Charting An End To Eviction Law In The U.S.
"Civil government . . . is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have...
Hotel in Delaware Changes With The Times
In 2020, New Castle County in Delaware found itself the proud owner of a multi-storey hotel. It was the early days of COVID, and the building was quickly repurposed...
New Zealand Study Puts Bittersweet Boots To ‘No Place Like Home’
Here's a stunning conclusion from a New Zealand study of occupant satisfaction in major styles of housing. Public Housing tops the occupant satisfaction scale.
Now surely there must be some...
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...
The U.S. Moves On From The Grants Pass Ruling – Part IV
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the case of Grants Pass v Johnson, what’s next? This post is the final one in a four-part series about...
Historic Roots For Homelessness Among Indigenous People
Native Indians are over-represented amongst the people who are homeless in the United States. This is also the case for indigenous people in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Are...
Now That Homeless Are ‘Unhoused’, A Retrospective On Scientific Study
Before widespread use of the term 'homeless' as a subject for scientific study, there were other names, for example, 'tramp,' 'hobo,' 'vagrant' and many others.
As for the word 'homeless,'...
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...
Health Issues Inspire Local Governments To Expand Housing Supply
Research in the United States has been connecting safe, stable affordable housing with health care. This post is the final in a short series about how the research is...
Academics Stepping Up To The Challenge Of Homelessness
Research in the United States has been connecting safe, stable affordable housing with health care. This post is the second in a short series about how the research is...
New Directions In Housing And Health In The United States
Research in the United States has pinpointed connections between safe, stable affordable housing with health careFor example, try: Connecting The Housing And Health Dots. This post is the first...
Hot Or Not? The Importance Of Unhoused Perception In A Heating-Up World
Columbia, the capital city of South Carolina, is in a climate region often visited by temperatures both uncomfortable and potentially dangerous. That is a particular threat to those with...
Living In Glasgow’s Council Housing: Mothers’ Perspectives
Council housing estates in the United Kingdom have been portrayed in the media as dangerous and unlawful spaces. On the strength of this picture, government leaders have approved the...
Is Health Affected By Rises In House Prices?
How do rising housing prices affect our health? It is a question that intrigued a group of five researchers in public health and economics at Simon Fraser University and...
In-School Learning Needs To Be Chewed Over. Who Knew?
COVID has produced unexpected poverty in a number of countries. It has lead to hunger, as well as to programs to mitigate it in families with school-age children.
Free school...
Yes, Danger & Homeless People. But Who’s Scared – And Who is Scaring?
So let's be honest here. How frightening are unhoused people? Sure, everyone has discomfort, even fear, when some person screams a loud and crazy litany of nonsense from (with...
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...
A Tip Of The Hat In The Direction Of Indigenous Thriving
There are two very different articles linked to this post about public support for Indigenous initiatives in the United States.
The first article is about projects by American Indians and...
Find Sick Communities And Try To Fix Them? Wha? Surely Better To Flail And Forget Them?
No, 'Flail' isn't misspelled. Admittedly 'Fail' might do the job, too. But we had in mind a post we wrote three years ago that described a New York City...
CMHC Says It’s True – There’s A Mould Issue For People In Core Housing Need
Canada has a standard for adequate housing. It was last revised in 1980! At that time, the focus shifted from whether there was indoor plumbing to structural issues like...
Hot Air: Two Kinds Of Deadly Poison Killing The Most Vulnerable Unhoused
In a recent publication, The Harvard Political Review details two forms pernicious ill-health that is killing increasing numbers of global citizens including Americans. Climate change is one. The other...
A Gateway To Homelessness In British Columbia And How To Close It
A quagmire is the word one authority uses to describe the process to access publicly funded supports that are due to Indigenous people with diverse abilities. Failing to navigate...
Canada’s Housing Promises To Indigenous People: Why No Action?
When it launched in 2017, Canada's National Housing Strategy vowed to do right by Indigenous People. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's landing page for the National Housing Strategy...
San Jose, CA Scrambles To Escape Self-Inflicted Water Damage
One of the most powerful images expressed by a newpaper cartoon came in the 1950's from Pogo, a socially aware cartoon opossum. He reported on impending warfare with a...
Women Die Young In The Land of Homelessness: Truth Or Fiction?
The health link between housing and the early death of women is a concern worthy of effective communication worldwide. It is not enough, however, to wish its validity without...
Careless, Carefree Politicans Become Grim Reapers For The Unhoused
How much damage can politicians do? Can they kill people, directly or indirectly? Unfortunately, recent research is showing that in California at least that the answer is, intended or...
How Homelessness Squeezes Life Out Of You
Reading the article attached to this post might put you in mind of banging your head against a brick wall.
The article is about a project to calculate mortality rates...
