6pm David Hulchanski, Who has done what since the 1980’s emergence of mass homelessness?

7:00 Cathy Crowe, Fighting the disaster 22 years later

8:25 Steven Meagher, Family Shelters in Toronto

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PDF of David Hulchanski's presentation: What is the Canadian Government doing for Homeless Canadians?

Guest presentation: Cathy Crowe, RN, Street Nurse, co-founder of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC), Nurses for Social Responsibility, and the Toronto Coalition Against Homelessness. Cathy is currently the distinguished visiting practitioner in the Department of Politics at Ryerson University’s Faculty of Arts. She has been awarded honorary doctorates/degrees by five universities for her two decades work as a “street nursing pioneer.” In 2004 the Atkinson Charitable Foundation awarded her the economic justice fellowship. She is the author of A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of A Street Nurse (Friesen Press, 2019), and Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out (Between the Lines, 2007), and was the Executive Producer of the Home Safe documentary film series.

PDF of Cathy Crowe's Powerpoint presentation

- Cathy Crowe's website
- 2019 book: A Knapsack Full of Breams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse Weblink to Book
- 1998 Cathy Crowe op-ed, Homelessness a Real Disaster, Toronto Star. PDF
- 2001 Cathy Crowe op-ed, The hideous crime of homelessness, Toronto Star. PDF

New: Cathy Crowe (2020) City of Toronto COVID-19 Homeless Response - Issues and Gaps, Backgrounder, May 4. 4 pages. PDF
New: New York Times Opinion (2020) America’s Cities Could House Everyone, End Homelessness, if They Chose To; US housing crisis is a symptom of America’s wealth, and its indifference. May 15. PDF
Now available online: PUSH. Push sheds light on a new kind of faceless landlord, increasingly unliveable cities, and an escalating housing crisis. The film follows Leilani Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, as she's trying to understand who's being pushed out of the city and why. 90 minutes. Weblink TVO

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Guest Discussant: Family Shelters in Toronto with Steven Meagher, Shelter Manager, Christie Refugee Welcome Centre. Steve Meagher works as Shelter Manager for Christie Refugee Welcome Centre, an emergency shelter for refugee claimant families in Toronto. He is currently serving as co-chair of the family sector table with the Toronto Shelter Network. He is also active member of the Shelter and Housing Justice Network (SHJN), and the Ontario Coalition of Service Providers for Refugee Claimants, where he chairs the Unaccompanied Minors Working Group.

PDF of Steven Meagher's Powerpoint presentation

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Readings

Schwan, Kaitlan (2016) “Conclusion,” Chapter 6 of Why Don’t We Do Something? The Societal Problematization of “Homelessness” and the Relationship between Discursive Framing and Social Change, Doctoral dissertation, Social Work, U of Toronto. PDF Chart HLN in the news Chart Activism and Action Relationship
Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (1998) State of Emergency Declaration: An Urgent Call For Emergency Humanitarian Relief & Prevention Measures, October. PDF
UN CESCR (2016) Canada - Concluding Observations on status of Social and Economic Rights, Geneva: United Nations Economic and Social Council. PDF
Charter Challenge (2011) Homelessness as a Housing Rights Violation in Canada, Ontario Superior Court. PDF This 15 page document is the legal application to file a human rights violation challenge under provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms against the governments of Canada and Ontario.
McAlevey, J. F. (2016) No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age, Oxford University Press. Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 7, Conclusion: Pretend Power vs. Actual Power. PDF

Suggested (optional) Readings

Stephen Gaetz, S. & E. Dej (2017) A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention. Toronto: Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press. PDF
Farha, L. & K. Schwan (2020) A National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada: A Human Rights Approach. The Shift. PDF
Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (2020) Recommendations for the Federal Government to assist housing providers during the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. May 13. PDF
Campsie, P. (2018) What We Talk About When We Talk About Rooming Houses: Regulation in Canada, 2000–2018. NCRP. PDF
Campsie, P. (2018) Rooming houses in Toronto, 1997–2018. NCRP. PDF
City of Toronto (1999) Report of the Mayor's Homelessness Action Task Force. PDF Chapter 6 on Supportive Housing. PDF
Novac, S (1998) Supportive Housing, Background paper prepared for the City of Toronto's Mayor's Homelessness Action Task Force. PDF
Suttor, G. (2016) Taking Stock of Supportive Housing for Mental Health and Addictions in Ontario, Toronto: Wellesley Institute. WebLink
Suttor, G. (2017) Supportive Housing in Ontario: Estimating the Need, Toronto: Wellesley Institute. Weblink

Wellesley Institute (2017) Supportive Housing Strategy (summary), Toronto. Weblink

Wellesley Institute (2018) Seeking Supportive Housing (wait list analysis), Toronto. Weblink