This presentation suggests that housing and homelessness are not just concerns for the city centre. It looks at how housing insecurity is deep and persisting; how poor housing effects people, communities, the economy and government; the diminishing federal investments in housing; and our lack of a comprehensive national plan. Michael Shapcott, Director of Housing and Innovation http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/ Follow us on twitter @wellesleyWI

1. Housing and
Homelessness
Lenten reflections…
Michael Shapcott
The Wellesley Institute
St Peter’s Erindale, 2014

2. Toronto
1911

3. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital

4. “The health of Toronto
must necessarily mean
the health of its citizens.”
!
Dr. H.A. Bruce,
Lieutenant-Governor
of Ontario, 1934
“Bad houses are not only a menace: they are active agents of
destruction... they destroy happiness, health and life…
Housing conditions are bad because many families cannot
earn enough to pay for decent and healthful dwellings…
Not only were bad housing conditions discovered, but the
presence of a serious housing shortage was also detected...
The community is responsible for provision of satisfactory
dwellings for those who are too poor to afford them.”
The Bruce Commission, 1934

5. Toronto
slum
s
transform
ed
into
good
hom
es

6. Bad housing makes you sick!
Homelessness:
Increased morbidity
Increased premature mortality
Mental health:
Alarming rates... especially
Clinical depression and anxiety
Control / meaning
Collective efficacy
Biological / physical:
Chemicals, gases, pollutants
Design (accidents) / crowdingSocio-economic:
Affordability / energy
Transportation / income / jobs
Contextual:
Individual / neighbourhood deprivation
networks / friends / crime

7. Good housing good for health!
Physical and mental health:
Better health outcomes /
decreased health care utilization
Community safety:
Reduced recidivism among
people leaving incarceration
Affordability interventions:
Income-based housing subsidies
Environment / physical infrastructure:
New housing, repairs, heating, noise,
indoor + outdoor environmental issues,
allergens, water + sanitation

8. People who
are vulnerably
housed face
the same
severe health
problems as
people who
are homeless
The health of homeless
people has gotten worse
in the past 15 years.
Many serious physical
health conditions have
become even more
common among
homeless people, and
their access to health
care has deteriorated.

9. Most
housing
needs are
‘hidden’

10. State of Homelessness in Canada
2013: Canadian Homelessness
Research Network / Canadian
Alliance to End Homelessness

11. Peel social housing wait list:
!
• 2012: 12,850 ‘active’ households (2nd worst in ON)
!
• Weighted avg wait time - 8.45 years (worst in ON)
!
Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association, 2013
Individuals / families in homeless shelters
!
• increase of 28% from 10,277 in 2001 to 13,131
in 2011
Region of Peel, 2013

12. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital
Making the
connections

13. Mississauga - 1971
Hulchanski - Three Cities

14. Mississauga - 2005
Hulchanski
- Three Cities

15. Government Revenues and Expenditures 2009

16. “After 20 years of continuous decline, both inequality and
poverty rates have increased rapidly in the past 10 years,
now reaching levels above the OECD average.”
OECD (2008), Growing Unequal? : Income Distribution and
Poverty in OECD Countries

17. Selected policy recommendations for OECD
countries from Divided We Stand
•Reforming tax and benefit policies is
the most direct instrument for increasing
redistributive effects. Large and
persistent losses in low-income groups
following recessions underline the
importance of government transfers and
well-conceived income-support policies.
•The growing share of income going to
top earners means that this group now
has a greater capacity to pay taxes. In
this context governments may re-
examine the redistributive role of
taxation to ensure that wealthier
individuals contribute their fair share of
the tax burden.

18. Four observations:
!
!
1.Housing insecurity deep / persistent
2.Costly to people, communities,
economy, government
3.Federal housing / homelessness
investments eroding
4.No comprehensive national plan

19. 0.50%
0.60%
0.70%
0.80%
0.90%
1.00%
1.10%
1.20%
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Federal housing investments as a
percentage of GDP)
Government Revenues and Expenditures 2009

20. When the feds cut a dollar in housing
investments… matching funds from
provinces, territories, municipalities,
community and business are lost

21. Ontario Public Accounts

22. Federal housing investments
(in millions)
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 2012
$1,500
$1,750
$2,000
$2,250
$2,500
$2,750
$3,000
$3,250
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017

23. 450000
500000
550000
600000
650000
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
626,300 homes in 2007
492,500 homes in 2017
Loss of 133,800 homes
22% of entire stock
Federally subsidized homes
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation 2012

24. Devolution of social housing:
!
• 1984 to 1993 - funding cuts to federal housing programs
!
• 1993 - no new funding for new social housing
!
• 1995 - Ontario suspends provincial housing programs
!
• 1996 - feds start to download federal housing programs
!
• 1998 - Ontario starts to download provincial housing programs
!
• 1998 - National Housing Act amended - focus on
commercialization of national housing agency