How Health Services Fall Short When Serving People Who Are Unhoused
Health researchers pay relentless attention to population healthPopulation health involves the study of morbidity (illness) and mortality, statistics that have been collected for a long time. Population health includes...
Older Adults Leaving Big Cities To Escape High House Prices
Here are two reports that have significance for seniors living in England.
The first report, prepared by Independent Age, analysed data about where seniors are living. The data is from...
Video Animated Field Notes For National (Continental?) Unhoused
Here are some images, with accompanying comments, taken during an encampment demolition in Halifax. The next steps, rendered inevitably off-camera, reflect the displacement of former encampment residents towards literally...
Feet – The Foundation For Anyone Who Walks
Have you ever had a foot injury? If you have, you will know how it can limit your mobility.
Now imagine that the only way you have to get around...
UK Government Committee Speaks Up For The Health Of Private Renters
The UK government's Health and Social Care Committee recommends that the safety standards that apply to social rent housing should also apply in private rental accommodation. The recommendation comes...
Aging? Be Afraid! Your Day Of Financial Reckoning Has Been Miscalculated
In a world of self-reliance, the Baby Boom (postwar) generation is aging out self-care. The future has arrived.
Your retirement planning, if it even exists, was locked in during an...
Offering Health Care That Is Safe For People Who Are Homeless
About 1980, this writer attended a presentation by a physician from El Salvador. He talked about practising medicine in a civil war. He spoke about his patient who needed...
DNA Sampling Speaks To The Value Of Social Housing
Scientific discoveries are flying thick and fast these days. News about AI and ChatGBT are getting a lot of media coverage, but we'd like to draw your attention to...
Scottish Commissioner: Housing Children In Hotels Violates Their Rights
Scotland has a Children and Young People’s Commissioner. The position existed prior to 2014 but could only reach out to protect groups of children. After 2014, the Commissioner could address...
Food: Everybody Needs It For Survival. How About For Community Interaction Among Seniors?
There are no definitive answers yet from a new Bournemouth University project in association with the UK's United St Saviour’s Charity.
The LEMONADE Project intends to ". . . provide multigenerational...
Who Are Homelessness Policies Helping – A Toronto Case Study
In 2019, Canada officially embraced the right to adequate housing, following the language of the United Nations. Homelessness is prima facie (obvious) evidence that the right to adequate housing...
Potable Water: A Pillar In The Right To Adequate Housing, Also Essential To Life
This is the final post in a series that looks at housing and homelessness in South Africa and Canada. It might be a source of inspiration/direction for housing efforts...
UK: Keeping Social Tenants Safe While Building Affordable Homes
Should we pick a fight with Octopus Real Estate, a United Kingdom firm eyeing profit from building much needed social housing, which aims to bring free market partners in...
Improving Tenant Health In Public Housing
Two students who are enrolled at Harvard Medical School have collaborated on an article in which they speak up for the people who live in public housing. The students,...
Education Technology Trips Up Students Worldwide During COVID
A UNESCO publication, introduced in UNESCO's own words:
"A new book about experiences with educational technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for the future of learning...
"The COVID-19 pandemic...
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...
Speaking Up About How Housing Systems Are Failing Us
Living in Canada's arctic territories is not easy. Housing is scarce, in poor condition and often very crowded. Housing advocates have been speaking to the government, the media and...
How Efforts To Crush A Tent City Produced An Enduring Record Of Their Value
People who experience homelessness have a lot to contend with. Where will they go to eat, sleep, get clean, do laundry? With these basics up in the air, it's...
Study: Autistic Brains Are ‘Wired Differently.’ Housing and Social Support Suffers
A recent study from the United Kingdom reports that the 'differentness' of autistic people hampers their ability to take advantage of resources that support health, education, and housing.
What is...
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...
Priorities For Women Experiencing Homelessness In Los Angeles County
The majority of women who experience homelessness in Los Angeles County have experienced violence during their current episode of homelessness. And one third of women experiencing homelessness in Los...
New York City Allows Police To Commit People For Psychiatric Care – Six Month Report Card
When New York's Mayor gave police new powers to involuntarily commit people to hospital for psychiatric treatment, advocates were worried. Can a person trained in public safety reasonably assess...
End Of Life Care For Homeless People
In bald terms, hospitals have a mission to patch you up and get you out the door. It is not an ideal environment for someone who is dying. This...
An Ethical Inquiry To Improve Research About Indigenous People
Let's be clear up front. This post is not going to be for everyone. It's about a rather boring aspect of research: ethics and research methods. At the same...
Can’t Do The Time? Then Don’t Do The Crime – Really Bad Advice And Treatment For The Homeless
Affordablehousingaction.org recently highlighted two articles about homeless outreach teams operated by local governments in North America. One was based on a research from the United States, which found that...
Affordable Housing – Rethinking The Magnet Concept
When new affordable housing is under consideration, community leaders can be apprehensive, fearing that the new housing will be a magnet. They worry that the housing will attract more...
