Canada’s first Federal Housing Advocate began accepting claims about the right to adequate housing on June 1, 2022. The Advocate’s office confirmed to us that they received nearly 200 submissions in the first month. This post is about two of them.
One is from the National Indigenous Feminist Housing Working Group. This claim builds on the final report of the National Inquiry Of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). The report is structured on four human rights: culture, security, justice and health.
Affordablehousingaction.org picked out some housing aspects of the MMIW report when it was published1, but this claim does a much more thorough job. Bravo!
The claim was submitted at the same time as one from the Women’s National Housing And Homelessness Network. It identifies how women, as well as people who identify as women, experience Canada’s housing policies and programs. It demonstrates that this experience is substantially different than it is for men. Men fare better. This applies to the National Housing Strategy and Reaching Home, Canada’s housing and homelessness strategies, respectively.
You can read both claims at the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network: The Crisis Ends with Us: Request for a Review into the Systemic Denial of the Equal Right to Housing of Women and Gender-Diverse People in Canada
Canadian groups and individuals can submit claims to the Federal Housing Advocate. Anyone considering submitting a claim can learn more here: Make a Submission to the Federal Housing Advocate
People from outside Canada who are pursuing housing rights in their own country may find the Canadian process of interest. It is the result of a year’s long effort by housing rights advocates.
Canadian courts had ruled that the right to housing was not guaranteed by Canadian law, even though Canada had signed the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which explicitly mentions the right to housing. Advocates then pressed for legislation that explicitly connected housing rights to the UN’s Declaration. This was achieved in 2019 (the National Housing Strategy Act).
