Unmasking The Consequences Of Homelessness Counts
A.J. Withers has done a great service for people who have questions about using point-in-time counts of people who are homeless. Withers reviewed and analysed 165 reports of homeless...
Canadian Temporary Housing For The Unhoused: What’s In A Name?
'Tent encampments' and 'tent cities' are terms commonly used to identify largely unofficial camp sites of people who are unhoused. It gives them a hint of permanence, though with...
Building Street Safety Into California’s Affordable Housing Program
"Seniors tend to walk more for recreation than do other demographics, but also do so more slowly given increased reliance on mobility assistive devices like canes, walkers, and wheelchairs."
This...
Gardening While A Tenant – Why Not?
Jaimee Frances Edwards is growing plants in her garden. She has no illusions that she'll enjoy the fruits of her labour in the years ahead. She's well aware that...
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...
Latch: A Housing Provider That Supports Its Tenants To Thrive
Meet latch, a housing provider in England that supports people who are struggling. Latch helps out by charging low rents and supporting people to meet the challenges of daily...
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...
Collaboration Needed To Fix Two Of Canada’s Sticky Issues
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...
Advancing, Promoting, Protecting Women’s Strengths In An Aging World
Are you an older woman? If so, this post, as well as the report it unveils, speaks directly to you. The words and experiences are those of our global...
Keeping Up Appearances: How Much Does That Matter To the Unhoused?
Where to find answers the question posed in the headline above? If we were to depend on a 'scientific' approach to the answer, we might be waiting a long...
Rise In Minimum Wage In The UK Puts More Caregivers At Risk
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....
Tomorrow’s Accessible Housing: Priority Problems We Just Can’t See
Helen CastleCastle is the Director of Publishing and Learning Content at the Royal Institute of British Architects. kicks off an article in RIBAJ, the Royal Institute of British Architects'...
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...
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...
The Powerful And Persistent Presence Of An Unpretentious Personal Pooch
In a world of desperation and disappointment, a group of ever-hopeful homeless people find comfort and inspiration in the enduring, goofy face of a dedicated dog.
Read/view more in this...
Homeless School Children: Uncountable Numbers, Inadequate Education
It may seem strange to case the world for bad news, rather than good news, in order to tackle social problems. Education is one field where observing the trials...
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...
Housing Design With Human Connection In Mind
A journalist in the United Kingdom, David Ramsay, makes the case that community planning needs to give more attention to connections between neighbours. He argues that if we do,...
Yes, Homeless People CAN Use A Helping Paw Or Four
What possible use is a dog when you're penniless without a roof over your head? It hints of a self-inflicted wound when a homeless person has been turned away...
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...
Affordable Homes For The Neurodivergent: A Profound Challenge Everywhere
People who are 'physically divergent' — different from the current physical norms — are often easy to spot. The person who carries out normal day-to-day activities in a wheelchair...
What Does Child Care Have To Do With Clearing Outstanding Arrest Warrants?
Affordablehousingaction.org has published some encouraging stories about court programs and servicesTry: Homeless <-> Jail <-> Homeless<-> Jail . . . Breaking The Cycle that help people to clear...
Western University Experiments With In-Shelter Medical Team For Homeless People
This post is about medical residentsResidents are fully qualified doctors who are completing post-graduate training. in Windsor, Ontario, who are rotating through a one month posting to a clinic...
A Foundation For Learning That Supports Single Moms And Their Kids. It Starts With Housing
Young moms living on their own with their kids are great role models for resilience. Compared with other families, they get by with very low incomes, even as they...
Can Social Housing Pets Piggyback On New Renter Rights In England ? Alas, Not Yet
Private sector landlords in England will likely soon be forced to abandon their right to kick out tenants for any reason or, no reason at all. That's hugely important...
Fifteen-Minute City? Bah! Humbug!
"What took us to the back 40, stays in the back 40." That was the thought of this writer, some years ago when renting a country cottage. Why were...
Young People In Winnipeg: Fixing Service Gaps That Lead To Homelessness
How would you feel if a paramedic advised you to "call us when somebody dies?"
Confused: I thought paramedics were there to save lives.
Angry: that paramedic should be...
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...
One Shape of The Human Rights of Children In A World Of Homelessness
Those countries that advertise themselves (or at least believe in themselves) as 'lands of opportunity' are living the lie when they can build battleships but not housing for the...
U.S. National Green Bank Can Help Stretch Affordable Housing Dollars
So, what does a green bank do, anyway? According to the article linked below, green banks help make investments in climate change by facilitating loans to customers that banks...
Pardons Begin To Open Doors To Public Housing In The U.S.
A small, but significant piece of good news from the United States: a crack has opened in the zero-tolerance wall that continues to seal off public housing from those...
High Interest Rates Add To Financial Woes Of People With High Housing Costs
Businesses that charge more than 60% interest on money they lends to customers are committing a criminal offence in Canada. Sounds pretty high, doesn't it? It turns out that...
Garden Allotment Wars: Something Public Housing Needs To Support?
Potty: United Kingdom slang for someone who is a little bit daft. (Daft, in turn, is slang for someone who is somewhat potty) Its origins are not generally agreed...