25. !
National Survey on Housing:
!
• 71% want national housing plan
• 66% want increased fed funding
• 73% want increased focus on
homelessness

26. Article 25.1: Everyone has the right to a standard
of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family, including food,
clothing, housing and medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to
security in the event of unemployment, sickness,
disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

27. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital
John Peters Humphrey:
‘Father of modern international human rights system’

28. 31st October 1945. MACKAY J.:—This is an application brought
by Drummond Wren... to have declared invalid a restrictive
covenant... namely, ‘Land not to be sold to Jews or persons of
objectionable nationality.’...
First and of profound significance is the recent San Francisco
Charter, to which Canada was a signatory, and which the
Dominion Parliament has now ratified. Under articles 1 and 55 of
this Charter, Canada is pledged to promote ‘universal respect for,
and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for
all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.’...
An order will therefore go declaring that the restrictive
covenant attacked by the applicant is void and of no effect.

29. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital
International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights
!
Article 11
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize
the right of everyone to an adequate standard of
living for himself and his family, including adequate food,
clothing and housing, and to the continuous
improvement of living conditions. The
States Parties will take appropriate steps
to ensure the realization of this right...

30. ! Good housing at a reasonable cost is
a social right of every citizen of this
country. . . This must be our objective,
our obligation and our goal.
Federal government, 1973
Hon. Ron Basford
National
Housing
Act 1973

31. Toronto 1911:
Founding of
Wellesley Hospital
City of Kitchener (2010)
Ontario Municipal Board
Discriminatory municipal bylaw on spatial separation
!
“Statutory tribunals empowered to decide questions of law are presumed
to have the power to look beyond their enabling statutes in order to apply
the whole law to a matter properly in front of them.... The presumptive
power to look beyond the tribunal's enabling statute is triggered simply
where a tribunal (with the authority to decide questions of law) is
confronted with "issues... that arise in the course of a case properly
before” it....”
Victoria (City) v. Adams (2009)
BC Court of Appeal
Municipal bylaw criminalizing activities
associated with homelessness
“The use of international instruments to aid in the
interpretation of the meaning and scope of rights under
the Charter, and in particular the rights protected under s.
7 and the principles of fundamental justice, is well-
established in Canadian jurisprudence.”

33. UN Special
Rapporteur,
2009
“Canada has a long and proud history of
housing successes, and has been known
around the world for its innovative
housing solutions. The Special Rapporteur
visited and received information about
programmes, laws and policies that
represent good practices... Canada can
also rely on a tremendous range of
academic and civil society resources.” !

34. Rowan Williams
‘The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights is
unquestionably a
landmark in the history of
moral consciousness, one
of the factors that has
consistently given hope
and purpose to political
life throughout the globe
since it first saw the light
of day in 1948.’

35. ‘I want to suggest some
ways in which we might
reconnect thinking about
human rights and religious
conviction – more
specifically, Christian
convictions about human
dignity and human
relatedness, how we
belong together.’
‘It is not an academic point: in
the last century, the Church in
South Africa or the Democratic
Republic of Germany – to take
just two examples – was
perhaps the most significant
context in which universal, non-
negotiable human dignity could
be affirmed and defended. ... For
rights language to lose the link
with religious language and
institutions would be for it to lose
something historically crucial.’

36. ‘The fundamental point is not so much that
every person has a specific set of positive
claims to be enforced, but that persons and
minority groups of persons need to be
recognized as belonging to the same moral
and civic world as the majority, whatever
differences or disagreements there may be.
And I want to argue that a proper
consideration of human rights has a better
chance of sustaining its case if it begins
from the recognition of a common dignity or
worthiness of respect among members of a
community than if it assumes some
comprehensive catalogue of claims that
might be enforceable.’
Human Rights and Religious Faith
28 February 2012

37. Four observations:
!
!
1.Housing insecurity deep / persistent
2.Costly to people, communities,
economy, government
3.Federal housing / homelessness
investments eroding
4.No comprehensive national plan

38. UN Special Rapporteur, 2009
“There has been a significant erosion of housing rights
over the past two decades. Canada’s successful social
housing programme, which created more than half a
million homes starting in 1973, has been discontinued.

39. !
1.4.3 - Planning authorities shall provide for an appropriate range
and mix of housing types and densities to meet projected
requirements of current and future residents… permitting and
facilitating all forms of housing required to meet the social,
health and well-being requirements of current and future
residents, including special needs…
!
Affordable means in the case of rental housing,
the least expensive of:
!
1. a unit for which rent does not exceed 30% of gross annual
income for low and moderate income households; or
!
2. a unit for which rent is at or below the average market rent…

40. !
Municipalities are required to:
!
• develop and implement 10-year plans to end
homelessness and ensuring adequate housing for all
• consult widely
• ensure measurable, improved outcomes
• report annually on progress

41. Peel’s plan:
!
How does it
measure up?

42. Thank you!
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