The mission of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness is pretty self evident. These days, it’s making the case that ending homelessness should be part of Canada’s COVID-19 recovery plan.
The Alliance’s strategy, titled Recovery for All, includes 300,000 new permanently affordable rental housing units and support. The housing and support will help people leave homelessness and keep their housing. A substantial portion of the units would be added using modular construction to deliver housing quickly.
The Alliance has been able to pull the strategy together quickly, thanks to a growing body of evidence about what works most effectively. It draws on current data to estimate the cost of its proposal. It also estimates the cost of services that people who are homeless currently access, which include police, correctional facilities, paramedics and hospitals. The Alliance is arguing that its proposal will cost less.
The body of evidence also exposes gaps in the homelessness service response. The strategy targets funds toward these gaps. Examples include homelessness services in rural and remote communities, which have been historically underserved, and Indigenous people, who are over-represented among the people who experience homelessness.
See the full strategy and costing at CAEH: Recovery for All
Recovery for All draws on Canadian and international evidence and could be of interest to people working to end homelessness in other countries.
Alliance representatives have pitched the proposal to parliamentary committees and to government staff who are working on the country’s recovery plan. To bolster those actions, the Alliance is encouraging Canadians to tell politicians in Ottawa that the Alliance isn’t a single voice in the wilderness.
