Personal Needs

Homeless counts draw our attention to the number of people who are homeless. Reports about homeless counts often mention that more needs to be done to prevent homelessness from...

Feeling low? kick a football! Life got you down? Pot a plant! A recent study from AustraliaTry: Too Many Aussie Homeless? Yes! Even More Shocking: The Rate They Die! suggests...

Imagine working in a shelter for homeless people. The shelter's clients are living through a very difficult time: they have no housing. And no matter how motivated they are,...

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...

Sure. We all know the poor decisions and poor choices that dump the unworthy into social housing. Let's spell some out, shall we? carelessness health issues illegal drugs ...

People in Toronto are struggling to put food on the table. The annual report of food bank activity, called Who's Hungry 2024, has some very large numbers. There were...

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...

It's hard to imagine there is anybody on earth who has not experienced a WASHWASH:     WAter Sanitation Hygiene event at least once in their life. We...

The article linked to this post is a good example of bringing the voice of lived experience to research. The research subjects in the study are young people who...

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the case of Grants Pass v Johnson, what’s next? This post is the first in a four-part series about post-decision...

Private health care insurers have steered clear of enrolling people who are homeless as plan members. Most of the health care for people who are homeless is paid for...

Worldwide, this year has brought Spain into focus as a country suffering from a housing imbalance caused by tourism. This post is NOT principally about that story — a...

When Singapore declared independence from Maylaysia in 1965, planning was under way for the creation of the best social housing in the world. The planning panned out. Today nearly...

If you really want to understand how an entire nation tolerates being buried in shit, play a little catch-up with United Kingdom's current 'progress'. Buying into the 'neoliberal' political...

It's gardening season in the northern hemisphere. In Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Mosaic Community Land Trust is hosting community garden plots on four lots in the city. Here are a few features...

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...

Canada is facing a shortage of construction workers. There are many young people in Canada who need work. And as Michael Braithwaite knows only too well, many people are...

In 2021, Thea Kurdi made a presentation to students at the University of Waterloo’s School of ArchitectureThe presentation was timely then because Canada had passed the Accessible Canada Act...

If your first language is English, you may be satisfied that the true peasant's revolt — the Peasants' Revolt — happened in England in the 14th centuryWikipedia offers a...

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...

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...

The minimum wage has just risen in the UKYou can read more about this in Positive News: What went right this week: the good news you should know about....

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...

City councils bring their own values and concerns to their decision-making. When it comes to the homeless, do those values, well-meaning or no, tend to mirror the opinions of...

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...

Consider everyone who comes in contact with emergency shelters, whether staff, residents or volunteers. They all experience grief and loss. Shelter residents often arrive at shelters with multiple losses. A...

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...

Have you heard of the three sisters? They are the corn, beans and squash plants, which have been grown together in indigenous gardens for centuries. Each one helps the...

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...

If, as the experts suggest, we have advanced from the Millennial Generation to Generation Z, how sorry should feel be for those born into this shiny new cohortFor some...

At the price of considerable criticism, United Kingdom Prime Minister Sunak has delayed the end of purchaseable new petrol power as a means of transport. It will be delayed...

Attention Denizens of Legendary Dogpatch, USA! Which of America's Biggest and Best Cities might entice you to buy in to the American Home Ownership Dream? If you are actually American,...

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...

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...

How does the current economic climate affect housing and homelessness? One direct effect is the wind-down of COVID emergency measures that saw "everybody indoors" safety measures which provided temporary housing...

Affordable housing activists everywhere are faced with an exasperating truth: only they, as well as people experiencing homelessness, understand that harassment solves no problems. Predictable cause and effect works...

Affordablehousingaction.org has published some encouraging stories about court programs and servicesTry: Homeless <-> Jail <-> Homeless<-> Jail . . . Breaking The Cycle that help people to clear...

Never mind e-bikes, peddle-them-yourselves bike rentals have had teething problems in many communities where they have been introduced. But with a combination of free enterprise initiative and public support...

Three researchers have done a thorough analysis of renovations to social housing that is owned by the Portuguese city of Porto. The research is significant because the housing forms an...

The use of the word 'admits' in a newspaper headline rather suggests that the confessor has hitherto engaged in some kind of coverup. That's an unfortunate meta-message in this...

If you've been following our posts, you'll know that we've behaved a little like breathless enthusiasts about an emerging activist housing philosophy. North America is seeing currently fashionable proposals...

Then there's the brother-in-law, needing to replace an old porch door. Alas, it's old enough to be a non-standard size and so needs to be custom-ordered, skyrocketing the cost....

Not all that long ago, it was against the law to be homeless in Canada. That changed in 1972, when vagrancy laws were repealed. So, imagine a currently homeless...

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...

A Seattle referendum on 'social housing' has recently recently received a 'thumbs up' from local citizenryFor background, try: As The World Reconsiders Social Housing Need, Faint USA Cries of...

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...

When it comes to understanding the plight of disabled Scots, how would you like your learning about the deteriorating availability of suitable affordable housing? A buried-in-math abstraction? 150% increase to...

Well, all right. There's a teeny bit of exaggeration in this headline. Prisoners in the Australian State of Victoria aren't actually breaking back into jail. They don't need to,...

