Homelessness in Canada

Before the 80’s people in developed countries such as Canada had no clue of what it meant to not have a house to live in, it was not an issue (Hulchanski, Campsie, Chau, Hwang, & Paradis, 2009). At the time, the term ‘homeless’ meant to not have any emotional and social support from a family, it meant to not have a home, not necessarily to be without a house (Hulchanski et al, 2009). It is only by mid-1980’s when the meaning of homeless changed and people started learning about homelessness as an issue that needed to be addressed, an issue of dehousing and lack of financial and social abilities to keep up with living costs (Hulchanski et al, 2009).

Today, Canada has a very strong economy and good prospect, and yet unable to properly address the issue of homelessness in Canada. There are over 150,000 households paying more than half their income to rent, and more than 30,000 using shelters, and many more on the streets (Blueprint to end homelessness in Toronto, 2006). The sad thing is that these numbers only represent Toronto.

Conditions of poor housing and lack of safe homes drive up the rates of poor health and death, and this in itself drives up the health costs for the whole country (Blueprint to end Homelessness in Toronto, 2006). What this means is that we are all paying big money for a solution that is anything but that, a band-aid that is only sustaining a problem (Blueprint to end Homelessness in Toronto, 2006). There is a need to change from the band-aid idea of the shelters to a more long-term solution – build more housing that is both safe and affordable.

Adding up to this, there is the cost of criminalizing people experiencing homelessness. It seems obvious that someone that does not have money for food or rent will not have the money to pay fines for living in the streets, and yet many people are being charged for living in the streets (in other words, for being poor). Here is where taxpayers’ money comes in again – “the monthly costs of jailing is $4,333” (Blueprint to end homelessness in Toronto, 2006).

For the last decade the main response to homelessness in Canada has been to build shelters and emergency, short-term solutions. (Gordan Laird, 2007). There is nothing wrong with wanting to create shelters to help those out on the street in heat hikes and freezing days. However, if this is the way of operation, homelessness will only multiply, and not just in Toronto. The cost of keeping shelters as they are at the moment is around the $6 billion dollars annually, for the whole nation.

Band-aid solutions are not really solutions, they are just pain killers with short-term relief. Soon, we will see the poor neighbourhoods becoming more like those sad images that we all think of when someone says “third world” - whatever that means. The working neighbourhoods will become poor, and so on and on. If there is a gap between rich and working class now, imagine how that gap will look like in a few years.

Taking a look at the average monthly costs of social housing - $199.92 (Blueprint to end Homelessness in Toronto, 2006), it is easy to see that investing in social housing is a much more cost effective solution. What is more, if Canada developed a proper National Affordable Housing system, there would be less people in the shelters (which are supposed to be just temporary anyways), less people in the streets, and ultimately would give people opportunity to catch up with their financial situation. Social housing, contrary to what many thing, is not about giving houses for free for the lazy bodies. Affordable housing means that no household will pay more than 30% of its total income - allowing the rest of the income to go to other monthly bills and expenses that every household has in developed countries like Canada.

Many of the people in shelters and on the streets, are actually working, sometimes more than one job and long shifts. In fact, many people experiencing homelessness constitute what is called the "hidden homelessness", these are people that simply cannot afford rent any more, maybe were just laid off, etc. and are "couch surfing" - living temporarily on the good will of family members and friends. Many of these people, are actually college and university students, who have to manage between school expenses, rent, and food - many of them actually have part-time/full-time jobs, but simply cannot keep up with the thousands of dollars in expenses. Any one who go to university in Canada, especially in Ontario - the most expensive in tuition and school related costs - knows how hard it is.

The issue of homelessness is deeply rooted in the society we live in, in our ideas and the way the social structures are operated. It becomes a vicious cycle, where we criminalize people experiencing homelessness and blame them for the lack of resources and abilities our society enforces on them. Often being on the streets is addressed as a specific group's laziness. We often stigmatize people for their life situation, without stopping to understand what exactly lead them there. Perhaps it is te ill way of thinking and behaving of our own social structures and services that allows or leads them to be in that situation. In hearing from individuals currently experiencing homeless in the streets of Toronto, a broken and prevasive system is often what lies underneath.

Sure there are some people that simply wonder around and seem to do nothing to better their lives, or have any will do so for that matter. But is this really just pure laziness, or these people simply lost faith and hope for anything better in their lives? Many of the people we see on the streets, are lost, they are lost in cracks of society, drowning in the “No” and “Does Not Qualify” that flood the bureaucratic system of society. Very easily we have the “us” versus “them” theme. Not easily though do we stop to find out and understand. “They are lazy, the pests tha inundate our beautiful streets” - so we say. Do we stop to ask why and how?

The other problem is people's perception of who 'is homeless' and who will never be. In a classroom activity not too long ago, this perception was so easily chattered. Seeing all the “people” who are or could become homeless, it was easily understood how ignorant we all can be. Men, women, children, teenagers, students, single parents, whole families – small or large, from different ethnicities and even financial status – anyone really. Especially living in Toronto, the most expensive city to live in Canada (Chai, 2011) homelessness should not be a very hard thing to understand, but we don't!

Taking a serious look at it now, the “us” versus “them” thinking, comes across as more of a symptom of the fear syndrome. Because no one really wants to admit that the young kid on the streets is perhaps there as a result of an ill and unsupportive system, or that the next “homeless person” could end up being one of us.

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Compilation own excerpts,

Veronica Almeida 2011 © All Rights Reserved