A Proposal To Raise Incomes For Canada’s Poorest Adults
Some people may dread reaching the age of 65, but it's a good news day for others. Why good? People who receive social assistance in Canada can look forward...
Universal Basic Income — Cherry-Picked. A Contradiction In Terms?
Recently we featured a post on a Universal Basic Income (UBI) experiment in Spain. We raised a question: why do Universal Basic Income plans seem to always be the...
Assessing The Potential Of Co-operatives To Expand The Supply Of Non-Market Housing
What is the potential for limited equity housing co-operatives to add to the supply of the non-market housing stock? The two kinds of housing co-operatives that get aired in...
Shelter Or Starvation? Tough Choice On An Empty Stomach
Middle class and up? You can afford to be wasteful. There's at least a little bit of money to burn.
Very low — even no — income? Every penny has...
Spanish Economic Dancers To Take A Whirl At Universal Basic Income
The Spanish region of Catalonia will soon be taking a kick at the Universal Basic Income (UBI) can. UBI is invariably of interest to idealists, not to mention individuals...
Boosting Tenants’ Safety And Stability
Have you ever been in the situation where someone told you with great authority that you had to do some particular thing? Whatever it was, you didn't want to...
You Know, I Think They Might Live On Our Floor . . .
When this writer moved to Toronto, he rented an apartment in a building with 150 units because he knew one person who lived there. When he moved out two...
Substance Use With Homeless Buddies: Better Than Housing First?
How to best rehabilitate people who are chronically homelessThe folks who sleep rough for lengthy and/or repeated periods of time are considered to be chronically homeless. into functioning citizens...
Government Planned Youth Starvation: Pardon Our Rant
Government-Planned Starvation of youth? Well, not technically, but let's detour on the subject via an oldster . . . me.
Really, it's three months since my last small Canada Pension...
After Suitable Caution, We’re Pumping Our Fists For Norwegian Heat Pumps
Are there reasons to be cheerful about heat pumps? That's the story from Norway. Being apartment renters all, the staff of affordablehousingaction.org's own cheeriness about heat pumps is entirely...
Post-Grenfell Fire Research – Effects Spread Throughout The Country
London's Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 was a tragedy not only for the residents, but also for a much larger portion of the population. An ongoing inquiry after the...
Financial Strain For U.S. Seniors Who Rent, As Well As A Possible Fix
Bailey Hu reports that older households in the US have experienced rising financial stress between October 2020 and September 2021. Being behind on housing payments is one way the...
Is Institutionalization The Best That Can Be Offered To The Disabled?
While people with disabilitiesWhen speaking about people with disabilities, one wants to give preference to wording used in the disability community. Is it "people with disabilities" or "the disabled?"...
Housing Safety Nets: Big? Small? Why Not Automatic Self-Adjusting?
Food, fuel, rent, mortgage payment, transportation, health care — a variety of solid financial necessities make up every household social safety net. For the upper middle classes and above,...
Post-Construction “Community Preference:” Right to Return Home? Or Racial Exclusion?
When it comes to American neighbourhood housing development, what does the term "community preference" mean?
It's a policy that might be required by some level of government, or put in...
England: Social Rent Housing Deserves A Better Rep
“Hey! Did you know that social tenants in England have lower mental health scores than private tenants and home owners?”
“That’s really not surprising. Considering the amount of hype around...
Food Insecurity (e.g. Food Deserts) And What To Do About it
It has been estimated that 1.6 million residents in New York City are food insecure. They do not have convenient, reliable access to the nutrition they need for healthy...
Wrap-Around Support Program For Homeless Moms Gains Stable Housing
WoodGreen Community Services has scored another triumph in their award winning Homeward Bound program, with 36 new permanent rental housing units coming on stream in Toronto's Regent Park later...
Universal Income Part 2: Models and Forecasts
This is the second of three posts about Universal Basic Income. It reports on work by the Canadian Centre For Economic Analysis, which models the economic impacts of universal...
A Grand Canyon University Viewpoint On The Special Ed Needs of Poor Children
For American's students with physical and/or mental handicaps, their need, as well as their right, to forms of special educational support have been long established. Not so, unfortunately, for...
Between A Rock And A Hard Place: Remembering People Who Are Homeless
There is new memorial in Kitchener, Ontario. It's not for a statesman or a celebrity. It's to remember and honour people who experience homelessness. At the dedication ceremony, one...
Cozy Canada Missed 2008 Wake Up Call, Now Faces Housing Bubble Bath
2008 US/World Housing Crisis and beyond. What? Us Canucks Worry?
No need. We were proud of our doughty bank system that rode out the storm without risky mortgage investment holdings...
Resilience: What Is It? What’s It Got To Do With Affordable Housing?
Resilience is a measure of how well a crisis, calamity, or catastrophe can be withstood. As the term is used in this blog, it comes in two flavours.
Community resilience...
The Stubbornly High Number Of American Women In Jail: Is Eviction A Factor?
It seems that the lucrative harvest of quasi-felons that enriches the American jailing industry is growing disproportionately female. Further, the lack of affordable housing may play a significant role...
Decline Of Business Resilience Linked To Lack Of Truly Affordable Housing
Resilience is an important survival mechanism for individuals and families. Resilience usually implies not just enough to survive, but more than enough. When it comes to maintaining a roof...
