An Ingenious Way To Add To Ontario’s Supply Of Affordable Housing
If I said to you that thousands of deeply affordable homes could become available in Ontario through policy change, you might wonder if my head had come away from...
Does Eliminating Homelessness Require More Than ‘Housing First’
"Eradicating homelessness starts with seeing beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to homeless people."
Those words were penned by reporter Kate Holman, writing from Brussels in an article titled Rethinking The Battle...
Broadening The Path Out Of Homelessness
Queer veterans in the United States are on the point of opening a transitional housing project in Seattle called Q'mmunity House.
In the United States, the Department of Veterans Affairs...
Ending Homelessness Saves Health Costs
Recently, a group of researchers in Toronto compared the health care costs of people who were homeless with people who weren’t.
There’s been enough media coverage about homeless people using...
Homelessness: Timely Advice For Legislators And Voters
In the run up to the US election, there's a lot at stake. Universities might refrain from actively campaigning, but there are other ways to alert voters and candidates...
How Stepping Up Housing Supports Helps Older Adults To Leave Homelessness
Older adults are special. Such a surprise! (Older adult reporting here).
Home may be where the heart is, but as adults who are homeless get older, their changing needs may...
Homeless/Unhoused: Potato/Potahto, A Spreading Human Catastrophe
The word 'homeless' is undergoing something of a redefinition, replaced by the word 'unhoused' by some people. Is the intent to assist those people who are safely housed to...
Health Leadership Central To Ending Homelessness
In London, Ontario, a homeless woman died 10 days before she was due to move into her home. Her death triggered a hunger strike. A short time later, the...
A U.S. Mayor’s Experience With Housing First
This post is inspired by the Mayor of Aurora, Colorado, who undoubtedly sacrificed some comfort to experience Housing First.
According to the Mayor, Housing First is a loser. It plain...
Homelessness: A European Tragedy Without ‘One Size Fits All’
Euronews.com has posted a story about homelessness in Europe. The article compares the state of homelessness in different countries. The number of people who are homeless is going up...
A Guide To Supporting Bridges Between Jail And Community Living
Why do we make it so hard to avoid homelessness when we've done time and served out a sentence?
The article linked below is written by C.L. Michel, who draws...
Rating A Low Barrier Shelter For Women In Boston
Research by Corinne BeaugardBeaugard is based in the School of Social Work at Boston University. and four colleagues studied a low barrier emergency shelter for women in Boston.
Emergency...
Shoalhaven’s ‘Salt Care’ = Helping Out. In Praise of ‘Growing Like Topsy’
Topsy was a pre-teen orphan, a slave girl, who featured in Harriet Beecher Stowe's book Uncle Tom's Cabin. When asked where she came from, she insisted that she didn't...
Women’s Housing Network Offers New Shelter Standards
The Canadian Women's National Housing and Homelessness Network (the WNHHN) has just published a report recommending National Standards for Emergency Shelters (Emergency Shelter Standards) that integrate human rights and...
Ending Homelessness By Staying Open To Possibilities?
The story linked to this post is about the art of the possible.
A lot of the earth is covered with roofs, especially in urban areas. There are multiple roof...
Year Round Operation Approved For Specialized ‘Hard Core’ Homeless Shelter In Berlin, Germany
Men with drug addictions are a hard core of homelessness and shelter usage. This community social problem is so common that many prefer to tar everyone who is unhoused...
Right To Housing In A Crisis? Massachusetts May Help Jurisdictions Decide
A conservative U.S. Supreme court is currently considering the circumstances, if any, that would permit an individual American to demand housing as a RIGHT. Since such a right is...
New York Celebrates First Family Shelter That Puts A Roof And A Woof Overhead
Turns out that in New York City at least, there is no need to educate the people who operate homeless shelters about the health benefits of accommodating pets along...
London, Ontario’s First ‘High Support’ Housing Project Off To A Good Start
A housing project with wraparound supports opened in London, Ontario six months ago. There are 24 residents in the first phase.
The local hospital contributed CDN$2M to the project. The...
Will Finland Carry Through On Its Plan To End Homelessness By 2027?
