Isaac.Coplan's blog

This infographic focuses on emergency shelter use. The statistics and information are from the Facing Homelessness report, released by the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness.

This infographic is interesting to me because of the way that it lays out the mission and purpose of Habitat for Humanity International. Within conversations on homelessness, there are frequently discussions about the best methods for housing those in need.

Alex Abramovich has been working to help change the conditions faced by LGBTQ youth who are experiencing homelessness and attempting to access the emergency shelter system. As this infographic demonstrates, LGBTQ youth are disproportionately more likely to experience homelessness. Despite this fact, there are no emergency shelters that are specifically for LGBTQ youth in Canada. 

This Infographic Wednesday, I have designed a new infographic based on the October 16, 2012 Point in Time (PIT) Homeless Count carried out in Red Deer, Alberta. As with all Point in Time Counts, they are unable to count all of those who are provisionally sheltered such as the ‘hidden homeless’ populations. They are also unable to count those who are ‘couch surfing’, staying in a hotel or motel or staying with friends due to lack of housing.

Before I started at the Homeless Hub, I had occasionally heard about UN designated ‘international days’. I never took the opportunity to use them as a foundation for reflection on the policies that are occurring within Canada. This week’s infographic demonstrates the overlap between two of these days that are taking place this week

Our most accurate figures to date show that at least 200,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a year. It is for this reason that World Habitat Day should have been a cause for thought throughout Canada.

This infographic represents some of the public perspectives on homelessness in Greater Victoria. In this survey, 85% of people felt that affordable housing could help reduce homelessness, however, lack of affordable housing wasn’t listed in the top 5 causes of homelessness.

In Toronto, the Street Needs Assessment (SNA) began in 2006 as a form of ‘street census’ to attempt a point in time count to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness. A second Street Needs Assessment was taken in 2009. The SNA are surveys that are mainly carried out by trained volunteers. The goal of the SNA is to provide a basic estimate, and some information on service utilization.

While some communities have been applauding a decline in homelessness over the past several years across Canada, not all cities have had the same trends. As this infographic demonstrates, Kitchener-Waterloo saw an increased need for the use of services for homelessness between 2008-2012. The Homeless to Housing Stability Reports found that part of the increase in homelessness in Kitchener-Waterloo was due to the lingering effects of the 2008 economic recession.

It seems to be pretty common for my generation to worry about graduating into the labour force without an abundant supply of good, stable employment. As the infographic below points out, the price of housing is also increasing and it becomes a challenge to live in some major cities. For some of those who graduate from post secondary institutions, there can be some risk once they are unable to access loans that supported their ability to live on their own.