Police Are Trained To Get Stuff Done. Should That Include Finding Housing For Homeless People?
Housing ultimately solves homelessness. Outreach doesn't. Particularly when the outreach is accidentally or deliberately punitive. Next City has published an article that explores cities where the official intention is...
Architects Design Buildings To Welcome People Shunned By Society
Architecture has been used to rebuff groups of people who society considers undesirableTry: Spotting Architecture That Encourages Homeless People To ‘Move On’ and Is There a Difference Between Hostile...
In Welsh Social Housing, Feeling Low? A Few Lucky Folks Can Grow To Glow!
In the gloom-occluded world of social housing in the United Kingdom, there are occasional tiny flashes of sunlight. Literally.
But first, let's get the bad news out of the way.
UK...
Food And Housing Costs Stress Household Budgets – Something Has To Give
This is a post about food. It is a basic necessity, but frequently sacrificed in the face of paying for housing. Welfare cuts in 1995 drew attention to a...
Why Do UK Housing Associations Hoard Billions While Their Tenants Suffer Poor Housing?
Actually, the devil made them do it. That is, if you are prepared to recognize the UK's national government as the devil in question.
Housing Associations began over the last...
Multicultural Peel Tackles Domestic Violence For Victims Without A Voice To Ask For Help
A partner dies from domestic violence every six days in Canada. Who are the unfortunate victims, and why don't they speak out before it is too late?
When it comes...
Canadian Housing Survey Sheds Light On High Eviction Rates In British Columbia
The Canadian Housing Survey was launched in 2018 as part of Canada's National Housing Strategy. It gives researchers and the public new insights into Canada's housing market.
It is thanks...
Rebuilt Shipping Containers Stacked On A Barge: A Temporary Home For Homeless People?
The United Kingdom is currently preoccupied with asylum-seekers. Thousands of them arrive yearly, crossing the channel from Europe to instantly swell the UK's homeless population, already of crisis proportions.
The...
Canada Cares Enough To Allow The Homeless to Commit Suicide Without Being Fined
Other countries take note: Canada would seem to be extraordinarily compassionate by allowing 'assisted euthanasia' for any strongly-felt reason. When applying that compassion to a national homelessness crisis, it...
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...
Pardon Us If We Engage in A Little Tweneboa Worship While Social Landlords Quake
Tweneboa who? That would be Kwajo Tweneboa, arguably the United Kingdom's most powerful social housing activist. A year ago, he was 'trending' everywhere. We'd hate to think he might...
Getting Around The Sticky Problem Of Having An Address To Access Services
Have you ever stopped to think about how much having an address affects your life? How would you go about accessing water for drinking and bathing without an address?...
Best Foot Forward: Public/Social Housing In The 15-Minute City
The concept of a '15-minute city' is having a long moment of world-wide appreciation If you haven't yet focused upon 15-minute cities, here's an easy-reading description of how walking...
A Deep And Wet Dive Into The Strengths of Passivhaus Technology For Building Social Housing
“PassivhausPassivhaus and Passive House refer to a standard for setting levels of energy use in new buildings. EnerPHit does the same for buildings that are being renovated. We're using...
Homeless Drug Addict Self-Harm? Mobility May Help Clean Up That Septic Habit
Mobility seems all the rage at the moment. We posted about an aborted attempt to provide mobile off-street sleeping for the people who are homeless in Rhode IslandTry: Mobile...
Housing And Health – The Problem Of Investigating A Cause-Effect Relationship
Do housing conditions cause health conditions? In individual cases, the answer has proven (after many meetings with coroners) to be yes. There is Awaab Ishak, who died from exposure...
UK Youth In Care + Private Care Homes = Toxic Combo: The Dregs of Failed Neolibralism
What is it about the attraction of governments to the almost guaranteed predation caused by funding private-enterprise care homes? The title above reflects a United Kingdom report on dreadfully...
Neglected Social Housing Or Any Other Can Hound Older People Towards Long Term Care
Research has long shown that older people are more vulnerable to changes in their environment. For example, even though it may be more expensive and less efficient to allow...
The Fight For Trans Rights Shines A Light On Health Care Rights For Homeless Children
A great deal of so-called 'woke' energy around the world has been mobilizing to demand more recognition for 'trans' rights, together with legal mechanisms to create a physical and...
Asleep Near My Doorstep? The Matter Has Long Been Settled. Your Need For Slumber Is A Crime
The COVID pandemic resulted in a profound change — temporarily at least — in the way that homeless citizens were treated world-wide. Was it because communities were overwhelmed by...
Loosening The Hold Of Inequality In U.S. Cities
Do you remember the triple bottom line, a term invented to expand the bottom line? The bottom line was about money: the triple bottom line added social and environmental...