The article linked to this post is about Finland's remarkable achievement in reducing homelessness. The success lies in its country-wide adoption of Housing First, an evidence-based program to end...
Owners and Unhoused Share Community Fears But Not Solutions
Hey homies! How come your schemes to solve the growing community homeless problems keep falling flat?
It may well be because you won’t stop listening to yourselves, even though you...
Carrying The Torch For Ending Homelessness In The United Kingdom
Every country creates its own responses to homelessness. The Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping (the Kerslake Commission) is one of many initiatives in the United Kingdom. The...
Unable To Afford Housing? Easy And Cheap To Brand Them Loonies On The Loose
The year 1984 has come and gone. The novel of the same name lives on as a possible expression of a variety of repugnant futures. Currently, we are looking...
An Account Of Housing Support For People With Mental Illness
Imagine that you are a mental health worker in Trondheim, Norway (population 210,000). With your mental health colleagues, you began a pilot project in 2018. You asked 34 residents...
What Does Poking In Bushes Tell Us About The Number Of Unhoused People In The US?
In answer to the question posed in the headline — 'point in time' counts tell us not a lot about absolute numbers of people experiencing homelessness. That's because unleashing...
If The Housing Shoe Fits, Let Them Wear It — Scottish No-Brainer?
Unfortunately, it's not a no-brainer in Scotland or anywhere else.
If there was ever a definition of 'churning,' a blog post by Jimmy Black offers up a useful example. Black...
Homeless: To Pee Or Not To Pee? That’s Not the Question. It’s About The Poop!
These days, all North American cities have more and more homeless people in residence . . . Except they haven't got an actual house to reside in (of course...
Another Good Result For Housing First, This Time In England
Manchester's Mayor Andy Burnham has good news for the people in his city, where the number of homeless families in temporary accommodation is going down. The city is also...
Australian Research Finds A Homeless Service System In Crisis
AHURI (the Australian Housing And Urban Research Institute Limited), the agency responsible for research about housing and homelessness in Australia, has just published a report about safety in emergency...
Researchers Investigate Safety At Shelters For People Who Are Homeless
A team of researchers based in Toronto have just published an article about safety in homeless shelters. The research was triggered by accounts from homeless people who have stayed...
Good News On Homelessness From Detroit, Michigan
Josephus Anderson is lucky to have chosen Detroit for his home. It could be because it has low housing prices and low rents when compared with other large cities...
Doing More To Welcome People With Disabilities
When you hear the word disability in the context of housing, what comes to mind?
ramps
wide doorways
roll in showers
a place of your own
an extra...
Planning A Welcome For Homeless Clients
In Virginia, a new housing program for young people experiencing homelessness is under development. It is called Marsha and Marian's Neighbors.The program design is based on guidance from a...
New Affordable Homes – Not News, But Should Be
The stories that sell news are the disasters and things gone wrong. As someone said elsewhere, "it's not news when a plane lands safely."
In the housing business this means...
Exploring The Temporary Potential Of The Drive In Live-In
The mere existence of live-in vehicles has meant they've been quietly used as houses for 'homeless' people for decades. In America, there are still huge expanses of wilderness in...
A Veterinarian Pioneers Trauma-Informed Care For Homeless Pets
Trauma-informed care takes account of the possibility that a person who is seeking services has experienced trauma. For people who are homeless, the possibility of experiencing trauma is much...
Making Homelessness Safer For Women
Research has taught us something about different experiences of homelessness. One word that comes up over and over again is violenceTry: Violence And Women’s Experiences Of Homelessness.
The purpose of...
Homelessness, Housing First And Living In A State Of Lack
The article linked to this post is about what it's like to experience homeless in two cities in Ontario. It's also about what people experience when they leave homelessness...
Homelessness – We Don’t Need Experience To Take Action
What is it like to be homeless? Even if they want to know, people who have housing may have limited opportunities to find out. This post offers two perspectives,...
A Human Right To Adequate Housing: Thunder Bay Wrestles With Homelessness In This Light
Like virtually all North American cities, Thunder Bay, Ontario faces the reality of persistent homelessness. Like a smaller number of cities, indigenous people make up a portion of Thunder...
