The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness
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The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) is a non-partisan research and policy partnership between academics, policy and decision makers, service providers and people with lived experience of homelessness. Led by Stephen Gaetz, President & CEO, the COH works in collaboration with partners to conduct and mobilize research designed to have an impact on solutions to homelessness. The COH evolved out of a 2008 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded project called the Canadian Homelessness Research Network and is housed at York University.
To bridge the gap between research, policy and practice, the COH goes beyond the mandate of a traditional research institute. As one of the largest homelessness-dedicated research institutes in the world, we support service providers, policy makers and governments to improve their capacity to end homelessness. Our philosophy is simple: through collaborative approaches across research, evaluation and design, we can develop and mobilize evidence-based solutions and together, prevent and end homelessness.
Visit http://www.homelesshub.ca to access The Homeless Hub's entire library of scholarship on homelessness.
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Browsing The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness by Author "Dej, Erin"
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Item Open Access Leading the Way: Reimagining Federal Leadership on Preventing Homelessness(Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 2017) Gaetz, Stephen; Dej, Erin; Donaldson, Jesse; Ali, NadiaBefore us is a significant opportunity to reimagine the federal government’s leadership role in homelessness. After more than 25 years of declining spending on affordable housing, the Government of Canada is launching a National Housing Strategy (NHS) with a 10-year investment in expanding the supply of affordable housing and enhancing sustainable longterm housing outcomes for Canadians. A key pillar of the NHS will be a renewal and redesign of the existing Homelessness Partnering Strategy. The last renewal of HPS in 2013 saw the Government of Canada play an important leadership role in mobilizing the results of the At Home/Chez Soi study to expand the implementation of Housing First across Canada – in essence, opening the back door to homelessness. As we turn towards a reimagined national strategy on homelessness, the Government of Canada has an opportunity to show leadership by closing the front door, through supporting a shift to homelessness prevention. This means stopping the flow of individuals and families into homelessness, and at the same time being unwilling to wait for such persons to find themselves in desperate situations — situations that can cause irreparable harm — before we help them exit homelessness. The renewed national strategy on homelessness can help make the shift to prevention through supporting communities to act quickly and creatively, to prevent homelessness before it ever begins. Toward this end, the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH) submits a bold vision for a national initiative on homelessness prevention, within a new national strategy on homelessness. The vision presented here can assist the Government of Canada in its commitment to preventing and ending homelessness for generations to come. In this brief we cover the following: - What is homelessness prevention? - Can the Government of Canada play a leadership role in homelessness prevention? - How can the prevention of homelessness be prioritized within a reimagined national strategy on homelessness?Item Open Access A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention(Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 2017) Gaetz, Stephen; Dej, ErinPrevention makes sense. To prevent disease, we vaccinate. To prevent traffic deaths, we install seat belts. While we recognize intuitively that preventing homelessness is a good idea, there has been little movement in Canada to make that happen on a national scale. A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention sets out to provide the language and clarity to begin that conversation. Since mass homelessness emerged in the mid-1980s, we have largely used emergency services to respond to people’s immediate needs. While we will always need emergency services to help those in crisis, over time these short-term responses have become the standard method for managing homelessness long-term. In the last decade, Canadian policies and practices have begun to shift from managing homelessness to finding solutions, in particular the expansion of the Housing First approach across the country. The Housing First model provides housing and supports for people experiencing chronic homelessness with no housing readiness requirements. New research, innovation, and best practices have propelled our thinking to make the goal of ending homelessness realistic; however, we are still missing an important piece – preventing homelessness in the first place. Why must we wait until people are entrenched in homelessness before offering help? In A New Direction: A Framework for Homelessness Prevention, we set out to uncover what it will take to stop homelessness before it starts, to avoid its often-traumatizing effects. The aim of the framework is to begin a nation-wide conversation on what prevention looks like, and what it will take to shift toward homelessness prevention. Using international examples, the framework operationalizes the policies and practices necessary to successfully prevent homelessness and highlights who is responsible. Above all, it situates prevention within a human rights approach. Now is the time to prioritize homelessness prevention.Item Open Access The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016(Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 2016) Gaetz, Stephen; Dej, Erin; Richter, Tim; Redman, MelanieMass homelessness in Canada emerged in the 1980s, following a massive disinvestment in affordable housing, structural shifts in the economy and reduced spending on social supports. Since then, stakeholders across the country have tried and tested solutions to address the issue. These responses, largely based on the provision of emergency services, have prevented meaningful progress. Fortunately, there are many signs that we are entering a new phase – one that will lead to an end to homelessness in Canada. This next phase is marked by the promising results of the Housing First model across Canada, significant reductions in homelessness in Medicine Hat and Hamilton, federal interest and investment in housing and homelessness, and importantly, the return to a National Housing Strategy – a long overdue conversation in Canada. We know that ending homelessness in Canada requires partnerships across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. It means working upstream to prevent homelessness, as well as providing safe, appropriate, and affordable housing with supports for those experiencing homelessness. With support from all orders of government, a commitment to housing as a human right, and evidence-based solutions we can, collectively, prevent and end homelessness. The State of Homelessness in Canada 2016 provides a roadmap for the way forward. Including a series of joint recommendations – drafted by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and the Canadian Alliance to end Homelessness – for the National Housing Strategy.Item Open Access What Would it Take? Youth Across Canada Speak Out on Youth Homelessness Prevention(Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Press, 2018) Schwan, Kaitlin; Gaetz, Stephen; French, David; Redman, Melanie; Thistle, Jesse A.; Dej, ErinAre we making significant headway on youth homelessness in Canada? Are we stopping young people from becoming homeless? Are we ensuring that young people transition out of homelessness quickly, and that they do not become homeless again? It is time that we started taking a good, hard look at these questions. In our efforts to end homelessness, we have primarily focused on providing emergency services and supports to young people while they are homeless. Unfortunately, this hasn’t gotten us the results we want. Youth homelessness in Canada is an ongoing problem for which we seem to be making slow but insufficient progress. It is time to consider a new approach – the prevention of youth homelessness. The What Would it Take? study asked young people with lived experience of homelessness: what would it take to prevent youth homelessness in Canada? Between July 2017 and January 2018, A Way Home Canada and the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness consulted with youth across Canada to ask: - What would have prevented your homelessness? - What programs, policies, services, and supports are needed to prevent youth homelessness? - What do you want to tell the Canadian government about preventing youth homelessness? - How do you want to be involved in making change on this issue? The purpose of this report is to amplify the voices, insights, and wisdom of these young people in order to drive policy and practice change. In our efforts to end homelessness, we have primarily focused on providing emergency services and supports to young people while they are homeless. While this is important and generally well-meaning, we need to question whether this is enough; whether waiting for young people to become homeless before we help them is both sufficient and the right thing to do. In considering how we might reform our response to youth homelessness, young people with lived experience of homelessness need to have their voices heard. Their valuable insights drawn from their experiences can challenge our current thinking and point to a new approach that more effectively helps young people before they end up on the streets. Read the report for youth insights on how we can prevent youth homelessness in Canada.