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...

Ho Hum, Another Day, Another City Emergency. That's what London, Ontario might be trying to sell in order the access federal and provincial funds available to cities that are...

Civil society groupsRead more about Civil Society in the World Economic Forum: Who and what is 'civil society?'  in the United Kingdom feel they have their finger on...

The Human Right to Housing commitment of the United Nations has evolved to include the addition of an all-important word: 'adequate.' The Human Right to Adequate Housing is a...

Here's an opportunity to reflect on what you — and others — might cherish and mourn if your home was swept away by some deliberate, government approved action. Two back-to-back...

America is facing an extraordinary debt crisis. Before the COVID pandemic, it was already a new 'normal'. Overwhelming debt creeps up on people in differing ways. Where housing rental is...

Hats off to a public housing urchin who has made it all the way to Prime Minister of Australia. Anthony Albanese grew up in a 1927 public housing development...

Over the years, different city libraries have experienced long-standing relationships with the poor and the homeless. For the quieter down-and-out visitors, or those prepared to put a lid on...

After nearly a century of America's commitment to public housing, a portion of it has survived a relentless propaganda campaign against it by political and business interests, which have...

Rwanda has a dark period in its history, when the Tutsi minority population was targetted and killed and large numbers. Is it possible for such a rift to be...

A Canadian article (which also might be found useful in the U.S.) extols the benefits of postal banking. Why raise the subject of banking in a blog focused on truly...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It’s a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

This is part of a series about community. Growing and sustaining a community brings benefits to the participants, provides a means of personal development and builds hope and resilience....

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It’s a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

A modern view of old fashioned, much neglected, American public housing: push it into the trash. But there's a growing recognition that for all the hype for complicated government/free enterprise...

Food insecurity is a growing danger for the most vulnerable in many advanced countries. What do you do when you or your extremely low income family encounter a financial...

Bella DePaulo, writing in Psychology Today, is calling attention to a group of people who are largely excluded from social assistance programs in Canada and the United States: single...

Do you know that the writer of this article is a senior? You may not, but Google does. I read articles from around the world daily in publications from...

Housing crises worldwide are demanding responses on a scale that transcends free market developer interest (We'd rather build luxury homes!) as well as low hanging fruit (Make granny flats...

These days, a great deal of visionary thinking is being applied to newly appreciated human concerns such as Climate Change, the Green New Deal, the Extinction Rebellion and other...

During the 2016 American pre-election campaigns we noted that affordable housing was an 'elephant in the room' — something that politicians were presumably aware of, but nobody was discussing.See:...

If your city is looking to become world-class these days, unaffordable housing looks to be a promising way to get there. Sooner of later, your metropolis may have a...

'And the least shall be greatest. And lo, in the fullness of time, the least did indeed become both least and greatest. And they most thoroughly wished that they...

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are separate living suites within a principal residence, or standing alone somewhere on the property of that residence. A recent report from California has suggested...

An individual or an agency interposes itself between you and your objective and offers to help. Sure, you can hope for convenience, but hardly ever a cost saving. Help when...

To an American student complaining about unaffordable housing, a sensible college administration might point out that earning a degree can well add an extra million dollars or so to...

We're taking a little excursion into the housing affordability stratosphere today. Not because we wish to wallow in the land of unaffordable living. We're bringing a little comfort to...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Number One? That would be perennial favourite Hong Kong, admired universally in a class of its own when it comes to unaffordability. The Unaffordability Steeplechase silverware is permanently installed...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Most explorations about the affordability crisis in a nation seem to turn on the cost of housing. Ever more expensive building materials are assembled by ever more expensive labour...

Rural municipalities in Iowa are talking with prison officials about building low cost housing. With profitable higher densities and numbers, housing projects in cities attract most or all of...

Groundstory began tackling the precarious work and housing situations faced by the arts community in Ontario in 2017. Groundstory is billed as a collective action of the arts that aims...

A more complete and damning quote from a new United Nations report: ". . .in a rich country like the United States, the persistence of extreme poverty is a...

Three unrelated stories point to the importance of regulating or monitoring affordable housing for vulnerable populations. In America, there is a federal requirement that cities and states provide housing and...

The housing development industry on both sides of the Atlantic has succeeded in an enormous propaganda campaign to redefine the middle class based on a need for more luxurious...

What significance might be attached to a January 2018 discovery that there was a huge increase in the number of Seattle's homeless found living in vehicles? Thanks to a...

Why do people move? Mobility in the United States has historically been driven by employment. Unlike an old world tendency to stick to a home city, town or village,...

How many homeless people spend cold nights on the streets of your community? How many have no shelter to go to? How many sleep rough because they cannot cope...

Where the road meets the water at the end of a long British Columbia fijord, the magnificent scenery of Bella Coola is little comfort for indigenous men from the...

America's repeal of net neutrality has been greeted by much handwringing, and the spectre of giant telecom companies upping prices and limiting options for customers. But there is another way...

Two recent stories from Axios neatly frame the issue. For years, housing the needy in ghettos remote from a city has been a non-starter. Without a job, what hope for...

A new British report by the NAO (National Audit Office) suggests that prisons now drive 90 per cent of inmates mad, or turns them into drug addicts, or both....