Homeless With Mental Problems/Drug Abuse Issues: Human Rights Bang Heads With Compassion
With roughly one in three people who are homeless having mental health or drug abuse issues, the growing numbers of people on the streets without shelter is creating antagonism...
Can Social Media Smooth The Path To Housing For People Leaving Homelessness?
Time was, if you were short on a household item, you'd ask a neighbour to help you out. In today's world, the idea might seem laughable. Would your neighbour...
Tiny Mobile Home or Mobile Tiny Home? Vive La Difference!
Affordablehousingaction.org has done a number of posts about the potential of 'tiny mobile homes.' For example, try this pre-COVID one that celebrates tiny-ness while questioning just where it might...
Research Study – Does Housing First Work For Single Homeless Moms?
A randomized control trial about homelessness services in the United States . . . , you may be rolling your eyes. Yet another randomized control trial? Here are two...
Slum Clearances – An Unlikely Source Of Housing Inspiration?
With all of the reports about tent clearances across North America, it is encouraging to learn that there are some places where the rights of people living in encampments...
Sing Out For Joy And For Housing
Much staff discussion and laughter erupted in the halls of a Toronto hospital while this writer awaited day surgery. Shortly thereafter, bouts of singing and more laughter filtered in...
Life In Translation: 20 Years After Mental Illness Chose Voluntary Homelessness
So you're downtown, crossing with the light at a crosswalk. As you approach the middle, you take a wide tour around a shouting person man who is focussing a...
Wraparound Supports, Sure! But Home Decorating? That, Too. Better Believe it!
Affordablehousingaction.org has emphasized the importance of ensuring that there are mental health and drug treatment supports for people who are moving from chronic homelessnessChronic homelessness means homelessness lasting for...
The State of the Temporary Affordable Housing Union? Pretty Darn Fragile!
From . . .
temporary affordable housing that isn't housing anyone at all while it takes a lengthy snooze. Read more in The Seattle Times: The story of Seattle’s homeless...
Why Canada Needs A National Housing Benefit
In the days leading up to the 2023-24 Federal Budget, here's an article in the Ottawa Citizen. It promotes a proposed Canadian Housing Benefit to help people with very...
Chronic Homeless Need Help, But Lived Experience Counters Incarceration
The latest fad(?) in solving homeless problems has been dominated by fed-up citizens endlessly encountering dangerous(?) chronic homeless people on the streets. Responding to the concerns of their citizens,...
Bearing Witness To The End Of An Honourable Life
A warning to readers. This post might be a bit of a downer. Being the middle of winter and all, it's a time when tough stuff can be particularly...
America #1 Homelessness Crisis: California. Would You Guess #2: Vermont?
California has the largest number of homeless people per capita in the U.S. It is largely an urban problem, highly visible, much talked about nationally and beyond.
Vermont, the state...
Yukon Considers: Who Deserves Social Housing When There’s Never Enough?
The following problem is a conundrum for all social housing suppliers virtually everywhere in the world. We're going to examine that problem in Canada's Yukon Territory, where the homeless...
Making Housing Payments Easier
For many of us, housing is the biggest single cost in a household budget. And, we do our best to make sure that housing costs are covered — if/when...
Can L.A. Mayor Karen Bass Pull The Plug On Homelessness, Drain The Wound?
Karen Bass is the new mayor of Los Angeles, California. She is putting her career on the line by committing to tackle effectively that city's mega-homelessness problem.
Already she's winning...
Could A Montréal ‘EMMIS’ Squad Commit Homeless To Institutional Programs?
New York City and California are struggling to get mental health interventionist programs for the homeless off the ground. It hasn't been easy going for either initiative. On both...
“Rough Sleepers”: A Book That Triggers Thoughts On A U.S. Housing Crisis
Reviewer Judy Stone, an infectious disease specialist, uses a periscope of chronic homelessness to capture a view of a growing housing crisis in America. Stone focuses first upon a...
Two U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs Programs Help Reduce Homelessness
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has recently reported that 2021, the first year of the Biden presidency, saw a significant reduction in the number of homeless veterans....
Modern U.S. Society Takes Lack Of ID Card To Be Proof You Don’t Exist
So you're American. Suppose you want to join the military, put your life on the line for your country (and earn the dollars that can lift you out of...