Funding Houses For All Homeless. An Enormous Expense Or An Amazing Money-Maker?
Spend money to end homelessness? Doing so will actually make more money than is spent. Isn't that the kind of fever-dream that propels gambling addicts until they become bankrupt? Nevertheless,...
Policy, Not Individual Choices, At The The Root Of COVID Inequities In Canada
Statistics Canada reached out to people living in Canada at the start of COVID and asked them to participate in an online survey as the pandemic progressed. Thousands of...
The United Kingdom Grits Its Teeth To Condemn … Anti-Social Behaviour(??)
With the waning of the COVID pandemic, what's happened to the United Kingdom's famous 'Everybody In' treatment of the homeless? The scramble to move the unhoused under hard roofs...
Community Land Trusts – A Route To Permanent And Deeply Affordable Housing
When it comes to adding housing that will be deeply affordable housing and permanent, community land trusts are in a good position to step up. When a community land...
Ethical Business Runs Headlong Into An Ethical Dilemma – Tenant Wellbeing
Shelby R. King, writing in Shelterforce, asks whether an investment firm that owns residential property and regularly evicts its tenants should be eligible for the coveted B CorpB Corp is a...
Study: Kids Roll With Punches Delivered By Bad Housing . . . ...
Some studies produce surprising results that are contrary to expectations. Others add important details to our knowledge of a particular subject.
And then there are studies that unfortunately confirm our...
NYC Adopts Common Torture Technique To Be Applied To Homeless Youth
It's truly astounding the cruelty that groups of self-important, out of touch bureaucrats and/or politicians can inflict on their fellow humans:
"Homeless youth are nothing but a nuisance. Let's torture...
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,...
Bruised But Unable Move Out? Spain Will Stop Domestic Violence Before It Starts
One of the most fraught housing crises anywhere in the world is the need to protect life and limb of individuals and family members suffering from domestic abuse. Escaping...
British Columbia Temporary Abuse Shelter: The Gift That Keeps On Taking
Five or so years ago, US media stories appeared on a regular basis that touted a clever Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program that purports to 'give' rather than 'take'...
Toronto Needs More Supportive Housing – A Hospital Speaks Up
Here is a brief story about social medicine in the city of Toronto. It is an interview with Dr. Andrew Boozary, who heads the social medicine program at the...
Chronic Homeless Incarceration: Who, What, Where Why, When, How?
A magical mystery tour is currently being considered by a few American jurisdictions. What percentage of the people experiencing chronic homelessnessChronic homelessness means homelessness lasting for a long time...
Can Government Break The Mould In UK Social Housing?
Parents Faisal Abdullah and Aisha Amin repeatedly complained about the mould in their social housing flat. Their landlord, a housing association in Rochdale, a city in Greater Manchester, was...
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...
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...
![exterior of Toronto]s Junction Place Shelter, a adapted one story commercial building with a windowed front](https://affordablehousingaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/toronto-junction-place-shelter-1-324x156.png "Positioning Emergency Shelters To Give The Best Possible Support To Their Clients")
Positioning Emergency Shelters To Give The Best Possible Support To Their Clients
Very few of us have the chance to work at an emergency shelter. If we did, we'd have a much better idea of what it is like to work...
U.S. East & West Coasts Flirt With Incarceration Programs For Chronic Homeless
Recently, considerable fuss has been generated in New York City concerning the involuntary incarceration of chronically homeless citizens, presumably in some unofficial and deniable category of 'tremendous nuisance,' and/or...
Can the Human Right To Adequate Housing Include Bits Of ‘Unhousing?’
"Adequate" can be a vague term when not supported by a more detailed explanation of what what it actually means. 'Has a roof?' Well of course, in that particular...
Social Housing Mould Killed Awaab Ishak. Will Institutional Apathy Kill Others?
In the wake of a two-year-old boy's mould-related death, what most struck the Manchester Evening News and the UK Charity Shelter, which shared a now internationally known investigation, was...
Indigenous Leaders Turned COVID’s Gloomy Prospect Into A Toronto Opportunity
In Canada, witnessing decision after decision to undo measures that were put in place during COVID is cause for head scratching. The country's 2020 Community Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)...
Building On COVID Innovations To Support People Who Are Homeless
Have you ever had a day when you just needed to rest? There could be any number of reasons why you don't actually do it. But at least there...
U.K. Human Rights??? Ten-A-Penny Warrants Authorize Thousands Of Home Invasions
What would a massive, countrywide betrayal of a Human Right To Housing look like?
In America, such a betrayal might well trigger court cases which, backed by the U.S. Constitution,...
Suicide Prevention? How Many Human Rights Can Dance On The Head Of A Pin?
In Australia, how many well-being influences can be gathered up and sheltered under the immeasurably well-intentioned umbrella of a 'Human Right?' Indeed, is 'well-intentioned' a sufficient reason to define...
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:...