Why 2023 Is An Important Year to Strengthen Homelessness Services
The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) is calling for a homelessness prevention and housing benefit to help bring homelessness in Canada under control.
The number of people who are...
Improving Supports For People Leaving Homelessness
Researchers in England have done a massive review of evidence about health and social care for people who are homeless. The justification for the review itself comes from evidence:...
Housing First to End Homelessness, Except When It Should Be Housing Second.
Housing First! It's the name as well as the desirable initial action. The Finland-created method for helping the homeless off the streets has been so successful that it's in...
The Purgatory of Homelessness: Easing The Torment of An Endless Wait
Arguments can be (and are) made about the folly of easing the grinding hell of circumstance that imprisons those without housing:
"Governments at every level need to address this homeless...
Adding On To Point-In-Time Count Data To Understand Homelessness Better
At affordablehousingaction.org, we have pointed out some of the limitations of point-in-time (PIT) counts of people who are homelessTry: Fatal Flaw In Point-in-time Homeless Counts?. And earlier this year,...
Reflecting Thoughtfully On Irish Housing And Homelessness Programs
A recent report has been published about housing and homelessness policy in Ireland. The report was commissioned by six voluntary agencies that are on the front line in delivering...
America And Other Countries Are Treating The Tip Of The Homeless Iceberg
Isabel McDevitt kicks off her article for The Hill, with the following headline: The typical homeless person in America might surprise you. As she explains it, only one in five people who...
Redefining a Homeless Health Center: Are You Hungry? Come On In!
With all of the stories about tent clearances that are showing up in the news, here's somewhat more hopeful story from Portland, Oregon. A new centre that will open...
Q: How Grateful Are The Homeless For Spare Change? A: Woof!
As we swing off Toronto's Lakeshore Boulevard away from Lake Ontario, we are caught frequently in a left-hand turn lane, waiting for a green light. Parading beside our car...
Want A Civilized, Low Key, Homeless Tent Clearance? Ask A Peer To Do It.
Seattle Lawyer Lisa Daugaard is no foe of the police. In 2019 she won a MacArthur “genius” award for her assistance in developing a police-involved court diversion program. It...
Without More Funds For Shelter, Sacramento Homeless Plans Head For Rocks
Sacramento, the State Capital of California, first appeared on our news radar in 2021. The city was promising a departure from standards of international tent encampment brutality towards the...
Sweeping Vancouver, B.C.’s Homeless Into Uninhabitable Rooms
When is a home . . . with a sound roof overhead, with windows and lockable doors and storage space and access to kitchen bathroom facilities . . ....
Solving Homelessness With Coordinated Action. Can It Happen?
American President George H.W. Bush's evocative description of charity — a thousand tiny points of light — has a problem. The lights wink on and off at different times....
Section 8 Vouchers: Broadly Unfilled Promise, But A Tiny Ray of Light In CA
Affordablehousingaction.org, has been consistently down on Section 8, a.k.a. Housing Choice, vouchers — once upon a time touted as the solution to America's truly affordable housing woes.
The current federal commitment...
Social Impact Bond Tackles Homelessness In Western Australia, Wins Big Time
The results are in for Aspire — the first Australian social impact bond to address chronic homelessness. Aspire provided three years of intensive treatment and support for 575 people...
Harris County Tries Something Different To End Homelessness
Harris County, Texas has had a Housing First program since 2011For more information about Housing First, try: What Is Housing First? Why Is It So Popular? and A Handbook...
Homeless Tent Clearances Under The Microscope
Cities across Canada are clearing encampments. This post is about two different investigations of clearances that have taken place.
The first is by students at Wilfred Laurier University, who have...
Supportive Housing In Denver Helps Lift Homeless Towards Housing
'Supportive housing' has its supporters and its detractors. The article linked to this post is by supporters. In this case, the supporters are researchers from the Urban Institute. The...
Pushing Supportive Housing To Do Better
Supportive housing is supposed to be part of the solution to homelessness, not contributing to it. It's supposed to be the magic space where people who have been homeless...
Homeless? Bully(s) For You. Our Shelter System Can Provide!
A recent school shooting in Texas resulted in the deaths of 19 students, 2 teachers, and the wounding of others. Within a day, anecdotes about the life history of...
Making Service Coordination Work Better For People Who Are Homeless
Governments in Canada and the United States are devotees of service coordination as the way to fix homelessness: by working together, we can all be more effective. In both...
Optical Delusion: Solving Homelessness In Texas
Nearly a year ago now, the Texas legislature with the stroke of a pen turned the homeless into criminals. Of course, the law didn't quite say that. Instead, it...
Supportive Housing: What Is It? How To Add More That Is Needed
Canada and the United States need more supportive housing, the kind that is affordable for people with very low incomes and provides support to help with activities of daily...
Wrong Turns On The Road To Shelter In San Francisco
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publishes a map with information about homelessness. The map indicates 161,548 people were homeless in California on any given night...
California’s Rapid Housing Initiative For Homeless People – How’s It Working Out?
The Terner Center For Housing InnovationThe Terner Center For Housing Innovation is based at the University of California Berkeley. It has a long history of studying housing and homelessness...
Survey Of Homelessness – Women And Men Fare Differently
New evidence from Canada shows that women and girls have different experiences of homelessness and precarious housing than men. It adds to other reports from CanadaTry: Shining A Spotlight...
NYC: Shelter Available. A Move To Housing? Unending Delay
The 'ahead of its time' horrors of George Orwell's book, 1984, has in some respects taken 40 years and more to catch up to the events predicted in its...
BC: Transitional Housing Gone Wrong?
Intimidation, drug dealing, drug use and overdoses, petty crime, breaking and entering — what's that all about? Well, some might say it's just the same old Not In My...
Personal Perspectives On Stable Housing In California
In housing and homelessness circles, California is well known for its high housing costs and its tens of thousands of people who are living 'unsheltered.'
California's Project Homekey is an...
Placing Tiny Homes In The Housing And Homelessness Response
Tiny Homes? Hug 'em and Love 'em! The Media seems to, including us. They're forever popping up as cozy little bandaid stories about the housing and homelessness crisis in...
Canada’s National Housing Strategy – Heading Off In The Wrong Direction
Canada's National Housing Council has just released a report with a title that is hardly a headline grabber: Analysis of Affordable Housing Supply Created by Unilateral National Housing Strategy...
A Big-Bucks Seattle Plan To Shelter The Visibly Homeless
Businesses generally see visible homelessness as bad for business, sullying what might otherwise be 'beautiful downtown Seattle,' for example.
Is it possible for the public interest in ending homelessness to...
Getting The Best From Supportive Housing
Supportive housing has become an essential component in programs to end homelessness. At the same time, it seems that we still have a lot to learn about what supportive...
Repurposing Detached Homes – Gentle Density At Work
Oakville, Ontario's Norma Gamble is inventive. In existing single detached homes, she sees opportunities for shared living. And, with persuasion and an accommodating housing market, she's been able to...
Street Outreach In A Frozen Hellscape: Words Or Welfare? Whatever’s Needed
In case you think you know what police officers are all about . . .
Retired from a life as a community police officer, Paul VanHandel took a chunk of...
Shelters A Long Term Dead End? Charity Abandons Homeless Warehousing, Moves To Homes
It may be hard to view closing an emergency shelter as a step forward for providing services to the homeless in the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario.
But the House of...
A Homeless Person Has Found A Home? Excellent! But The Job Has Just Begun
'Housing First' is a significant advance in moving people who are homeless from the streets and returning them to housing. It boils down to the idea that no amount...
Orange County Teams Police Officers, Social Workers In Homelessness Pilot
A person who is experiencing homelessness intersects with another member of the public for any number of reasons. Let's pick one as charitably as possible. Suppose a member of...
Spanish Study Conclusion On Better Health For The Homeless? Buddy Up
Three people who are homeless are sitting on a park bench, content with sharing the little they have — tipsy conversation, laughter and a bottle of cheap wine. One...
Shining A Spotlight On COVID And Girls’ Homelessness
"Despite the profoundly divergent impacts of COVID-19 globally, it appears that diverse policy makers, scholars, and community leaders can agree on one thing — the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated...
